Hindu Achievements in Exact Science: A Study in the History of Scientific Development c18.5

c18.5

Two great names in Hindu medicine are Charaka (*c* sixth to fourth century B.C. ?), the physician, and Sushruta (early Christian era), the surgeon. They were not the founders of their respective sciences, but the premier organizers of the cumulative experience of previous centuries. In observation lay their great strength, the "natural history of disease" was their special study. Both these schools were in existence about 500 B.C. according to Hoernle. By the first and second centuries A.D. surgery was a well developed art. Many instruments were devised, of which 127 are mentioned. The materia medica grew from age to age with the introduction of new drugs (vegetable, animal and mineral), of which the therapeutic effects were tested by the "experiments" of researchers.