Hindu Achievements in Exact Science: A Study in the History of Scientific Development c19.12

c19.12

One need, moreover, resist the temptation of comparing or contrasting this ancient Hindu sur-gical theory and practice with the marvels of modern surgery. By the side of the latest dis-coveries and inventions, any achievements of the human brain in the past, whether in the East or the West, are but children's toys. "So rapid has been our surgical progress that a Velpeau, a Sir William Ferguson or a Pancoast, all of whom died within the last thirty years, could not teach modern surgical principles nor perform a modern surgical operation; . . . Our modern operations on the brain, the chest, the abdomen, and the pelvis, would make him wonder whether we had lost all our senses, until seeing the almost uniform and almost painless recoveries, he would thank God for the magnificent progress of the last half-cen-tury, which had vouchsafed such magical, nay, almost divine, power to the surgeon."⁷⁴