The Positive Sciences of the Ancient Hindus c9.8

c9.8

When the blood has been formed, the essence of chyle in the blood, acted on by *Vâyu* (bio-motor force) and Mâmsâgni (the flesh-forming metabolic heat), forms the flesh-tissue, the Earth-compound of the food-substance especially contributing to this tissue. Of the flesh-tissue thus formed, the grosser part goes to feed or replenish the flesh-tissue all over the body. The finer essence of flesh in the blood in the chyle, acted on again by *Vâyu* (bio-motor current) and the fat-forming metabolic heat (मेदोऽग्नि) in the menstruum of lymph (कफं समाश्रित्य), receives viscosity and whiteness, and produces the fatty tissue, the Earth-compounds and Ap-compounds of the food specially contributing to the product. This fat in the chyle (or blood), or rather the grosser part of it, replenishes the fatty tissue of the body, but the finer essence of fat *in* the flesh *in* the blood *in* the chyle, acted on by *Vâyu* (bio-motor current) and the marrow-forming metabolic heat, in the menstruum of lymph (श्लेष्माश्रित), becomes hard (crystalline) and forms bone, the Earth-, Vâyu-, and Tejas-compounds contributing principally to the product. The essence of the fat fills the hollow channels of the bones, and acted on again by bio-motor *Vâyu* and metabolic heat, becomes transformed into marrow. The marrow is similarly transformed into the semen, which is conveyed down by means of a pair of *Dhamanîs* or ducts (द्वे शुक्रवहे), lodged in its receptacles (शुक्रधरा—वृषणौ), and discharged by means of another pair of ducts (द्वेविसर्गाय). The semen, or rather all the elements in their finer essence, give off *ojas*, which returns to the heart, the receptacle of chyle and blood, and again floods the body and sustains the tissues, thus completing the wheel or self-returning circle of metabolism (परिवृत्तिस्तु चक्रवत्, *cf.* Charaka and Vâgbhata).