Hindu Medicine c5.s3.7

c5.s3.7

human diseases (pp. 85 f.). In animal medicine, too, the pre-Aryan knowledge which became part of the priestly medicine of the Vedas (pp. 57 f.) is believed to be an insight derived immediately from the gods (p. 81); the physician to a certain extent remains a sorcerer (pp. 139; 142). Again, the self-reliant optimism of science is entirely absent (pp. 141 f.). Experience and tradition (pp. 138; 167 f.), observation and speculative theory (pp. 148; 138) go hand in hand. No attempt is made to establish a system consistent in itself (pp. 139; 141 f.; 172; 179).³