Hindu Medicine c7.293

c7.293

Preliminary training in surgery is afforded by using practice objects (phantoms). Cucumbers, gourds and melons provide the material for trying out all kinds of incisions and amputations. The opening of tumors and swellings is practised on bags and pouches filled with water and mud. Scarification may be practised on hairy stretched skins; the piercing of hollow organs on the hollow stalks of lotus plants, and on canals taken from the bodies of dead animals. Worm-eaten wood, reeds, hollow stalks, the ends of dried cucumbers provide the material on which probing may be learned. Extraction is practised on the marrow of fruits and the teeth of dead animals. A board from the rose-apple tree, covered with wax, serves as a practice-object for opening abscesses and effecting their discharge. Pieces of soft leather and fine strong fibers will teach the beginner how to close a wound with stitches. A clay-figure is used to show how wounds are dressed on different parts of the body. The administering of caustics is practised on pieces of meat. The opening of a hollow cucumber or the lateral mouthpiece of a water jar serve for practice in giving enemas.