Page:A History of Hindu Chemistry Vol 1.djvu/117

 very little scientific progress was achieved in Europe. The doctrines of Aristotle and of the Arabian alchemists held the ground, and the enigmatic and mystic language, which was often used as a cloak for ignorance, simply confounded the confusion.

Still more solid progress was effected in pharmacy. For two thousand years or more the Charaka and the Susruta have been paid all the honours of a state-recognised Pharmacopœia. Partly due to their being regarded as of revealed origin, and partly due to that veneration for the past, which is inherent in the Hindu, the text of the above works has seldom been allowed to be tampered with. A critical examination of the Bower Ms. such as we owe to Dr. Hoernle, shows that the recipes of several important preparations agree in all essentials, and sometimes word for word, with those of the Charaka and the Susruta of the existing recensions (see ante p. xix). Mr. Ameer Ali is scarcely correct when he claims that "the Arabs invented chemical pharmacy, and were the founders of