Page:A History of Hindu Chemistry Vol 1.djvu/53

 the Greeks and the Hindus respectively—suggesting that borrowing may have taken place on one side or the other. But the Hindus would seem to have priority of time in their favour.

The doctrine of humoral pathology or at any rate the first beginnings of it can be traced so far back as the time of the Rigveda.

In the Atharva-veda, which may be looked upon as the parent of the Ayurveda, we naturally come across ample evidences of an ingrained belief in the causation of diseases by the disturbance of the humors. Thus we have such terms as "Vátíkrita," i.e. a disease brought on by the derangement of the humor "Váta" (wind or air), "Vátagulmin," &c.This has been lately pointed out by Jolly ("Medicine" p. 41): The discussion on the term quoted above is so very important that we think it desirable to quoted it at length:—