Page:A History of Hindu Chemistry Vol 1.djvu/65

 close examination. The Hindu system is based upon the three humors of the air, the bile and the phlegm, whilst that of the Greek is founded upon four humors, namely, the blood, the bile, the water and the phlegm—a cardinal point of difference.

Next to the Charaka and the Susruta, the medical authority, who is held in the highest estimation throughout India, is Vágbhata, the author of Astáñgahridaya (lit. heart or the kernel of the eight limbs or divisions of the Ayurveda). Indeed, in many parts of the Deccan the very names of Charaka and Susruta were forgotten, and Vágbhata is looked up to as a revealed author, and this is one of the reasons which led Haas to conclude that the former succeeded, and owed their inspiration to, the