Page:A Short History of Aryan Medical Science.djvu/101

VI.] different vessels of the body is worthy of attention, for it sets up the ancient Hindoos as claimants for the honours given to William Harvey for discovering the circulation of the blood in 1628. Harvey, no doubt, was the greatest experimenter of his age, and deserves the highest credit for leaving a "glorious legacy" to modern Physiology by scientifically explaining the theory of the circulation of the blood. But it is possible for him to have received his inspiration from earlier writers, who have taught something similar, if not with so much precision. If the ancient Hindoo writers on Medicine do not make mention of the circulation of the blood as frequently and explicitly as they do of the circulation of the Rasa, it is because there is, according to them, little difference between the two except in their colour and specific gravity. Both are fluid, but Rasa is a finer liquid, which supports the body and is the very essence of existence. Blood, minus its colouring ingredients, is Rasa. It may be called Chyle, or rather Lymph-chyle, though the Hindoo writers give it a wider significance than the English word is capable of bearing. The function of circulation is common to both the fluids. For Rasa, it is distinctly stated that