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178 had recourse to surgical operations. And yet their earliest works mention no less than one hundred and twenty-five surgical instruments for ophthalmic, obstetric, and other operations. They were experts in forming new ears and noses. This operation has been practised for ages in India, where cutting off the nose and ears was a common punishment, and "our modern surgeons have been able to borrow from them (Hindoos) the operation of rhinoplasty" (Weber). On this subject Dr Hirschberg of Berlin says : — "The whole plastic surgery in Europe had taken its new flight when these cunning devices of Indian workmen became known to us. The transplanting of sensible skin flaps is also an entirely Indian method." The same writer also gives credit to the Indians for discovering the art of cataract-couching, "which was entirely unknown to the Greeks, the Egyptians, or any other nation." The cataract operations are, it is said, performed by Indian practitioners with great success even to this day. The Hindoos were also experts in performing amputations and abdominal section. They could set fractures and dislocations in men and beasts, reduce hernia, cure piles and fistula-