Page:A Short History of Aryan Medical Science.djvu/212

184 joint, or bone is carelessly injured in the course of the operation, and that the instrument does not go deeper than the requirements of the case actually demand. In serious surgical operations, and in diseases of a painful nature, the patient was made insensible by the administration of anaesthetics. In cases of children, or of patients having a dread of the knife, or where the proper instruments cannot be procured, bamboo, crystal, glass, Kurvinda (a kind of stone), leeches, fire, caustics, nail, Kareera (Capparis aphylla), Shefali (Vitex Negundo), hair and finger may be made use of. They are called or substitutes. Sharp pieces of bamboo bark or pointed crystal, glass, or Kurvinda may be employed as incisive instruments. The nail may be used in extracting a solid body, leeches in extracting blood, and hair, finger or vegetable sprout for probing. Caustics are used in opening abscesses, and fire (live charcoal) is applied to snake-bites and to wounds that are intensely painful. Thus there are three modes adopted by the Hindoos for treating surgical cases — by cutting instruments, by caustics, and by actual cautery. In the opinion of Sushruta, caustic is better than the knife, and cautery better than either.