Page:A Short History of Aryan Medical Science.djvu/218

190 specific for snake-poison, the Indian physicians who lived some 2200 years ago might well be proud of their skill. It is very likely that on his homeward march Alexander, or Sikander as he is called in India, took with him a few professors of Hindoo medicine. This supposition receives some support from the early history of Greek medicine. There is a great similarity between the origins of the Greek and Indian medicine. Both the systems claim to be divinely inspired. The divine physicians Ashvins, the twin sons of the Sun, bear a close analogy to the divine twins Apollo and Artemis, who cured and alleviated the sufferings of mortals, and who derived their birth from Zeus, or the "God of Light." Hippocrates, the most celebrated physician of ancient Europe ( 460), believed the art of medicine to be the production of the Divine Being ; and it is curious to note that the Greeks, the Indians, and all the ancient nations of the world, have ascribed all kinds of knowledge, including that pertaining to the mysteries of life, disease, and death, to a superhuman agency. In the opinion of some writers, Hippocrates acquired his knowledge of medicine in India. The teaching of Pythagoras ( 430), the founder of the Healing Art