Page:A Short History of Aryan Medical Science.djvu/221

XI.] no ground whatever to suppose that Sushruta borrowed his system of medicine from the Greeks ; on the contrary, there is much to tell against such an idea." The Indian books on medicine do not contain any technical terms which point to a foreign origin. Dr Hirschberg of Berlin, in a learned paper, adds, with regard to certain surgical operations, that "the Indians knew and practised ingenious operations, which always remained unknown to the Greeks, and which even we Europeans only learnt from them with surprise in the beginning of this century." Professor Diaz of the Konigsberg University, clearly detects the principles of Indian medicine in the Greek system. Even those who talk eloquently of the antiquity of Greece withhold from her the credit of originality in regard to her medical science, and opine that the Greeks were indebted to Egypt for their knowledge of medicine.

The Aryans believe Egypt (Misra) to have been colonised by the Indians. Proofs are given in support of the belief, which it is beside our purpose to dilate upon here. Suffice it to say that the Tantrik deity Nila-shikhandi (black-crested), an incarnation of Rudra, is recorded to have first