Page:Commentary on the Hindu System of Medicine.djvu/101

 or the like. The body is then to be placed in still water, in a situation in which it will not be destroyed by birds, fishes, or animals. It is to remain for seven days in the water, when it will have become putrid. It is then to be removed to a convenient situation, and with a brush, made of reeds, hair, or bamboo-bark, the body is to be rubbed so as, by degrees, to exhibit the skin, flesh, &c., which are each in their turn to be observed before being removed. In this manner the different corporial parts of the body already enumerated will be exhibited; but the life of the body is too etherial to be distinguished by this process, and its properties must therefore be learned with the assistance of the explanations of holy medical practitioners, and prayers offered up to God, by which, conjoined with the exercise of the reasoning and understanding faculties, conviction will be certain.

The description of these parts, and the consequences of their being wounded, afford a convincing proof of the great practical experience of the Hindu writers. The advantages of having a good and attentive medical attendant, compared with that of an ignorant one, is emphatically declared to be as great as the difference of the individual, being restored from weakness and deformity, or even from death after much suffering to perfect health.

In Susruta the dangerous parts are all named and described; and the necessity of avoiding them in operations pointed out. The consequence of wounds near the great toe in causing tetanus; in the palm of the hand, in producing such a degree of hemorrhage as will require amputation of the arm; of the effects of wounds of the testicle and groin, and of the fractured bones of the head and breast, which are tobeto be [sic] raised or removed, &c., are all stated in this practica lworkpractical work [sic].

There are five kinds of Vital parts:— Flesh has (mángsa marma) 1 Vessels (sira marma) have 1 Nerves and Ligaments (snáyu marma). 1 Bones (ostí marma) 1 Joints (sandhí marma) 1 Carried up 5