Page:Sushruta Samhita Vol 1.djvu/34

 In the case where the intestine is severed, the severed parts should be held together by applying living black ants to their ends. Then their bodies should be cut off leaving only the heads to serve the same purpose which in modern improved European surgery an animal tissue like catgut is expected to fulfill. After this the intestine should be fairly replaced in the abdominal cavity and the external opening stitched and properly dressed. We abstain here from a lengthy description of the different methods recommended by the Sushruta in cases of abdominal and peritoneal wounds. We only ask our readers to compare this Chapter (II Chikitsathanam) of the Sushruta Samhita with the Chapter in any work on European chirurgery which deals with the same subject. Certain medicinal plasters were used to be applied to localise the shafts of arrows embedded in the limbs of wounded soldiers and their exact locations were ascertained from the inflammation caused bv the application of such a plaster with a precision which would be sometimes welcome even in these days of Rontgen rays.

Lithotomic Operations:-In these cases, elaborate instructions have been given for making the perineal incision, as well as about the care and general management of the patient after the operation. In a case of Shukra-shmari (seminal or spermatic concretion) the formation and existence of which have been very recentlv discovered by English pathologists, Sushruta enjoins that the stone, if in the urethra, should be removed with the help of Anyvdsanam and urethral enematas, failing which the penis should be cut open and the concretion extracted with the help of a hook. Kavinij I'mesii Chandra Gupta in the introduction to his Vaidyaka Shavda-Sindhu remarks, that he and Dr. Durgddasa Gupta M. B. translated the Chapters on lithotomic operations and instrumental parturition «f the Susbrufa Samhita for the perusal of Dr Charles, the then Principal of the Medical College, Calcutta.