Page:Sushruta Samhita Vol 1.djvu/36

 XX » INTKOnUCTION. advocates Clesarean se^nion iri hopeless cases of obslruclion, lays down that the instrument should be employed only in ♦those cases where the proportion between the child and the maternal passage is so defective that medicated plasters, fumigations, etc.. are not sufficient to effect a natural delivery. His directions regarding the management of the puerperal state, lactation and management of the chijd and the choice of a wet-nurse are substantial!}- the same as are found in modern scientific works of European authors. A feeling of pride and joy moves our heart when we contrast these glorious achievements of our ancestors with the meanness of results which modern Europe has gained in this department of midwifer}-. In those old days perhaps there were no hospitals to huddle patients together in the same room and therebv to create artificiallv septicemic poisons which are now so common and so fatal in lying-in rooms. A ne^-'^' built Iving-in room in an open space abunduntly suf^s-ea J with the rays of the sun and heat of the burning f^ie for each individual case, the recommendation of a fresh bamboo-chip for the section of the cord are suggestions the value of which the west has yet to learn from the east.

Dissection:--Sushruta, himself a practical surgeon, was the first to advocate dissection of dead bodies as indispensable for a successful student of Surgery. The Paritschittas of ancient Egypt perhaps learnt their art from the Purusachettas (Dissector) of ancient India. With a candour less common among western scholars Dr. Wise observes that, "the Hindu philosophers undoubtedly deserve the credit of having, though opposed by strong preiudire, entertained sound and philosophical views respecting the uses of the dead to the living, and were the first scientific and successful cultivators of the most important and essential of all the departments of medical knowledge, practical anatomy". A bungling surgeon is a public danger and Sushiuta says that, "theory without practice is like a one-winged bird that is incapable of flight".