Page:Sushruta Samhita Vol 1.djvu/46

 that the •§perm led into a healthy and well-developed uteru5 through the agency of the Vayu (increased activity of the-^ local nerves) meets the 'maternal element (ovum) in tViat viscus. Then the impregnated matter undergoes a process of fission, and takes shape after the pattern of its father's species. • When we think of so many idle speculations as regards the proces% of fertilisation, which obtained credence so late as the beginning of the i8th century in Europe, and the controversies that arose between the Ovists, Performists and Animalculists (i), we cannot help regretting that the Ayurvedic Embryology, which started under such h'appy auspices, could not fully solve the problem of fertilisation even before the advent of the Tantrik age. The fundamental principles with which the Embryology of the Acharyayas (Sushruta, Dhanvantari, etc.) was started are substaritially the same as have now been discovered by the researches of the Western workers. Sushruta in his dissertation on the subject showed the illegitimacy which lay at the root of his predecessor's theory ( Sharirasthanam Chap. II. ) and took up research exactlv where the Vedic Rishis had left off. He clearly demonstrated the fact thai "by a physiological process known as Rasapika (metabolism) the hmph chyle is metamorphosed into sperm in men, or into ovum in women, in the course of a month. The catamenial fluid is carried down into the uterus through its proper ducts. The sperm or ovum is thus the quintessence of a man's or a woman's body. The sperm meets the ovum (Artavam) in the ute;-us, which resembles a lotus-bud in shape, and whose aperture is shut up with a mucous deposit as soon as fecundation takes place. The most favourable time for fecundation is between the fourth and twelfth day after the af)pearance of the flow (Garbhakala)" as has

(1) For a short history of the Theories of Fertilisation, Vide Evolution of Sex (Prof. P. Geddes and J. A. Thompson) Chap. XII. pp. 169— 171.