Page:The growth of medicine from the earliest times to about 1800.djvu/58

 to make steel. In suitable cases cauterization, either with the actual cautery or with caustic potash, was a favorite method of treatment with the surgeons of ancient India. "Burning with the heated iron," they taught, "is more effective than cauterization with potash, inasmuch as it permanently cures diseases which may not be cured by either drugs, surgical instruments, or chemical cauterizing agents." In cases of enlargement of the spleen they plunged red-hot needles into the parenchyma of the organ, presumably through the skin and other overlying tissues. There were fourteen different kinds of surgical dressings; cotton, woolen, linen and silk being the materials used for bandages, and strips of bamboo or some other wood for splints. When the conditions permitted such a proceeding, it was customary to sew up wounds of the head, face and windpipe. Furthermore, it was the rule to perform all surgical operations at a time when the constellations were favorable. Religious ceremonies were performed both before the operation and after it was completed, and it was also considered necessary that the operator should face the west and the patient the east. Intoxication was employed as a means of securing narcosis. Owing to their scrupulous cleanliness and the minute attention which they paid to details, the surgeons of ancient India obtained for a long time a much higher degree of success than did the surgeons of other oriental nations. At the same time they were not lacking in that degree of boldness which enables an operator—in critical cases which probably without such prompt and radical action would terminate fatally—to save life. For example, they did not hesitate to open the abdominal cavity and to sew up a wound in the intestines; they cut for stone in the bladder, employing for this purpose the lateral method of operating; and they performed a great variety of plastic operations.

Some of their hygienic rules concerning pregnant and nursing women are eminently practical; others would hardly be approved by modern accoucheurs. Here are a few of these rules: During the period of a woman's pregnancy close attention should be paid to her diet, and