The historical relations of ancient Hindu with Greek medicine in connection with the study of modern medical science in India : being a general introductory lecture delivered June 1850, at the Calcutta Medical College / by Allan Webb.

Date:: 1850

Credit: The historical relations of ancient Hindu with Greek medicine in connection with the study of modern medical science in India : being a general introductory lecture delivered June 1850, at the Calcutta Medical College / by Allan Webb. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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$MINES thought ah’ was chiefly concerned ; Pythagoras gave fire as the main element; Xenophanes formed us of earth. EmpedocleSj the celebrated philosopher of Agrigentum, (B.C. 578,) is said to have first united all these various opinions, and given to each element its proper share in the composition of our bodies. Thus he explains the formation of the muscles by an unequal admixture of the four elements. The ligaments had a superabundance of fire and of earth. Bone had a greater quantity of earth and of water, and so forth.* It appears there- fore, gentlemen, that having found the “ stuff” these wise men hardly knew what to do with it, in order to make a man. But the Greek writers become more intelligible to us moderns, especially Plato, through the severer abstractions of the Hin- doos. The Hindoos, for instance, boldly and fairly embody qua- lities. These qualities form elements of the elements, these sub- tle existences form atoms, or the grosser bodies—fire, air, earth, and water; to which the Hindoo superadded ether, {ahasa.)'\ The Hindoo sage Sushrtjta says “ when digestion is accom- plished, the respective elements unite with those which had entered into the formation of the body; the earth unites with earth, water with water, &c., and they acting on the inherent qualities of each of the five elements, mix and increase those in the body; smell, the property of earth, with that of the body, taste with water, touch with air, and sound with ether. This is exactly what Empedocles taught, viz., that sensations take place only through the affinity of elements composing the object perceived, with the elements of the perceptive organs or senses. He says, “ by the earthy element, we perceive earth ; by the watery, water ; the air of heaven, by the aerial ♦ Hist. Med. Kurt Sprengel, Tom. I. Sect. iii. p. 256 and p. 263. t Hindu Medicine, T. A. Wise, M. D., 1845, p. 31. J Ibid, p. 42. See Prof. H. H. Wilson’s Commentary upon the Sankliya Karilin Philosophy, Oxford, 1837. Edit. 4to, p. 121.$