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
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

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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    liunian suftering, in tlie various Dispensaries of the Provinces; wliilst the magnificent Fever Hospital, wliicli is now being erected in Calcutta, will not only prove an ornament and bless- ing to the Metropolis of India, but become eminently useful to the school of Medicine itself.”* But the degree of enfranchisement of the Native mind, and ^ the measure of our success, can scarcely bubjeets proposed. ... be appreciated without reference to In- dian Medical Science as we found it in this country. I pro- pose therefore an examination into the state of medicine here in India, previously to the introduction of European science; and I hope that a comparison of it, with medical science among the Greeks, may be found both interesting and instructive, as a general introduction to the History of Medicine; especially as respects—I. Anatomy, II. Physiology, III. Patho- logy, and Practical Medicine; for Dr. Royle has shown the extreme probability that Chemical Science, as well as Materia Medica, was well advanced in the ancient times of India: that Greeks and Arabsf alike profited by it But before proceeding further upon this subject, I will say a few woi’ds upon your own position and duties. There are, per- haps, no medical students at this moment in the world, to whom such gi’eat privileges are so fully and so freely given, of mere sovereign bounty, as those which you receive at the hand of Go- * Christian Intelligencer, Calcutta, June 1850. t “ Not unwilling to pluck a few more plumes from those who heated their baths with the Library of Alexandria,” he thinks it probable that Geber, the earliest Arab Chemist, was instructed in Rasayana (Chemistry) from the Ayur Veda. In the “ earliest of Arab authors Serapiox, the first of Hindoo Physicians, Chakak, is mentioned by name in Latin translated “ Xarcu Indus “ Xarciia Indus. Avicenna, again says “ apud, Scirak Indum” “ Rha- ZES inquit Sc.utAC Indianus again “dixit Sarac.” Essay on the Antiquity of Hindoo Medicine, J. F. Roj'le, M. D., London, 18.37, pp. 37, 39. Ibid, p. 177. See also Hindu Medicine, T. A. Wise, M. D,, Calcutta, 1845, p. II8.
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