HISTOHICAL, TABLE OF THE MATERIA MEDICA.

B.C.

HINDOO MEDICINE.

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1. Ancient Medical Authorilies and Oieir Works.

Brahma the Hindern Deity; author of the Vedas, the most ancient beoks of the Hin-doos, and next in antiquity to those of Moses. (Sir W. Jones, Disc. ix.)

Ayur Veda, the oldest medical writing of the Hindoos, forms a part of the 4th orAlharva Veda (the least ancient Veda.) It is distributed into eight subdivisions.(See H. H. Wilson, Calcutta Orient. Mag. Feb. and Maren 1823; and Royle, Es-say, p. 57.)

Dachsa, the Prajapati, to whom Brahma communicated the Ayur Veda, instruetedthe tvvo Aswins or Sons of Surya (the Surgical attendants of the gods.)According to some the Aswins instrueted Indra the preeeptor of Dhanwantari

(also styled Kasiraja, prince of Benares); but others make Atiieya, Bharadwaja,. and Charaka, prior to the latter.

Charaka (Sarac, Scarac, Scirak or Xarac) mentioned by Serapion, Avicenna, andRhazes. His work is extant, but not translated.

Susruta, son of Viswamitra, was pupil of Dhanwantari and contemporary of Rama.Treats chiefly of Salya and Salekya or Surgery, and divides medicines into loco-motive (animals both viviparous and oviparous, and produeed in moist places) andnon-locomotive (plants and minerals). Gold, Silver, Arsenic, Mercury, Diamonds,Barths, and Pearls, are enumerated; also Heat arid Cold, Light and Darkness,the increase and decrease of the Moon's age, as remedial means. Litholomy,the Extraction of the Fcetus, Venesection. 127 weapons and instruments. Actualcautery. Alkaline caustics. Heated metallic plates. Leeches. Gourds usedas cupping glasses. Astringent and emollient applications. Leaves, pledgets,threads, and bandages. Drastic and mild purgatives, emetics, diaphoretics, baths,and aspersions of water, Stimulants, Sedatives, Narcotics, and Acrid poisons allemployed Datura, JNux Vomica, CrotonTiglium, Myrobalans, &c. were adoptedby the Arabs.

Susruta (The); or System of Med. taught by Dhanwantari and composed by his uiseiple Sus-ruta. Vol. i. 8vo. Calc. 1835.—Per a list of Sanscrit medical and other works, see Mnstie," Mat. Med." vol. ii. p. 491.

2. Early Translations from Hindoo Works.

o. Tamul, by Maha Rishi Agiiastier, who is named in the Ramayana, the oldestHindoo profane work, and which is supposed to have been revised by the poetCalipas in the reign of Vikramaditya, whose era commences B. C. 57. (For aClassification of drugs in a Tamul work called the Kalpastanwn, see Royle's Es-say, p. 54.)

ß. Cingalese. (See a list in Ainslie's Mat. Ind. vol. ii. p. 526; also Heyne's Tracts onIndia, p. 125-171.)

y. Tibelan made in the eighth Century. (See Csoma de Koros, in Journ. Asiat. Soc.iv, 1.) 715 substances are mentioned, most of which are indigenous to India.

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3. Antiquity of Hindoo Medicine.%Cannot be determined by Hindoo chronology or authors ; hence must be ascer-

tained from other sources. The great antiquity of Hindoo Medicine is proved by the

following circumstances.

a. Indian produets are mentioned in the BiUe. (Royle, p. 138.) In early times com-merce was established between India and Persia, Syria, and Babylon ; also, by thePersian and Arabian Gulfs, with Egypt. &c.

ß. At a very early period India was peopled and in a high stale of civilization. (Forproofs, see Royle, p. 150 to 179.) As many chemical arts (e. g. distillation,bleaching, dyeing, calico printing, tanning, soap and glass making, manufactureof sugar and indigo) were practised by the Hindoos, who were acquainted with,and their country contains, all the chemical substances mentioned by Geber, it isnot improbable that they, and not the Arabs, originated Chemistry. The Greciansages travelled in the East: hence the eoineidences between the Systems anddiscoveries of the Greeks and those recorded in Sanscrit works.

y. Indian produets are mentioned by the Greeks and Romans (e. g. by Hippocrates,Theophrastus, Dioscorides, Pliny, Oribasius, iEtius, and Paulus.) They weredoubtless employed in the countries where they were indigenous before theywere exported.

S. Ancient Inscriptions show the Antiquity of Hindoo Medicine, A medical edict byKing Piyadasi, directing the establishment of depöts of medicine, and the plantingof medicinal roots and herbs throughout his dominions,and in the countries whereAntiochus and his generals commanded, This, therefore, must have been issuedand cut in rocks and metal piliars as early as B. C. 220.

s. The Persians translated Hindoo Works A. D. 531 to 579. (Royle's Essay, p. 68.)

£. Hindoo physicians were in high repute at the Court of Hamm Al-Rashid and Al-Ma-moon,from A. D. 786 to 850.