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XII 



manuscripts of authors who had preceded them- Succeeding 

 writers and practitioners eatne to regard these works as of divine 

 origin and beyond the criticism of man. Accordingly they dared 

 nob add to or amend what these ancient sages had recorded regard- 

 ing the general principles of medicine and special pathology, hut 

 confined their labours to making better arranged and more 

 compendious compilations for the use of students, and to explain- 

 ing or dilating upon the texts of Charaka and Susruta, while in 

 the matter of surgical practice, there has been a gradual decline 

 in knowledge and experience till at the present day an educated 

 surgeon of the Dhanvantariya gampradaya is a phenomenon un- 

 known in Hindustan. 



The next compilation on Hindu Medicine is said to be the 

 Aehtanga-bridaya-sanhita by Sinha Cupta Sena Viigbhatta. 

 This work is a mere compilation from Charaka and Susruta metho- 

 dically arranged. It contains litte or nothing that is original 

 or that is not to be found in the works from which it was compiled, 

 This circumstance, together with the fact of Yagbhatta being 

 alwajs mentioned by later writers as an old authority, seems to 

 Bhow that his work was compiled not long after those of Charaka 

 and Susiuta. Like these two writers he does not mention the 

 use of mercury in the treatment of diseases. 



Next in point of age, are the two works called respectively the 

 Niduna by Madhava Kara and Chakradatta-sangraha bj Chakra- 

 pani Datta. The first is a concis? treatise on the causes, symptoms 

 and prognosis of diseases, compiled from various authors, and has 

 been used from a loog time as the text- book on pathology by 

 students of Hindu Medicine throughout India. Professor Wihson 

 is of opinion that "the Arabians of the eighth century cultivated 

 the Hindu works on Medioine before those of the Greeks ; and 

 that the Charaka, the Susruta, and the treatise called Nidana 

 were translated and studied by the Arabians in the days of 

 Harun and Mansur ( A. D. 77: 1), either from the originals, or 

 more probably from translations made at a still earlier period 

 into the language of Persia." 



The treatise called Chakradatta-saograha, describes in detail 

 the treatment of diseases arranged in the order in which they are 



desoribed in the Niduna of Madhava Kara, and to which it ia a 



