THE HISTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 217 



my. They, however, made studies upon the human body, but in a 

 singular and unfruitful manner. The body must be that of a healthy 

 man, not too old, not deformed, and from a person that had not 

 died from poisoning or the devastations of a long and wearing dis- 

 ease. The body must lie for seven days and nights in the waters 

 of a brook, and then the outer parts must be removed by brushing 

 with twigs. Instead of a description of the different parts of the 

 body, we find numerous calculations, measurements, and classifica- 

 tions of the parts. According to Susruta, the human body consists 

 of seven elements, and seven skins or membranes, three hundred 

 bones, twenty-four nerves, three fluids, one hundred and seven 

 joints, nine hundred ligaments, ninety sinews (the nails were looked 

 upon as the endings of the same), forty principal vessels, seven hun- 

 dred branches, and five hundred muscles. The navel was looked 

 upon as the central point of the nerves and vessels. The cardinal 

 elements, air, gall, and mucus, find frequent mention. The air is 

 situated below the navel, the gall between the navel and heart, and 

 the mucus above the heart. To the elements making up the human 

 organism was also added ether, out of which sprang light, out of 

 light generated water, and out of them both earth. The seven or- 

 ganic products of these cardinal elements were the chyle, blood, 

 flesh, cellular tissue, bones, the medullary substance, and the semen. 

 The blood generated from the chyle. The chyle is an aqueous 

 fluid; it becomes red in the spleen and liver. Milk formed the 

 exclusive article of food to the end of the first year ; to the third 

 year, milk and rice ; and to the fifteenth, rice alone, when a mixed 

 diet was allowed. The best means for the preservation of health 

 are the weekly offering of an emetic, monthly a purgative, and twice 

 yearly (at the change of seasons) blood-letting. Diseases were 

 classed as natural and supernatural. Diseases were frequently 

 caused by sin. The most important diseases were due to a want of 

 or surplus of action of the cardinal elements upon the physiological 

 elements— the chyle, blood, etc. The predominance of one cardinal 

 element over the others gave rise to the different temperaments. 

 The soul seeks to equalize the disharmony, dyscrasies of the cardi- 

 nal elements, by which disease is produced. Disease is, therefore, 

 a disturbance of the activity of the soul occasioned by abnormalities 

 of the cardinal elements. The air contained in the body is the 

 cause of eighty different diseases. To these belong the diseases of 

 the nerves — tetanus, trismus, chorea, also leprosy. Among the dis- 

 eases of the urinary organs one is surprised to find that a sweet and 

 albuminous urine is mentioned. Diabetes was considered incurable. 



