1903] 



AVI TURE 



51 



Ffirst sight the human body may appear too liii^hly 

 :iaHsed to serve as an efficient type for cxjinpwrison, 

 in reality this is not so. The fact that the ordinary 

 imal presents a side view to tlic arli>l w liile the 

 lan body is usualK- >^tudied from the front is merely 

 of detail. 'i"h« diii f points in which the human 

 ordinary iiianiinaliaii bodies differ relate to the 

 ^d and limbs, and the limbs of man are more jjrimi- 

 in structure, less specialised and evolved than tlio-^r 

 f'the ordinarv domcstie aiiiiiial>. The cvoluiioii of 

 quadrupedal linib^ ionii> an "mt(i-c->tini4 siutl\ in 

 fh specialisation of one or more digits and relro- 

 5sion in others, and it is from this standpoint that 

 LCuyer deals with the anatomy of the extremities of 

 [domestic animals. Throuj^h the limbs of the cat, 

 pig, ox and horse he traces the gradual retro- 

 Ssion of the clavicle, muscles of supination and 

 lation, ulna, and lateral digits, and shows how 

 modifications are due to the specialisation of the 

 >s as organs of pure support instead of mixed in- 

 iments for prehension as well as support. His dis- 

 covery of a vestige of the pronator radii teres in the 

 horse is of great interest ; how many millions of years 

 it since the ancestor of the horse required to supinate 

 pronate its arm ? 



In the hands of the artist the whole perspective of 

 anatomy becomes changed, and it would be for the 

 hinefit of our text-books if the pure zoologist some- 

 times looked at his work with the eye of an artist. 

 M. Cuyer recognises the fact that an observation on 

 the dead animal remains dead until it is transferred to 

 the living, and the great merit of his work is that he 

 lays a greater emphasis on the actions than on the at- 

 tachments of muscles. External form, expression, and 

 action are the points which an artist seeks to under- 

 stand ; hence the systems of the body dealt with here 

 are the skeleton, muscles, proportion, and move- 

 ments. Everyone must have noticed the marked dif- 

 ference in form between the haunches of an ox and of 

 a horse, yet it is doubtful if any of our modern compara- 

 tive anatomists could indicate the meaning of these 

 structural differences. 



Marey's work forms the basis of the chapters in 

 which are described the various characteristic move- 

 ments of the horse. In dealing with the proportions of 

 the ideal horse M. Cuyer holds the common-sense 

 opinion that there is no absolute standard such as that 

 suggested by Bourgelat, who held that the length of 

 the body from the shoulder to the rump should measure 

 the same as the height at the withers. The observa- 

 tions of Colonel Duhousset on fifty Arabian horses are 

 quoted ; in ten of these the length and height were 

 equal ; in twenty-six the height was decidedly the 

 greater measurement ; in fourteen the length was the 

 greater. 



M. Cuyer, as is the habit with many French scientific 

 writers, quotes no author outside the limits of his 

 country. On p. 33, for instance, he refers to an 

 observation by Marey, made in 1890, that there is no 

 ( (jrrelation between the power of flight and the develop- 

 ment of air cells in birds. This matter was fully 

 studied and accurately described in the well-known 

 work of John Hunter a century before Marey was bom. 

 NO. 1 75 I, VOL. 68] 



HINDU CHEMISTRY. 

 A History of Hindu Chemistry from the Earliest Times 

 to the Middle of the Sixteenth Century a.d., with 

 Sanskrit Texts, Variants, Translation and Illustra- 

 tions. By Prafulla Chandra Ray, D.Sc, Pro- 

 fessor of Chemistry, Presidency College, Calcutta. 

 Vol. i. P]). Ix\i\+ 17(1 + 41. (London and Oxford: 

 Williams and Norgatc, 1902.) Price 12s. 6d. net. 

 n[^HE origin of Hindu chemistry is hidden in the 

 i- cbscurity of past ages. It is certain that the 

 alchemists of western Europe Owed much of their 

 learning to the Arabs. M. Berthelot, in " Les Origines 

 de PAlchemie." has shown that the Arabs derived many 

 of their ideas from the Greeks, but Dr. Ray quotes 

 other weighty opinions, and furnishes additional 

 evidence in support of the view that the Arabs were 

 even more indebted to the Hindus. In the eighth 

 centurv the Caliphs of Bagdad ordered several of the 

 medical works of India to be translated, and both then 

 and later learned Arabs were sent to India to study 

 science. Not content with pointing out these facts. 

 Dr. Ray reminds his readers that the Greeks them- 

 selves derived their knowledge of many things from the 

 Hindus, who had, for example, solved the 47th pro- 

 position of the first book of Euclid, 200 years before 

 the birth of Pythagoras. Relying on this and similar 

 evidence, Dr. Ray places the date of the works of 

 Vaghbata at some time before the eighth century a.d., 

 and the surgical and medical treatises of Susruta and 

 Charaka many centuries earlier, in pre-Buddha times. 

 The last-named book, however, " embodies the de- 

 liberations of an international congress of medical ex- 

 perts, held in the Himalayan regions," and the fourth 

 veda, the Atharva-veda, appears so archaic by its side 

 that it must be older by " probably a thousand years 

 or more." In the Atharva-veda "plants and vege- 

 table products in general are fully recognised as helpful 

 agents in the treatment of diseases," and at that period 

 (say 2000 B.C.) alchemical notions had already 

 gathered round gold and lead, gold being regarded 

 as the elixir of life, and lead as the dispeller of sorcery. 

 The progress of chemistry in India, if it were judged 

 only from the manuscripts still in existence, would 

 appear to have been bound up with the study of medi- 

 cine. Preparations of mercurj' and other metals were 

 described, and their use recommended in various dis- 

 eases, several centuries before the time of Paracelsus, 

 the internal use of the black sulphide of mercury dating 

 from the tenth century A.D. at the latest. There are, 

 however, many signs that the study of metals had 

 already progressed far beyond the knowledge required 

 by the medical practitioners. 



Thus in " Rasarnava " (twelfth century) we read 

 " copper yields a blue flame . . . that of the tin is 

 pigeon-coloured; that of the lead is pale tinted," and 

 as another example : — 



" A pure metal is that which, when melted in a 

 crucible, does not give olT sparks nor bubbles, nor 

 spurts, nor emits any sound, nor shows any lines on 

 the surface, but is tranquil as a gem." 



Then tin n is the Kiitah pillar near Delhi, a wrought- 

 iron column whicii weighs ten tons, and is some 1500 



