6 



THE HISTORY OF TROPICAL MEDICINE 



perfection. It is beyond our space to enter into this interesting 

 history, and we invite the reader's attention to the work of Chemin 

 and of Whitney mentioned in the references. 



America. — Medicine was foilnd to be in a veiy primitive con- 

 dition among the North American Indians, but appears to have 

 advanced considerably among the Aztecs of Mexico and the Incas 

 of Peru, although very little is now known of the condition of 

 knowledge among these peoples, because the Spaniards destroyed 

 all the records they could obtain. It appears that there were public 

 hospitals in Mexico, surgeons for the armies, and a knowledge of 

 circumcision, venesection, medicines, and chemistry. The advent 

 of the Spaniards, while destroying our sources of history, brought 

 America once for all under European influence, and the history of 

 medicine therein forms part of the general advance of medical 

 knowledge. 



Foundations of Medicine. 



Two races, however, appear to have advanced far beyond this 

 elementary stage, and to have laid the foundation upon which 

 modern medicine has been built. These two races are the peoples 

 of India and Egypt. 



Indian Medicine, — In India there are signs of the existence of 

 peoples among whom at a very early period a better race from 

 the north-west forced its way. This race is often spoken of as the 

 Aryan stock. Its earliest literature appears to have been in the 

 form of songs or hymns, and these were collected into what is called 

 the Rig- Veda. 



Later, three more books, called Samaveda, Ayurveda, and Athar- 

 vaveda, were added, forming the Four Vedas. The word ' Veda ' is 

 said to be derived from the same root as the Latin videre, to see. 

 The Vedas were said to be divinely inspired, and therefore to repre- 

 sent the wisdom of God. 



The Ayurveda, or medical works, were believed to have originated 

 directly from Brahma, who communicated them to Dacsha, the 

 Prajapati, his son, by whom they were passed to the Acwins, or 

 sons of the sun, Surya, who in their turn gave them to Indra. 

 Indra taught Bharadwaja, a learned sage, who is said to be the 

 author of the twelfth hymn of the tenth book of the Atharvaveda 

 which belongs to the primitive age of the priest -physician. 



Bharadwaja taught Atreya, who may, perhaps, be called the 

 first physician of India, as he taught medicine in Taxila somewhere 

 about the sixth century B.C. Six of Atreya's pupils wrote com- 

 pendia of his teachings, of which only a single manuscript by Bhela 

 (or Bheda) and a work by Agnivesa exist. This latter has, how- 

 ever, been edited by Charaka of Kashmir, who left it unfinished 

 when he died, possibly in the second century a.d. This unfinished 

 work was revised and completed by another Kashmir physician 

 (Dridhabala), who used also the works of Vagbhata and Madhava. 

 The book so compounded is the celebrated Charaka-Samhita 



