34 



ON HYGIENE IN 



son of Krishna, sent surgeons to dress their wounds, placed 

 them in handsome apartments, and entertained them with 

 food and sweetmeats ; in fact, established ambulances for 

 them, as similar establishments of help are presently named. 



Although the following instructions had reference chiefly to 

 physicians, they are considered as more appropriate in this 

 place as coming within the sphere of the army medical 

 officer or surgeon, namely : " The duties of a physician, when 

 a rajah travelled, was to point out the road, that is, route by 

 which he was to proceed, also the water and shelter for the 

 accompanying troops or followers and for the elephants. He 

 should live near the rajah ; his care' should extend to 

 the water and food of the army as well as of the beasts of 

 burthen which the enemy may endeavor to destroy by poison, 

 and, it is added, the good physician may detect this, and be 

 the means of saving the army." With regard however to 

 the more immediate duties of a surgeon in war they appear 

 to have been but slight in the time of the Ramayana ; thus 

 Sushena, physician in the army of Hanuman, treated the troops 

 who were wounded in the fight which led to the capture of 

 Ravana in Lunka, that is Ceylon, by means of herbs which, 

 having beaten and made into a paste, he then applied. 



Susruta, like Machaon, appears to have in some measure at 

 least performed and taught the duties of an army surgeon. 

 Thus in the Ayur Yeda, of which he is believed to have been 

 the author, there are instructions with regard to the influence 

 of the weather on health, on the regimen of patients suffering 

 from surgical diseases, besides dissertations on the prepara- 

 tions required for accompanying a rajah in war, on the 

 difference of climates, a description of fluids, and on different 

 preparations and articles of food, besides a chapter on toxi- 

 cology and one on intoxication, the whole, in fact, forming a 

 compendium in which are included questions of sanitation 

 which some so-called (i Sanitary reformers " would have us 



