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sician, is almost entirely lost :" " but I have myself met with 
curious fragments of that primeval work ; and in the Veda 
itself, I found, with astonishment, an entire Upanishad on 
the internal parts of the human body ; with an enumeration 
of the nerves, veins, and arteries ; a description of the 
heart, spleen, and liver, and various disquisitions on the 
formation and growth of the foetus. 11 (Jones, Disc, xi.) 
" Physic appears in these regions to have been cultivated 
from time immemorial," " as well as chemistry, on which 
we may hope to find useful disquisitions in Sanscrit, since 
the old Hindoos unquestionably applied themselves to that 
enchanting study." (Jones, Disc, x.) 
Besides the discussion of medical subjects in these very 
ancient works, we may infer the antiquity of Medicine 
among the Hindoos, from the high estimation in which 
the profession has been always held there, as is evident 
from " one of the fourteen Retnas, or precious things, 
which their gods are believed to have produced by churning 
the ocean with the mountain, Mandura was a learned 
physician.'''' (Jones, Disc. 2) That medical substances were 
equally prized, we learn from the Sanscrit account of the 
Deluge, given in the first Purana, evidently from older 
works or traditions, where, among other directions, we find, 
" Then shalt thou take all medicinal herbs, all the va- 
riety of seeds, and accompanied by seven saints, encircled 
by pairs of all brute animals, thou shalt enter the spacious 
ark, and continue in it secure from the flood, on one 
immense ocean, without light, except the radiance of 
thy holy companions. 11 (Jones on Gods of India, &c) " He 
(Satyvrata), still meditating on the commands of Bhagavat, 
saw the vessel advancing, and entered it with the chiefs of 
Brali mans, having carried into it the medicinal creepers" 
&c. (v. Jones, 1. c.) 
Considering therefore the high probability, if it be 
