124  A ncien t  and  Modern  Hindu  Medicine.    { AmMJa°rch .  Sff  m ' 
varieties  of  diseases  and  prescribe  remedies  for  the  same.  Diseases 
are  classified  as  curable,  incurable,  curable  by  charms,  and  scarcely 
possible  to  be  cured.  The  medicinal  qualities  of  different  kinds  of 
water  are  explained  ;  also  of  the  different  kinds  of  milk,  and  of  the 
flesh  of  animals.  One  chapter  treats  of  the  moral  causes  of  dis- 
eases. In  another  chapter  diseases  are  treated  of  in  detail.  Inter- 
mittent fever  is  of  four  varieties,  according  as  to  whether  it  recurs 
in  one  day,  three  days,  four  days,  or  longer.  Dysentery,  diarrhoea, 
indigestion,  consumption,  etc.,  are  discussed. 
The  two  most  highly  revered  and  most  frequently  quoted  of  an- 
cient medical  writers  among  the  Hindus  are  Charaka  and  Susruta. 
It  is  extremely  difficult  to  arrive  at  a  correct  estimate  of  the  date 
of  these  authors.  According  to  some,  Charaka  lived  320  B.  C. 
Professor  Wilson,  who  is  authority  on  many  things  in  India,  states 
that,  as  he  is  mentioned  in  the  Puranas,  he  must  have  lived  before 
the  tenth  century.  Be  that  as  it  may,  he  was  the  greatest  physi- 
cian of  his  day,  and  his  Charaka  Samhita  is  still  held  to  be  a 
standard  work  on  medicine.  It  was  his  desire  to  teach  men  to  so 
manage  their  bodies  as  to  avoid  all  unnecessary  pain  on  earth  and  to 
ensure  happiness  after  death.  Charaka  stated  that  he  received  the 
contents  of  his  work  indirectly  from  Atreya.  Like  that  of  Atreya,  it 
is  divided  and  subdivided,  and  covers  a  wide  range  in  its  consideration 
of  the  origin,  nature  and  treatment  of  disease.  One  division  treats  of 
drugs  which  cause  vomiting  and  purging,  and  six  hundred  remedies 
of  this  character  are  mentioned  and  classified  according  to  the  place 
they  come  from.  Another  division  describes  how  medicines 
should  be  introcuced  into  the  body  by  means  of  syringes  and  tubes, 
and  in  what  cases  emetics,  purgatives  and  enemas  should  not  be 
used. 
The  work  of  Susruta  is  held  in  as  high  esteem  by  native  vaichyas 
or  physicians  as  an  authority  on  surgery  as  is  that  of  Charaka  on 
medicine.  The  cause  assigned  for  the  meagerness  of  the  surgical 
instruments  and  appliances  of  the  ancients  is  that  their  acquaint- 
ance with  the  properties  and  virtues  of  drugs  was  so  great  that  most 
of  the  diseases  and  injuries  now  dealt  with  by  the  surgeon  were 
then  cured  by  medication.  An  abscess  was  made  to  subside  by 
plasters  or  brought  to  maturity  by  poultices.  Cases  of  urinary  cal- 
culi were  treated  by  antilithics  and  diuretics.  And  yet  in  their 
works  no  less  than  125  surgical  instruments  are  described. 
