In describing the Surgical Instruments of Ancient Hindus. I have confined myself strictly to the texts of the authors and commentators whom I have quoted, and have given the original Sanskrit passages in the foot-notes, These will be of great help to scholars who will try to study the subject at first hand, and prosecute further historical inquires. The references in "the foot-notes" do not refer to pages of any particulars edition of the work, as such pagination causes inconvenience to the readers who may not secure the edition in question; so, we have given the section, and chapter of the book which will be found in any edition.
I have endeavoured to discuss briefly their approximate age. But as I have compared the surgical instru-ments of the ancient Hindus with those of the Greeks, Romans and Arabs, a concise summary of the chronological dates of the Greeco-roman, Arab, and the later authors would be a great help in the proper elucidation of my text.
To complete the subject, I have added plates of nearly all the varieties of instruments; but they are more or less hypothetical as we do not possess any actual specimens of the instrument of the Hindus. Written descriptions of surgical instruments are uninteresting and often fail to convey the true idea, which could be easily made evident by the pencil. For purpose of comparison I have given drawings of instruments of the greeks, the Romans and the Arabs, when I thought that they might be of value for the proper elucidation of my subject. |