18 2 Flashcards
he measured the size of the stranger’s nose. Taking a knife and forceps from the wall
he held them over a flame and cut a strip of flesh from the stranger’s cheek. The man
moaned
but the wine had numbed his senses.
After bandaging the cut in the cheek
Susruta cautiously
inserted two pipes into the stranger’s nostrils and
transplanted the flesh to the disfigured nose. Moulding
the flesh into shape
he dusted the nose with powdered
liquorice
red sandalwood and extract of Indian barberry.
He then enveloped the nose in cotton
sprinkled some refined
oil of sesame on it and finally put a bandage. Before
the traveller left
he was given instructions on what
to do and what not to and a list of medicines and
herbs he was to take regularly. He was also asked to
come back after a few weeks to be examined.
How was this operation process different from today’s operation process?
In this manner
Susruta mended a nose some twenty six centuries ago. And what he
did is not greatly different from what a plastic surgeon would do today. In fact
Susruta
is today recognised as the father of plastic surgery all over the world. His treatise
‘Susrutasamhita’
has considerable medical knowledge of relevance even today. It
indicates that India was far ahead of the rest of the world in medical knowledge. In the
eighth century AD
‘Susrutasamhita’ was translated into Arabic as ‘Kitab-Shaw’
a-Hindi’ and ‘Kitab-i-Susrud’.
Born in the sixth century BC
Susruta was a descendant of the Vedic sage
le learnt surgery and medicine at the feet of Divodasa Dhanvantari in his hermitag
Varanasi. Later
he became an authority in not only surgery
dicine.
e was the first physician to advocate what is today known as the ‘ caesarean’ operati
vas also expert in removing urinary stones
locating and treating fractures
eye operations for cataract. Several centuries before Joseph Lister
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