Page:A Short History of Aryan Medical Science.djvu/230

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202
CONCLUDING REMARKS.
[Chap. XII.

found that the West, far more advanced though it be, may yet have something new to learn from the East. Those who have the advantage of being acquainted with both the systems are of opinion that, divested of all the exaggerations in which the Indians are prone to indulge, and of their tendency to consecrate all their sciences, and apotheosise their great men, the Hindoo system of medicine can, on the whole, bear comparison with the Western. There are many things in which both agree, and if in certain points they seem to differ, they often differ only to agree in the end. For instance, the wind- diseases of the Hindoos are mostly treated by the Western writers as diseases of the respiratory system ; the bile-diseases generally correspond with the diseases of the circulatory system, and the disorders of the phlegm are analogous to the diseases of the alimentary system. The demoniacal diseases of the Hindoos are but other words for hysteria, epilepsy, dancing mania, and other disorders of the nervous system. It is also asserted by those who have had opportunities of learning and practising medicine, both on the Eastern and the Western principles, that Indian medical science has reached its highest standard