of the body as of the soul. The example of such a temple we still find in Tārakeśvar where many sick people repair to have their maladies cured by dreams, hypnotic suggestions and incubation or temple-sleep. Similar practice was prevalent in Egypt and Greece in olden times. The modern practice of using galvanic rings and abdominal belts is merely an advanced method of indulging in superstitious ideas.
3. The patients always dreaded the surgeon's knife—especially when the use of a general anæsthetic was unknown. At the same time, the comparative success of poultices, actual and potential cauteries, and other external applications have influenced the lay mind that operations by knife are not always needed.[1] The Hindu surgeons themselves believed in similar tenets, for Suśruta, the surgeon, remarks that "of all cutting instruments and their substitutes, caustics (or vegetable alkalies) are the most important, because by means of them, deep and superficial incisions and scarifications may be made, and derangements of the three humours (air, bile and phlegm) may be rectified"; and again he says that "with
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दिव्यौषधिं विना देवि शस्त्रविद्या सुनिष्फला।
वैरूप्यं कुरुते या च दुश्चिकित्स्ये व्यधान्तरे॥
जायन्ते हि यथार्शासि पाटितानि पुनः पुनः।
किं तत्र शस्त्रसाध्यं स्यात् सुसिद्धैभेँषजैर्विना॥
धातुनां व्यापदि यच्च भेषजं नैव सिद्ध्यति।
ह्याभये दुस्तरे तस्मिन् शस्त्रमेव विधीयते॥
पुनः संशमनं तत्र धातुनाम् हृि प्रशान्तये।
प्रदातव्यं महादेवि शस्त्रादर्ब्बाक् ब्रवीमि ते॥Mahānīlatantra, Paṭola X, vs. 72-74.
