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Page 119
P. 119
Sushruta is referred as the
father of plastic surgery . Once
upon a time, a person came to
him with accidental disfigured
nose. Sushruta led the person to
a room with surgical
instruments on its walls.
Unfolding a mattress Sushruta
Different types of operation tools
asked him to sit on it after
taking off his robe and washing his face. Sushruta offered the traveller a mug of
wine and began preparing for the operation. With a large leaf, he measured the
size of person'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
because the wine had numbed his senses. After bandaging the cut in the cheek,
Sushruta cautiously transplanted the flesh to the disfigured nose. Moulding the
flesh into the shape he dusted the nose and finally put a bandage. Sushruta
performed this plastic surgery 20 centuries ago.
Charaka
Charaka may have lived around the second century B.C.
His father was a sage who travelled on foot from place to
place to cure the sick.
Charaka discovered that a human body has 360 bones,
including the teeth. He claimed that the heart was
connected to the entire body through 13 main channels.
He also said that there were countless other small and big
channels which supply nutrients to various tissues and
Charaka provide passage to waste products. Charaka was the first
to present the concept of digestion , metabolism and immunity .
Charaka knew the fundamentals of genetics. He knew the factors determining
the sex of a child. He proved that a genetic defect in a child like blindness, was
not due to any defect in the mother or the father.
In the eighth century B.C., Charaka revised a treatise which came to be known
as Charaka Samhita . For two millennia it remained a standard work on the subject
and was translated into many foreign languages, including Arabic and Latin.
Book-5 # 119

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