PREFACE

No special apology is necessary for the publication of an English translation of the Sushruta Samhita A foundational Sanskrit text on medicine and surgery, attributed to the sage Sushruta. The vast medical literature of ancient India remains practically unexplored even now. Any undertaking that aims to make that unknown territory original: "terra incognita" known to the scientific world is bound to be welcomed by the public. Occasional original: "spasmodic" attempts have been made by several scholars and learned organizations to produce an English translation of the Sushruta Samhita, as it is the most representative work of Ayurveda The traditional Hindu system of medicine, but we regret to say that such efforts have so far failed. In spite of incomplete information on the subject, many drugs from the Ayurvedic Materia Medica The body of collected knowledge about the therapeutic properties of substances used for healing have been adopted by different foreign systems of medicine. This has given us a fresh motivation to issue an English translation of the book, which not only deals with the essentials of Indian therapeutics but embraces the whole range of the science of Ayurveda as it was understood and practiced by the Vedic sages.

We sincerely hope that the English translation of Sushruta which we have undertaken will, when completed, fill a long-standing gap and help to initiate a more thorough inquiry into the properties of the native drugs of India. Many institutions have already been established both in England and Germany with the sole purpose of studying the causes original: "ætiology" of tropical diseases and of developing a practical original: "empirical" system for their prevention and cure. We hope an English translation of the Sushruta Samhita, embracing as it—