The Yantras or surgical implements known to Susruta were, according to Professor H. H. Wilson, one hundred and one, and are thus described by him in his most interesting paper on the “Medical and Surgical Sciences of the Hindus.”[274]
The instruments were classed as Swastikas, Sandanśas, Tálayantras, Nádiyantras, Salákás, and Upayantras.
The _Swastikas_ are twenty-four in number; they are metallic, about eighteen inches long, and fancifully shaped like the beaks of birds, etc. They were a sort of pincers or forceps.
The _Sandanśas_ were a kind of tongs for removing extraneous substances from the soft parts.
The _Tálayantras_ were similar, and were used for bringing away foreign bodies from the ears, nose, etc.
The _Nádiyantras_ were tubular instruments, of which there were twenty sorts. They were similar to our catheters, syringes, etc. The _Salákás_ were rods and sounds, etc. Of these there were twenty-eight kinds; some were for removing nasal polypi, so common and so troublesome in India. The _Upayantras_ were such dressings as cloth, twine, leather, etc. The first, best, and most important of all implements is declared to be the _Hand_. The _Man’dalágra_ was a round pointed lancet; the _Vriddhipatra_ a broad knife; the _Arddhadhárás_ are perhaps knives with one edge; the _Trikúrchaka_ may be a sort of canular trochar, with a guarded point. The _Vrihimukha_ is a perforating instrument. The _Kutháriká_ was probably a bistoury. The _Vadiśa_ is a hooked or curved instrument for extracting foreign substances, and the _Dantaśanku_ appears to be an instrument for drawing teeth. The _Ará_ and _Karapatra_ are saws for cutting through bones. The _Eshan’i_ is a blunt straight instrument six or eight inches long—a sort of probe, in fact. The _Súchi_ is a needle. Then the Hindu surgeon had substitutes such as rough leaves that draw blood, pith of trees, skin, leeches, caustics, etc. It is evident that the surgeon of ancient India was not inefficiently armed.
The student of surgery had many curious contrivances for acquiring manual dexterity. He practised the art of making incisions on wax spread out on a board; on flowers, bulbs, and gourds. Skins or bladders filled with paste and mire were used for the same purpose. He practised scarification on the fresh hides of animals from which the hair has not been removed; puncturing, or lancing the vessels of dead animals; extraction on the cavities of the same, or fruits with large seeds; sutures were made on skin and leather, and ligatures and bandages on well-made models of the human limbs. Fourteen kinds of bandages are described by Vágbhatta. The cautery was applied by hot seeds, burning substances, or heated plates and probes. Frequently this treatment was used for headaches and for liver and spleen disorders. It was chiefly employed, however, as with the Greeks, for averting bleeding by searing the mouths of the divided vessels. The early Hindus could extract stone from the bladder, and even the fœtus from the uterus. They must have been bold operators, many of their operations being actually hazardous. It is a subject deserving of inquiry how they lost the information and skill which they once possessed in so high a degree. The books of medicine and surgery to which reference has been made are undoubtedly most ancient, and it must be remembered were considered as inspired writings. Professor Wilson says: “We must infer that the existing sentiments of the Hindus are of modern date, growing out of an altered state of society, and unsupported by their oldest and most authentic civil and moral, as well as medical institutes.”