INDIAN JOURNAL OF HISTORY OF SCIENCE最新文献

The non-medical Sanskrit texts have indirect references to music as a therapy in ancient India. The vaidyas used it as an alternative therapeutic technique in addition to conventional treatment methods for coma and post-coma complications, tuberculosis, pitta aggravation, protective measures for newborns and in cases of mental distress to regain homeostasis. They also used soothing, pleasant music and employed efficient musicians to execute it. Caraka was the first physician who suggested employing musicians as supporting staff in public hospitals. In spite of such valuable references, music therapy did not become a separate branch of research in ancient India. Strikingly, there are similarities and differences in modern music therapy vis-à-vis therapeutic elements of music mentioned in Bṛhattrayī and some other important texts. This paper tries to review all such issues to demonstrate the contemporary relevance of the therapeutic effects of music in ancient India.

In the Atharvaveda, two distinct words are mentioned namely, the krimi and kṛmi. The word kṛmi means insect (kīṭakamu) and whereas krimi refers to worm/germ. It mentions a large number of skin diseases, both of major and minor types, caused by the micro-organisms (krimi), which are of human concern. It describes the skin diseases, twak rogas, in the name of takman, yakṣma, kuṣṭa, kilasa, palita and śvitra, having grey and white spots, generally from deeper layers of skin and refers herbal remedies for them. A deep knowledge of the herbs and their various medicinal properties can be inferred from many of the Atharvaveda hymns for skin disorders. In this article, the human skin diseases revealed in the Atharvaveda, their classification, causative factors, liturgies and a number of herbal medical remedies with special reference to skin disorders are discussed.

Modern medical education began in Bengal with the establishment of Calcutta Medical College (CMC) in 1835. Soon it became an important centre for medical education and research in India. Chunilal Bose (1861–1930), an alumnus of CMC, worked in his alma mater as the Chemical Examiner of Bengal for more than three decades and conducted pioneering researches on toxins and poisons, food poisoning, food adulteration, diabetes, small pox, forensic science, effects of narcotics etc. His research publications appeared in reputed journals such as British Medical Journal, Transactions of the Chemical Society of London, The Indian Medical Gazette, and Calcutta Medical Journal etc. Bose was also instrumental in passing the Indian Poisons Act (1904) and in creating a public awareness against consumption of narcotics. Bose was an able science communicator of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century Bengal and extensively wrote and lectured in a simple language, both in Bengali and English, on the subjects of public health and hygiene, general science and history of science that were connected to the wellbeing of the common people, with an intention of creating science awareness and scientific temper in the society. Honours and awards showered upon him during his lifetime, but Bose’s important contributions to medical sciences and science popularization were less discussed by the historians of science, as the focus generally remained on his more illustrious contemporaries. In the course of time, Chunilal Bose became a nearly forgotten scientist and a science communicator. His 160th birth anniversary was observed in 2021.