Note 15 — UTTARAKĀNDAM
Manmatha Nath Dutt translation
The entire edifice of Hindu Pathology is based on the three-fold division of the morbid humours into Air, Bile and Phlegm. This division, albeit it may appear crude and unscientific to Europeans, taken all, in all, wonderfully answers its purpose. The tact displayed by Hindu physicians in diagnosing diseases on this method is wonderful. From feeling the Pulse alone, a Hindu physician, getting at the predominance of one or more morbid humours of the system, can accurately ascertain a patient’s health. The infallibility with which predictions of death are generally made, attests the scientific soundness of the division in question, and renders superfluous any elaborate argument in its defense.—T.