Page:A Short History of Aryan Medical Science.djvu/83

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Chap. V.]
AS UNDERSTOOD BY THE HINDOOS.
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remedies he lays particular stress on Posture, which, according to him, has great influence on the female pelvic organs ; and he indicates certain positions as facilitating impregnation and curing internal disorders.*[1] He describes as many as eighty-four positions or Asanas, which may be resorted to under varying conditions, and adds that these postures not only heighten the pleasure of the moment, but act as a means of ensuring fecundation. Owing to the extreme delicacy of the subject treated of by this writer, his work De Rebus Veneris, though translated into several languages of Asia, appears always to have been held in doubtful repute. But, apart from a layman's point of view, it deserves to be appreciated by the medical profession, which has only recently recognised Postural Treatment as a new and useful therapeutic method in Gynaecology. The subject is still in its experimental stage; but when the time comes for a universal recognition of Posture as a curative agent, the Medical Science of India will be able to claim the credit of having been the first to propound the theory. The medical works of the Hindoos have from the

  1. * Cf. Lucretius, Book IV.