CHAPTER VII .
Now we shall discuss the Chapter which treats of Surgical Appliances, their Uses and Construction. (Yantra-Vidhimadhya'yam).
Surgical instruments number one hundred and one *[1] in all, of which the hand is the most important, inasmuch as (all of them depend on the hand for their principal auxiliary) and as none of them can be handled without it; and further because all surgical operations pre-eminently require its co-operation. Any foreign or extraneous substance, which finds a lodgment in the human system and becomes painful to the body and the mind alike, is called a Shalyam; and surgical instruments are the means of extracting it (from its seat or place where it is embedded).
(Surgical Appliances may be divided into six different groups or types, such as the Svastika, the Sandansha, the Tala, the Nadi Yantras, and the Shalakas, besides those that are called the minor or accessory appliances (Upa-yantras).
The Svastika instruments (forceps) in their turn, are divided into twenty-four sub-classes; the Sandansha instruments (tongs) into two; the Tala Yantras
- ↑ * According to certain authorities hundred is here indefinitely used for a large number.
