History of surgery

"Colonel Kyd, an Englishman, had the following to say regarding general surgical skill in the subcontinent: (In) chirurgery (in which they are considered by us the least advanced) they often succeed, in removing ulcers and cutaneous irruptions of the worst kind, which have baffled the skill of our surgeons, by the process of inducing inflammation and by means directly opposite to ours, and which they have probably long been in possession."

"Dr. H. Scott wrote the following letter on January 12, 1792, again on the subject of Indian surgery: In medicine I shall not be able to praise their science very much. It is one of those arts which is too delicate in its nature to bear war and oppression and the revolutions of governments. The effects of surgical operation are more obvious, more easily acquired and lost by no means so readily. Here I should have much to praise. They practise with great success the operation of depressing the chrystalline lens when become opake and from time immemorial they have cut for the stone at the same place which they now do in Europe. These are curious facts and I believe unknown before to us."