Talk:Joseph Constantine Carpue

CARPUE'S RHINOPLASTY TECHNIQUE WAS COPIED

The National Medical Institute was abolished and the ayurvedic classes at the Sanskrit Collegee and at the Madrasaa were discontinued by the government order of 28 January 1835. This closure of NMI infuriated the faculty and students. Only one member of the staff of the Native Medical Institution, Madhusudan Gupta (an Ayurvedic practitioner trained in western medicine), was transferred to the new college. It was at this time spurious medical and surgical manuscripts in Sanskrit in the fictitious names of Charaka and Sushruta were produced. The Asiatic Society scholars in Calcutta accepted these fake manuscripts as genuine and published research papers in the Society journal. To legitimize this false claim, fanatical Sanskrit pundits, Ayurvedic physicians and some Orientalists chalked out a well planned strategy by which they linked the fictitious Sushrusa with world renowned Western surgeons. In 1815, Joseph Constantine Carpue wrote about a rhinoplasty performed on a wounded soldier whose nose had been all but destroyed in battle, and another patient whose nose had been damaged by arsenic. His work, the “Account of Two Successful Operations for Restoring a Lost Nose” became a standard work in medical colleges. Although the Italian surgeon Tagliacozzi’s treatise on making a nose from an arm flap, De curtorum chirurgia per insitionem(Venice, 1597), was an outstanding work, the condemnation of operation by religious authorities resulted in complete withdrawal of this practice. Students of Calcutta Medical College, founded in 1835, were taught about the works of Tagliacozzi and Carpue and the successful rhinoplasty performed by Carpue .Ayurvedic proponents wanted to show that Carpue and Tagiliacozzi learned rhinoplasty from Sushruta’s technique. It is quite transparent that the essential points in Carpue’s work were plagiarized and Sanskrit manuscripts were published in the fictitious name of Sushruta. To camouflage this act, Ayurvedic physicians claim that Carpue came to India and stayed for 20 years to learn Shusruta's technique of rhinoplasty. But the fact of the matter is that Carpue had never come to India. The British medical journal Lancet is categorical that Carpue stayed and worked in London only. They also claim that the Italian Tagliacozzi also learnt from Sushruta's method. To substantiate this false claim they had invented a story that Sushruta's work was translated into Arabic during the Abbasid Caliphate and from there it went to Europe. What a fantastic manipulation! There is no Arabic translation of Shusruta's work during the Caliphate.The famous physician in the Caliphate was Avicenna and he produced treatises and works that summarized the vast amount of knowledge that scientists had accumulated, and was very influential through his encyclopedias, 'The Canon of Medicine' and 'The Book of Healing'. There is absolutely no reference to Sushruta or rhinoplasty in his works. What is more, there is no statement by European surgeons that they received Sushruta's Arabic translation from the Arabs during the Renaissance. -- 23:05, April 30, 2012‎ Prof.Dr.A.Yeshuratnam (talk)

Can you name your sources for the claims that you have made? For instance, you say, "There is no Arabic translation of Shusruta's work during the Caliphate." However, the Wiki article on the Sushruta Samhita states, "Both the Sushruta and the Charaka Samhita were translated into Arabic during in the 8th century. The translator of the Sushruta Samhita was one Ibn Abillsaibial. The work was known as Kitab Shah Shun al-Hindi in Arabic, or alternatively as Kitab i-Susurud. The 9th-century Persian physician Rhazes was familiar with the text." You also make the following claim(s), "It was at this time spurious medical and surgical manuscripts in Sanskrit in the fictitious names of Charaka and Sushruta were produced. The Asiatic Society scholars in Calcutta accepted these fake manuscripts as genuine and published research papers in the Society journal. To legitimize this false claim, fanatical Sanskrit pundits, Ayurvedic physicians and some Orientalists chalked out a well planned strategy by which they linked the fictitious Sushrusa with world renowned Western surgeons." What is your source for this? If you are quoting a book, I would like to know the name please. Hal19018 (talk) 14:52, 31 October 2014 (UTC)