82 SOCIAL SCIENTIST stipulate that the practice of medicine must be restricted to the ^'base-^ born". Manu is absolutely emphatic about it. No less emphatic is another lawgiver, Vasishtha, who among other things says that he who makes his living by the practice of medicine cannot be called a brahmin (P216). Despite such serious hurdles, medical science in ancient India flourished and progressed to a considerable degree, thanks to the fusion of theory and practice in which the physicians ardently believed. A genuine tradition of science was thus fostered. So much so, ^the achievements of ancient Indian medicine... give u? the feeling of being at the threshold of modern science as it were" (p 269). Among the other relevant and connected issues discussed by Chattopadhyaya may be mentioned the question of science and philosophy in the Greek and Indian contexts, the overpowering influence of metaphysics in undermining science during the Upanishadic age, the transition from magico-religious therapeutics characteristic of the Atha-rva veda to rational therapeutics characteristic of the later medical science and the science of medicine in Buddhist India. The enormous data collected and analysed on these topics by the author is again an eye-opener and as usual he handles the data most meticulously. There are a few pet myths concerning ancient Indian life that stand exploded in the course of Chattopadhyaya's vivisection of the medical literature of the past; but that is only incidental. Thus, for instance, he shows how notwithstanding the alleged reverence for the cow, the physicians prescribed beef as a nutrient. In fact, they even advocated the adoption of devious methods to administer certain kinds of food to the patients by passing them off as something else. Accordingly, for a physician it is not any gross transgression of traditional morality to give beef in the name of deer's flesh or fried worms in the name of intestines of fish to the patient so long as he is satisfied that the patient nced3 it. That is medical ethics stealing a march over traditional morality. In the penultimate section of the book an attempt is made to identify a certain Bharadwaja, a heretic who is sought to be converted, in the Curaka Samhita. The critical correlation of varied factors employed by the author in this section is undoubtedly commendable although I have a feeling that this is the only section in the whole book which may not carry full conviction with many reMLerSr It is immaterial who Bharadwaja was so long as it is appreciated that a popular opinion con-_trary to thb orthodox and idealist viewpoint of the metaphysicians and lawgivers prevailed extensively and that this opinion was a force to be reckoned with. Abundant fresh ground has befen broken by this book, especially with regard to medical science. Similar studies about the evolution df other sciences in ancient India, the levels to which they rose and the methodology developed by them are a crying need today. It is hoped