The knowledge about anatomy in the “Four medical tantras” / Монголын Анагаах Ухаан

ABSTRACT

The exposition of the anatomy of the body has four aspects (a) the anatomical presentation of the quantities of the bodily constituents; (b) the anatomical presentation of the circulatory system; (c) the anatomical presentation of the delicate, vital points; and (d) the anatomical presentation of thepathways and orifices. The amount of wind (in the body) would fill the urinary bladder whilst the quantity of bile wouldfill the scrotum.1 The quantity of phlegm would fill three cupped handfuls and the amounts of bloodand stool would each fill seven cupped handfuls. The amounts of urine and lymph would each fill fourcupped handfuls whereas the quantities of body oil and fat would each fill two cupped handfuls. Thequantities of nutritive essence and semen would each fill a single handful whilst the amount of brain would fill a single cupped handful. The quantity of flesh is five hundred fist-sizes with the (total) addition of twenty fist-sizes for the thighs and breasts of women and (the amount of menstrual bloodin women would fill two cupped handfuls). The quantity of bones includes twenty-three types. The spinal column consists of twenty-eightvertebrae whilst the ribs number twenty-four. There are thirty-two teeth, three hundred and sixtyfractional bones, twelve types of major joints, two hundred and ten minor joints, sixteen (large)ligaments (behind the knees, in the ankles, in the ante cubital fossae and in the wrists, two adjacent tothe spine, two inside the spine, two in the throat and two in the neck) and nine hundred tendons. There are twenty-one thousand hairs (on the head) and (thirty-five) million hair-pores [sevenmillion above the neck, three million five-hundred thousand on each limb and fourteen million on therest of the body]. Also there are five vital organs, six vessel organs and nine orifices. The ideal size of the (human) body on earth is six feet square (four cubits) (from head to toe and fromfingertips to fingertips of outstretched arms), whereas a malformed body is three and a half of its ownforearm span square.