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150
Jaina Biology
in the Jaina works with their respective quantities 128 clearly shows that they are closely associated for the function of the body, such as, the transport of oxygen, etc. The pittas (bile pigments) are primarily responsible for the colour of the faeces, “if the bile duct is blocked by a gallstone, for example, they cannot pass into the intestine and the faces are a grayish clay colour" 129
Oxygen carrying Devices :
"All other mammals have red cells ( Sonita )130, "similar to man's non- nucleated, bioconcave discs containing hemoglobin 131. Birds (pakkhins ), reptiles ( parisarpas ), amphibians (mandūkas ) and fishes, (macchas) have blood ( śonita ),132 i. e. according to Biology," have oval shaped red cells which contain hemoglobin, but are nucleated". 133
Invertebrates (two- sensed beings, etc.) have a variety of devices for oxygen transport. 134 Modern Biology explains that “A few worms have blood cells containing hemoglobin but others such as the earth worm (i.e. nūpuraka) have hemoglobin simply dissolved in the plasma. Other invertebrates have different blood pigments; crabs and lobsters, for example, have a blue green blood pigment, hemocyanin, which contains copper instead of iron". 135 “The respiratory enzymes of all cells, both plant and animal, the cytochroms........heme proteins closely related chemically to hemoglobin" 136
White corpuscles :
Jaina Biology does not mention white corpuscles, but its reference to pus (puvva 137 or pâya 138 ), i. e. dead white corpuscles in the body, suggests the existence of white corpuscles in the body, suggests the existence of white blood cells or leukocytes in the blood as one of its constituent elements in some form, all of which differ considerably
128. Tandula Veyaliya 16, p. 35, ; Kalyānak āraka, 3.7. 129. Biology, p. 252. 130. Ācārānga Sūtra II, 4. (Šonita ); Sutrakttānga II. 2.18. 131. Biology, p. 253, 132. All vertebrates have blood. 133. Biology, p. 253. 134. They do it by diffusion. See Pannavaņā, Ussāsapayam 697-697, p. 184. 135. Biology, p. 253 136. Ibid. 137. “Pavva", Tandula Veyāliya, p. 40 138. “PūO”, Ibid, p. 43.
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