The Sushruta Samhita — trans. Bhishagratna

Similarly, a Vairechana-Dhuma should be smoked after bathing, vomiting and sleeping in the day time, while a Praiyogika-Dhuma should be smoked after cleansing the teeth, snuffing, bathing, eating and after a surgical operation. 11.

The therapeutic effects of Dhumapctna : —Smoking the Snehana-Dhuma subdues the deranged and aggravated Vdyu of the body owing to the existence of the Sneha with which it is charged, as well as to a consequent sticky coating being deposited in the organism. The Vairechana-Dhuma facilitates the loosening and flowing out of the mucus (Kapha) owing to its dryness, non-viscidness (Vais'adya), keenness and heat-making potency. While the Pra^yogika-Dhuma tends to loosen the accumulation of mucus (Kapha) and helps its expulsion from the system by virtue of its being possessed of common therapeutic properties with both of the two preceding kinds (of Dhuma). 12.

Memorable Verse : -Inhalation of (medicated) fumes removes the cloudening of the faculties of the organs of sense-perception and imparts distinctness of the speech and firmness to the teeth, hair of the head and to beard. It cleanses the mouth and fills it with an aroma. 13.

The inhalation of medicated fumes guards against an attack of cough, asthma, an aversion to food and clumsy sensation in the mouth, hoarseness, excessive salivationp. 83p. 658 nausea,* somnolence, sleep, numbness of the jaws and of the nerves (Sn^yu) on the back of the neck (Many^), catarrh, diseases of the head, ear-ache, inflammation of the eyes, and any affection of the mouth due to an aggravation of the deranged Vdyu and Kapha. 14.

It behoves a physician to be fully acquainted with the effects of satisfactory and excessive smoking (Dhuma-pdna). Properly administered, it is followed by a distinct alleviation of the disease (under treatment) ; while its excessive use is followed by a positive aggravation or non-amelioration of the disease and is likely to produce a dryness of the palate and the throat, a burning sensation in the body, thirst, fainting fits, vertigo, delirium, alcoholism, affection of the ears, nose and eyes, impairment of vision, and weakness of the body. 15.

15.

lYIode of Smoking : -The Pra'yogika-Dhuma should be smoked thrice at a time either through the mouth or through the nostrils and may be repeated thrice or four times (according to the strength of the patient and the itensity of the Dosha). The Snaihika-Dhuma should be inhaled until the appearance of tears in the eyes. While the Vairechanika-Dhuma should be smoked till the beginning of the elimination of the Doshas from the system. The Va(inaniya-Dhuma should be smoked by a patient after he has taken a gruel of huskless sesamum (Tila-Tandula), and the Ka(saghua-Dhuma should be inhaled between morsels of food.f Fumigation of an ulcer should be made by means of a tube attached to (the orifice of) a covered saucer. Fumigation alle-

* According to Vrinda's commentator we have here *' Sneezing and a sudden obstruction of breath" as an additional text.

t Dallana quotes a different reading which would mean that the K-dsaghna-Dhuma should be inhj^led after t£iking meals.

p. 659

viates the pain in an ulcer, arrests its discharge and makes it clean and non-viscid. i6.

Metrical Text:— The processes of inhalation and fumigation have been briefly described above. Now I shall fully describe the processes of using medicinal snuffs (Nasya). 17,

On Snuffs and Errhines:— The term

i6.

Metrical Text:— The processes of inhalation and fumigation have been briefly described above. Now I shall fully describe the processes of using medicinal snuffs (Nasya). 17,

On Snuffs and Errhines:— The term

'*Nasya" (Snuff) is so called from the fact of its being composed of the powders of any drugs or of any Sneha (oleaginous substance) cooked with such drug or drugs, to be stuffed into the nostrils. It may be broadly divided into two kinds, viz. : — ^iroVirechana (errhines) and Snehana (contributor of oleaginous principles) ; and may, however, be further grouped under five specific heads, viz. :— Nasya, ^iro-Virechana, Pratimarsha (a medicated Sneha poured into the nostrils to be discharged into the mouth), Avapida (the expressed juice of any drug put into the nostrils in drops by pressing it with the palms then and there) and Pradhamana (a medicinal snuff blown into the nostrils with the help of a blow pipe) . Of these, the Nasya (snuff) S'iro-Virechana (errhines) are pre-eminently the most effective. Pratimarsha is a Nasya while Avapida and Pradhamana are Siro-Virechana (errhines). Thus it is that the term Nasya is employed in the above five senses. The term Nasya, in the specific sense, is particularly used with reference to the snuffing of any Sneha (oleaginous substance) with a view to make up the deficient oily matter in the brain in the case of a patient complaining of a sense of void or emptiness in the head or to impart tone to the nerves and muscles of the neck, shoulders and chest, or to invigorate the eye-sight. This should be prepared with a Sneha (oleaginous substance) cooked with the drugs possessedp. 660 of the virtue of subduing the deranged Vdyu and Pitta and should be snuffed in by a patient affected in the head through the overwhelming preponderance of the deranged Viyu and in cases of the falling off of the teeth and hair of the head and beard, in Karna- Kshveda, acute ear-ache, Timira (cataract), loss of voice, disease of the nose, dryness of the mouth, Ava- Vdhuka, premature greyness of the hair and wrinkling of the skin and other dangerous complications due to the deranged Vayu and Pitta as well as in similar other affections of the mouth, i8.