Charaka-Samhita — trans. Kaviraj Avinash Chandra Kaviratna

There are others that are truly incurable. In them no treat¬ ment produces success. Only fools strive to treat them. The learned physician never sets. his hand upon them.45

Diseases are of two kinds, viz., Curable and Incurable. Dis¬ tributing them according to the considerations of mildness and violence, they become of four kinds.t45

The diseases which fall under the general heading of Inflam¬ mation are innumerable when distinguished by considerations of pain, color, manner of appearance or element affected, area or part of the body occupied, and name.J 4 7 The treatment, however, in all cases should be according to what is laid down in this brief enumeration mentioning general points. In all their modifications, the same general feature is said to be present.48

The physician who may not know the separate name of each particular modification should not hesitate to undertake its treatment. As a matter of fact, of all the modifications the names do not certainly occur in the Medical scriptures.49

A particular fault which has been excited (and from which an Inflammation proceeds) may, in consequence of the particular cause that has excited it, change its locality, and thus generate diverse

* Incurable diseases are of two kinds. Some of them are capable of being sup¬ pressed though not cured. Others are incapable of even suppression. In diseases called Suppressible or Yapya, well-applied treatment prolongs life. ‘Susadhu api karma’ is the correct reading, divested of ‘Sandhi.’ ‘ Yatrakaram ’ is ‘competent to make the patient live on.’ — 71 f Four kinds, such as (i) Mild and Curable, (2) Violent and Curable, (3) Mild and Incurable, and (4) Violent and Incurable. Among these, Mild and Incurable would mean Yapya or suppressible. — 71 2t What is said here is this : Inflammation is a general name applied to a very large number of diseases whose common characteristic is swelling. If differentiated from one another by considering the pains they- cause, the colors they present, the manner in which they appear (*.*., swiftly or slowly or as due to this or that cause), Ac., the variety will seem to be great. — 71

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kinds of or varieties of the disease.'0 The physician, therefore, that undertakes the treatment, should commence his operations after first ascertaining what the disease is, .what is its nature (in respect of the particular fault that has caused it and the particular element of the body that has been affected), and the distinctions in respect of the part of the body that is afflicted.51

That physician who commences his treatment after ascertaining these three (viz., the name of the disease, its nature in respect of cause and the element affected, and the part of the body afflicted), and conducts himself with the aid of knowledge and conformably with principles, is never stupefied.52

In the bodies of creatures endued with life-breaths, the faults, viz., wfind, bile, and phlegm, are always to be found. Whether these are in their normal or abnormal state, the man of learning should seek to ascertain,53

The following are the acts of the Wind when in its normal state, vie., energy in respect of action or movements, inhalation and exhalation of the breath, the proper functions of the physical organs (such as speech, thought, &c.,) the equable course of the several elements of the body, and the equable or proper discharge of excreta and urine and such other impurities as escape or are secreted out of the body.54.