An English Translation of the Sushruta Samhita, Vol. I: Sutrasthanam — trans. Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna (1907)

A man, whose finger nails, eyes, tongue, palate.

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THE SUSHRUTA SAMHITA. [ Clmp. xxxv

lips, palms of hands and soles of feet are glossy, and tinged with a shade of red, should be looked upon as one in whom blood forms the essential and predominant principle. A man with a soft, smooth and pleasant skin and hair should be considered as one in whom serum fTvak) forms the essential principle of the body. In respect of worldly success and longevity, men of each of the aforesaid types should be successively judged inferior to men belonging to the one preceding it in the above order of enumeration.

Authoritative verse on the subject : A quabfied physician should examine the duration of life in a patient with the help of the aforesaid measures of limbs and the essential bodily principles, before proceeding to take up his medical treatment, and his professional success should be decidedly increased thereby.

All the diseases, whose names have been specifically enumerated before, ma}' be grouped under any of the three different heads as the curable, the suppressible (Yapya) and the incurable (lit : fit to be pronounced as hopeless).

Each of these different types, in its turn, should be carefully observed so as to determine whether it is a primar}' or an independent disease, or merely an accessory or sympathetic one, or the premonitory indication of an incipient distemper in its incubative stage.

Chap. XXXV. ] SUTRASTHA'XAM. ^17

An A upasargika (sympathetic) disease is merely a symptom developed in the course of an original or primary malady, and which has its foundation in the very nature or component factors of the pre-existing distemper. A disease, Avhich manifests itself from the commencement of a case and is neither an accessor}' symptom, nor a premonitory indication of any other distemper, is called a Prak-kevalam (primary or original) one. A disease which indicates the advent of a future or impending malad}' is called a Purvarupam (premonitory stage or indication of a disease).

The medicinal remedy to be administered in any particular case should be selected with an eye to the curative ^•irtues of each of its components, so as not to clash with the nature (cause) of the disease and its accompanying symptoms, and to prove simultaneously soothing to both of them. On the contrary, a violent unfavourable symptom should be first attended to and checked in a case where it would be found to have grown stronger and more distressing or dangerous than the original malady in course of which it has been developed.

A primary or independent malady, unattended with any of the distressing or unfavourable symptoms, should be treated according to its indications and the nature of the deranged humours involved therein, while in an incubative disease the treatment should

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THE SUSHRUTA SAMHITA. Chap. XXXV.

consist in subduing a premonitory s^'mptom as soon as it would make itself manifest.

Authoritative Verse on the sub ject : — As there is not a single disease, which can make its appearance without the participation of any of the deranged bodil)' liumours, a wise physician is enjoined to administer medicines according to the specific features of the deranged humours involved in a disease whose nature and treatment have not even been described in any book on medicine. The different seasons of the year have been described before.

IVIetricai Texts :— In the cold season, a disease should be treated with measures and remedies endued with the virtue of destroying or warding off cold, while in summer the medicinal treatment should consist of measures and applications capable of alla^n'ng the heat. The medical treatment of a disease should be connnenced just at the opportune moment, which should not be allowed to expire in vain under any circumstances whatsoever. A course of medical treatment commenced at an inopportune moment, or not resorted to at the advent of its proper time, as well as over or insufficient medication, proves abortive even in a curable type of disease. The proper medical treatment (of a disease) is that which successfully copes with the malady under treatment, and arrests the recrudescence of a fresh one by way of sequel, and not

Chap. XXXV. ] SUTRASTHANAM. :>ig

that, which, though subduing a particular distemper, is immediately followed by a new one.