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

by an ulcer in its critical stage f Arishta) should be determined with the help of the organ of smell.

While such facts as the time or season (of the first appearance) of the disease, the caste which the patient belongs to, and things or measures which tend to bring about a manifest amelioration of the disease, or prove comfortable to the patient (Satm3'ami as well as the cause of the disease, the aggravation of pain, the strength of the patient, and his state of digestion and appetite, the emission of stool, urine and flatus, or their stoppage, and the maturity of the disease as regards time, should be specifically ascertained by directly interrogating the patient (on those subjects). Though the abovesaid five organs of sense, like the three fundamental vital humours, help us to make the correct diagnosis of a disease, still the objects locally perceived by these senses should not be left out of account in ascertaining its specific nature.

Authoritative verse on the subject : — A disease wrongly observed or incorrectly described, or wrongly diagnosed, is sure to mislead a physician.

Ha^'ing made these observations the physician will try to cure diseases that are curable, adopt palliative measures in cases where palliation is the only remedy that can be offered, and give up a case which is beyond

Chap. X. ] SUTRASTHANAM . ^7

all medical treatment, and mosth' those which are of more than a year's standing. Diseases affecting a Br^hmana well versed in the Vedas_, or a king, or a woman, or an infant, or an old man, or a timid person, or a man in the royal service, or a cunning man, or a man who pretends to possess a knowledge of the science of medicine, or a man who conceals his disease, or a man of an excessively irascible temperament, or a man who has no control over his senses, or a man in extremely indigent circumstances of life or without any one to take care of him, are apt to run into an incurable type though appearing in a common or curable form at the outset. The physician, who practises his art with a regard to these facts, acquires piety, wealth, fame and all wished for objects in life.

Authoritative verse on the subject : — A physician should abjure the company of women, nor should he speak in private to them or joke with them. A physician is forbidden to take anything but cooked rice from the hands of a woman.

Thus ends the tenth Chapter of the Sutrasthanam in the Sushruta Samhiti which treats of the essential qualifications of a physician.

CHAPTER XI.

Now we shall discuss the Chapter which treats of the pharmacy of alkalis or potential cauteries (KshaTapa'ka-vidhi-madhya'yam).

In cases that require incising, excising and scraping, alkalis or alkaline preparations are of greater importance than surgical instruments and appliances (both principal and secondary or substitutive, as they are possessed of the virtues of subduing the three deranged bodily humours such as wind, bile and phlegm).

The etymological signification of the term Kshara (alkalis) is based on their property of corroding i the skin or the flesh of an affected part of the body), or on their peculiar quality in destroying the skin and flesh where such an effect is desired . Since a variety of substances enter into the composition of Kshara alkalis , they are endued with the virtue of subduing the three deranged bodily humours. Owing to their white colour, Ksharas should be included within the category of cooling substances ( Saumya'.

But since many drugs or substances of a hot or fiery nature ( Agneya) enter into their composition, KshiCras (alkalis) are endued with the properties of blistering, burning, suppurating • Pachana >, opening etc., withoutChap, XI. 1 SUTRASTHA'NAM,p. 79 involving any contradiction to their generic iSanimya) nature, and lience the}- are included within the list of those substances which are both hot and cooling (Saum^^a and Agne^'a in their ^'irtues. The}' are pungent in taste, of a heat- making potency, irritant, digestive, corrosive, absorbent, liquefacient, improve unhealth}' sores and granulation, and act as styptic and paralysing agents. They exercise destructive action on aaimal tissues. They are antitoxic, anthelmintic and possess the propert}- of curing mucous accumulations in the intestines. They tend to reduce fat and phlegm and they have the ^'irtue of destroying skin diseases. In large doses, 'alkalis) have the effect of destroying the virile potency of a man.