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

The part, after being properly cauterised, should be rubbed with an unguent composed of honey and clarified butter. A man of bilious temperament or with a quantity of bad blood lying stagnant and locked up in any part of his bod}', or of lax bowels, a person with any foreign substance (such as a thorn or a splinter still lodged in his body), a weak or an old man, an infant, or a man of timid disposition, or a person afflicted with a large number of ulcers, as well as a patient suffering from any of the diseases in which diaphoretic measures are forbidden, should be regarded as a subject unfit for cauterisation.

Now we shall describe the characteristic symptoms of the several kinds of burns other than those caused (for surgical purposes). Fire feeds both upon fatty and hard fuels, [such as oil and logs of wood etc.]. Hot or boiling oil has the property of permeating or entering into the minutest nerves and veins, and g2 THE SUSHRUTA SAMHITA. [ Chap. Xli.

hence, it is capable of burning the skin, etc. Accordingly an ulcer incidental to such a burning (scald) is characterised by extreme pain, etc.

Burns may be grouped under four distinct heads viz., the Plush tam, the Dur-Dagdham, the Samyag-Dagdham and the Ati-Dagdham. A burn characterised by the discolouring of its seat and extreme burning and marked by the absence of any vesicle or blister, is called the Plushtam, from the root "plusha" to burn. A burn, which is characterised by the eruption of large vesicles or blisters, and assumes a red colour, and is characterised by excessive burning and a kind of drawing pain, and which suppurates and takes a long time to heal, is called the Dur-Dagdham (bad burn or scald). A burn, which is not deep (superficial) and assumes the colour of a ripe Tala fruit, and does not present a raised or elevated aspect and develops the preceding symptoms, is called the Samyag-Dagdham (fully burnt one). A burn in which the flesh hangs down, and where the veins, nerves and bones are destroyed, accompanied with fever, burning, thirst, fainting and such like disturbances, and which leads to a permanent disfiguration of the body, retarding the healing of the incidental ulcer which leaves a discoloured cicatrix even after healing, is called the Ati-Dagdham (over burnt one). A physician should try to heal any of these four types of burns with the measures already laid down before.

Chap. XII. ] sutrasthanam 93

Authoritative verses on the subject.— The blood of a. man is agitated and made hot by fire, and the blood thus heated tends to excite or causes it to raise the bile. And since fire and bile (Pittam) are similar in their taste, essence, effect, potency and natal factors, the effects of Pittam (burning sensation etc.), are naturally aggravated and augmented through a contact with fire. Blisters or vesicles crop up in rapid' succession and mark the seat of burning, and fever, thirst, etc., supervene.

Now I shall describe the course of medical treatment to be adopted for the cure of burns. Hot and dry fomentations, as well as warm plasters should be applied to a burn of the Plushtam type, and a course of hot food and drink should be likewise prescribed for the patient. The blood becomes thin when the body is diaphorised by m.eans of warm fomentations, and water, in virtue of its natural cooling properties, tends to thicken the blood. Hence warm fomentations or applications exercise curative virtues in the case of a burn of the foregoing t)^pe, and water or cold applications produce the contrary effect.*

Both warm and cold measures are to be adopted in the case of a burn of the Dur-Daghdha t5''pe, thep. 94 medicinal remedies consisting of cold applications and unguents of clarified butter.* •

* By arresting the radiation of the incarcerated heat and thereby favouring the elevation of the local temperature and the increase of the burning sensation.