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

The countries, such as Turkesthan (Yavana), the Deccan (Pandya), the tract of land traversed by the Ghaut mountains (Sahya), and Pautana (modem Mathura), are the natural habitats of these leeches. The leeches, found in the aforesaid countries, are specifically nonvenomous, strong, large-bodied, greedy and ready suckers.

The venomous leeches have their origin in the decomposed urine and fecal matter of toads and venomous fishes in pools of stagnant and turbid water. The origin of the non- venomous species is ascribed to such decomposed vegetable matter, as the petrified stems of the several aquatic plants known as Padma, Utpalam,

I02 THE SUSHRUTA SAMHITA. [ Chap. XIII.

Nalina, Kumuda, Pundarika, and the common zoophytes which live in clear waters.

Authoritative verse on the subject.— The non-venomous leeches swim about in sweet scented waters, live on non-poisonous weeds, lie on the leaves of flowering water plants instead of on the dank and ooz)^ beds of pools, and suck blood from the affected part of a human organism without causing any discomfort.

Leeches should be caught hold of with a piece of wet leather, or by some similar article, and then put in to a large-sized new pitcher filled with the water and ooze or slime of a pool. Pulverised zoophytes and powder of dried meat and aquatic bulbs should be thrown into the pitcher for their food, and blades of grass and leaves of water-plants should be put into it for them to lie upon. The water and the edibles should be changed every second or third day, and the pitchers should be changed each week, (the leeches should be transferred to a new pitcher at the end of every consecutive seven days).

The authoritative verse on the subject : — Leeches that are venomous, thick about the middle, elongated, of slow locomotion, look fatigued, do not readily take to the part they are appHed to, and capable of sucking only a small quantity of blood, should be looked upon as not belonging to the proper or the commendable type.

Chap. XIII. ] SUTRASTHA'NAM, 103

Then having seated or laid down the patient 'suffering from a disease which requires the application of leeches, the seat of bleeding, if not previously ulcerated, should be roughened b}' dusting it over with a composition of loose earth and pulverised cowdung. Then the leeches should be taken out of their receptacles and sprinkled over with water saturated with mustard seed and pasted turmeric. Then for a moment they should be kept in a basin full of water, and after they have regained their natural vivacity and freshness, they should be applied to the affected part. Their bodies should be covered with a piece of thin and wet linen, or with a piece of white cotton. The affected part should be sprinkled over with drops of milk or blood, or slight incisions should be made into it in the event of their refusing to stick to the desired spot. Other fresh leeches should be applied even when the preceding measures should prove ineffectual. That the leeches have taken to the affected part may be inferred from the mouths of the leeches assuming the shape of a horse-shoe, and the raised and arched position of their necks after they had become attached to the seat of the disease. While sucking, the leeches should be covered with a piece of wet linen and should be constantly sprinkled over with cold water.

A sensation of itching and of a drawing pain at the seat of the application would give rise to the pre104 ^^^ SUSHRUTA SAMHITA'. [Chap. XIII.

sumption that fresh blood was being sucked, and the leeches should be forthwith removed.*

Leeches refusing to fall off even after the production of the desired effect, or sticking to the affected part out of their fondness for the smell of blood, should be sprinkled with the dust of powdered Saindhava (rock salt.)

After falling off, the leeches should be dusted | over with rice powder and their mouths should be j lubricated with a composition of oil and common salt. Then they should be caught by the tail-end with the thumb and the forefinger of the left hand and their backs should be gently rubbed with the same fingers of the right hand from tail upward to the mouth with a view to make them vomit or eject the full quantity of blood they had sucked from the seat of the disease. The process should be continued until they manifest the fullest symptoms of disgorging. Leeches that, -y.^ had vomited the entire quantity of blood sucked as above, would briskly move about in quest of food if placed in water, while the contrary should be inferred from their l5nng dull and inert. These should be made to disgorge again. Leeches not made to emit the entire quantity of the sucked

"^ The leeches, though a blissful dispensntion of Nature in themselves, instinctively draw off the vitiated blood from a diseased part, attacking the healthy vital fluid (red blood) \Yhen the former has been completely tapped or sucked.

Chap, XIII. ] SUTRASTHANAM. 105