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

An intelligent physician should preserAC the state of health in a healthy individual, wliile he should increase or decrease the quantity of the bodily humours, vital fluids, or excrements in a sick patient according to the exigencies of the case until his health is perfectly restored.

Thus ends ihe fifteenth Chapter of'the Sutrasthanam in the Sushruta Samhit^ which treats of the Development and Non-development of the humoral constituenls of the bodv.

CHAPTER XVI.

Now we shall discuss the Chapter which treats of the piercing and bandaging of the lobules of ears (KamaVyadha-Vandha-Vidhimadhyaym).

The lobules of the ears of an infant are usually pierced through for protecting it (from the evil influences of mali^ant stars and spirits) and for the purposes of ornamentation as well. The piercing should be performed on a day of bright fortnight marked by the auspicious lunar and astral combinations, and in the sixth or the seventh month of the year reckoned from its beginning (Bhadra). The child should be placed on the lap of its nurse, and benedictions should be pronounced over it. Then having soothed it and lured it with toys and playthings, the physician should draw down with his left hand the lobules of its ears with a view to detect, with the help of the reflected sun-light, (the closed up) apertures that are naturally found to exist in those localities. Then he sliould pierce them straight through with a needle held in his right hand, or with an awl (Ara), or with a thick needle where the appendages would be found to be too thick. The lobule of the right ear should be first pierced and then the left in the case of a male child, while the contrary should be the procedure in the case of a female. Plugs of cotton-lint should be then inserted into the holes of the pricked ear-lobules, which1^2 THE SUSHRUTA SAMHITA'. [ Chap. XVI. should be lubricated or rubbed with any unboiled oil. A copious bleeding attended with pain would indicate that the needle has passed through a place other than the natural (^and closed up) fissure described above ; whereas the absence of any serious after-effect would give rise to the presumption that the piercing has been done through the right spot. Any of the local veins incidentally injured by an ignorant, bungling surgeon, may be attended with symptoms which will be described under the heads of K^lika, Marmarika, and Lohitika.

Karlika' is marked by fever and a burning pain in the affected part and swelling. Marmarika gives rise to pain and knotty (nodular) formations about the affected region, accompanied by (the characteristic inflammatory) fever ; while in the last named type (Lohitika) symptoms such as, Manya-Stambha (numbness of the tendons forming the nape of the neck), Apatfinak (a type of tetanus), Shirograha (headache) and Karna-shula (ear-ache) exhibit themselves, and they should be duly treated with medicinal remedies laid down under their respective heads. The lint should be speedily taken out from a pierced hole which is marked by extreme pain and swelling, etc., on account of its being made with a blunt, crooked or stunted needle, or owing to its being plugged with a deep and inordinately large lint, or to its being disturbed by the aggravated bodily humours (Doshas), or to its being madeChap. XVI.] SUTRASTHANAM. 1 43 at a wrong place. An unguent composed of Madhuka, Eranda roots, Manjistha, Yava, Tila, honey and clarified butter pasted together, should be thickly plastered over the affected part until the ulcers are perfectly healed ; after which the lobules of the ears should be again pierced through according to the directions laid down before.

The lint should be removed, each third da)'-, and a thicker one should be inserted in its stead on each successive occasion, and the part should be rubbed with (unboiled oil) as before. For the expansion of the fissures, (sticks of Nimba or Apamarga, or rods of lead) should be inserted into them after the subsidence of the accompanying symptoms and deranged bodily humours t,in the locality).