An English Translation of the Sushruta Samhita, Vol. II — trans. Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna (1911)

An ulcer attended with fever, suppuration and burning sensation due to the excited state of the deranged Pitta and congestion of blood should be allayed (Nirvapana — literally putting out) with suitable and proper medicinal remedies. It should be allayed with compounds made up of the proper cooling drugs (of the Mis'raka chapter), pasted with milk and lubricated with clarified butter. Cooling plasters (Lepa) should then be applied as well. 55-56.

An ulcer whose flesh is eaten away, which discharges a thin secretion, or is non-suppurating in its character, and is marked by roughness, hardness, shivering and the presence of an aching and piercing pain, should be fomented with a poultice-like efficacious preparation (Utkarikai )cooked with the drugs of Vayu-subduing properties, those included within the Amla-varga, and those which belong to the Kdkolyadi group, and with the oily seeds (such as linseed, sesamum, mustard, castor, etc.). An indurated, painful, faetid, moist and slimy ulcer should be washed with a disinfectant or purifying lotion consisting of a decoction of the drugs mentioned before for the purpose. 57"58.

Plugs or lints plastered with a paste of the purifying drugs (enumerated before) should be inserted into an ulcer with any foreign matter (e.g., pus) lying embedded in it, or into one with a deep but narrow opening, or into one situated in a fleshy part of the body. An ulcer full of putrid flesh and marked by the action of the highly deranged Doshas (Vayu and Kapha) should be purified with a paste of the aforesaid available drugs making up the plug. An ulcer of a Pittaja origin, which is deepseated and attended with a burning sensation and with suppuration, should be purified with the application of a medicated clarified butter, prepared with the purifyingp. 252 drugs with an admixture of Karpdsa-phala*. An intelligent Surgeon should purify an ulcer with raised flesh, and which is dry and is attended with scanty secretion with an application of medicated mustard oil. An indurated ulcer, refusing to be purified with the foregoing medicated oils, should be purified with a duly prepared decoction of the drugs enumerated before (Sutra, chap. 38,— the Salas^radi group) and prepared in the following manner of Rasa-kriyai. A decoction of the said drugs duly prepared should be saturated with an after-throw of Hatitdla^ Manahs'ild^ Kdsisa and Sattrdshtra earth, and well compounded together ; the preparation should also be mixed with the expressed juice of Mdtidunga and with honey. The medicine thus prepared should be applied to the ulcer on every third or fourth day. 59.

Deep-j* and foul-smelling ulcers covered with layers of deranged fat (phlegmonous ulcer) should be purified by the learned physician with the powders of the drugs with which the purifying plug or the lint has been enjoined to be plastered (Ajagandha, &c.). Decoctions of the drugs which are possessed of the virtue of setting, in a process of granulation (Ropana' in an ulcer, sucn as Vata, &c., as stated before, should be used by a surgeon (Vaidya) after it had been found to have been thoroughly purified. Medicated plugs, composed of drugs possessing healing properties (such as, Sotna,Amritd, As'vagandhd, etc) should be inserted in deep-seated ulcers, when cleansed and unattended with pain. 60-62.

* The total weight of the purifying drugs should be equal to that of the Karpasa-phala alone and they should be boiled together with four times their qnantity of clarified butter and with sixteen times of water.

1 There is a different reading of "Agambhira" in place of "Gabhira," but Gayi thinks the emendation undesirable.

Chap. I.] CHIKITSA STIIANAM. 2<\$