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

Nilotpala and S^atdvari should be cooked in milk. The milk thus prepared should be again cooked with sesamum oil successively a hundred times and a paste of all the drugs used as a paste in the Vala Taila should be added to it at the time of cooking. The therapeutic virtues of all these oils are the same as those of the Vala-Taila and the same regimen of diet and conduct should be observed in all such cases. 18.

Thus ends the fifteenth Chapter of the Chikitsita Sthanam in the Sus'ruta Samhita which deals with the medical treatment of Mudhagarbha.

CHAPTER XVI.

Now we shall discourse on the medical treatment of Abscesses and Tumours (Vidradhi). i.

Of the six types of Vidradhis, the one of the Sannipdtika type should be regarded as incurable In all other types curative measures* should be speedily resorted to in their unsuppurated stage, as in the treatment of a case of Sopha (inflammatory swelling or boil). 2.

Treatment of Vataja-Vidradhi :— in

a case of Vataja Vidradhi, a compact or thick plaster (Alcpa) composed of pasted Murangi -rooti,-\ mixed with clarified butter, oil and lard (Vasa), should be applied lukewarm. The flesh of the animals which frequent swamps and marshes as well as of aquatic animals boiled with the drugs of the Kdkolyddi group, Kanjika, salt, barley powder and Sneha (clarified butter, &c.), should be applied as a poultice (Upandha\. and the affected part should be constantly fomented with (warm) Ves'avAra, Kris'ara, milk and Payasa. Blood-letting should also be resorted to. 3.

If, in spite of the use of the preceding remedies, suppuration should begin to set in, suppurating measures should be resorted to and the abscess (finally) lanced

* Commencing with Apatarpana up to purgative measures (Chikitsa, chapter. — 1).

■\ Both Dallana and Chakrapani Datta read "Vafcighna" in place of "Murangi"of the text. Dallana explains the term "Vat aghna" as the •'Bhadra-darvadi group" and S'iva-dasa, the commentator of Chakrapani, explains it as the "Das'a-mula". Both of them, however, say that he different reading is "Surangi" meaning "S'obhanjana." "Murangi" also means "S'obhdnjana."— Ep.

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with a knife. Cleansing measures should then be applied to the (incidental) ulcer. After incision, the ulcer should be washed with a decoction of the P ancJia-mula ; and an oil cooked with the drugs of the Bhadra-ddrvddi group and Fd-i'/z/z'-wrr^^/Z/w, and, mixed with an abundant quantity of salt, should be used in filling (healing up) the cavity of the wound. The cleansing of the ulcer should be effected with the powdered VairecJianika (purgative) drugs mixed with Traivrita* and the healing should be effected with Traivrita cooked with the drugs of the Prithak-parnyddi group. 4-6.

Treatment of Pittaja Vidradhi:— in a

case of Pittaja Vidradhi a plaster (Pradeha) composed of sugar, fried paddy, Yashti-Madlm and Sdrivd pasted with milk should be applied. As an alternative, a plaster composed of Payasyd, Us'ira and (red) sandal wood pasted with milk should be used. Cold infusions of Pdkya (Yava-kshara), sugarcane-juice and milk, and jivaniya-Ghrita mixed with sugar should be used in affusing the abscess. The patient should be advised to lick a lambative composed of powdered Haritaki and Jrivrit saturated with honey ; and leeches should be applied (to an unsuppurated) abscess for letting out the blood. An intelligent surgeon should (lance a suppurated abscess and) wash the incidental ulcer with a decoction of Kshira- Vriksha or of aquatic bulbs. Poultices of sesamum and Yashti-Madhu mixed with honey and clarified butter should then be applied to it and bandaged with a piece of thin linen. Clarified butter cooked with Prapazmdarika, Manjishtha, Yashti-Madhu, Us'ira, Padmaka, Haridrd and milk,

* "Traivrita" is a technical term and means clarified butter mixed with the three other lardacious substances, viz., oil, lard and marrow. Vide Chikitsita Sthanam. Chapter — V.

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should be used to heal up the cavity of a Pittaja ulcer by (inducing granulation). As an alternative, clarified butter cooked with Kshira-S'ukld, Prithakpami, Samangd, Rodhra, Chandana and the tender leaves and bark of the drugs of the Nyagrodhddi group should be employed for the same end. 7-10.

Karanjadya Ghrita :— A Karsha measure