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

Causes of Rabies:-- The bodily Vdyu in conjunction with the (aggravated) Kapha of a jackal, dog, wolf, bear, tiger or of any other such ferocious beast affects the sensory nerves of these animals and overwhelms their instinct and consciousness. The

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THE SUSHRUTA SAMHITA. [Chap. VI.

tails, jaw-bones (D. R. — neck) and shoulders of such infurated animals naturally droop down, attended with a copious flow of saliva from their mouths. The beasts in such a state of frenzy, blinded and deafened by rage, roam about and bite each other 7 -A.

Symptoms of Hydrophobia :- The limb

or part of the body of a person bitten by such a rabid and (consequently) poisonous animal loses its sensibility of touch, and a copious flow of dark sooty blood is emitted from the seat of the bite. The patient in such a case generally exhibits all the symptoms which mark a case of poisoning by a venomed arrow. 7-B.

Prognosis :— A person bitten by a rabid animal barks and howls like the animal by which he is bitten, imitates it in many other ways and, bereft of the specific functions and faculties of a human subject, ultimately dies. If a person, bitten by a rabid animal, sees its (imaginaryj image reflected in water or in a mirror, he should be deemed to have reached an unfavourable stage of the disease. 7-C.

Symptoms of Jala-trasa :— If the patient ill such a case becomes exceedingly frightened at the sight or mention of the very name of water, he should be understood to have been afflicted with Jala-trzisa (Hydrophobia) and be deemed to have been doomed. Such a case of Jala-trasa (water-scare) even in an unbitten person or in a healthy person, if frightened (by such a scare), whether waking or in sleep, should be regarded as a fatal symptom. 7.

Treatment : — in the case of a bite by a rabid animal, the seat of the bite should be profusely bled (by pressing it) so as to let out all the (vitiated) blood. It should then be cauterized with (boiling) clarified butter and pasted with any of the aforesaid Agada,p. 735 or the patient should be made to drink a potion of matured clarified butter. Clarified butter mixed with the milky exudation of an Arka plant, as well as a compound of white Punamavd* and D/iuUuraf should be prescribed for the patient as an errhine. 8-A,

Treatment of bites by rabid dogs :—

A compound of pasted sesamum mixed with its oil, treacle and the (milky) juice of a Rupikd plant eliminates the poison of a rabid dog (Alarka) from the system as a gale of wind drives a pack of clouds before it. A quantity of rice, two Tolas (one Karsha) in weight of the roots of S' ara-pumkha and half a Karsha weight of Dhuttura (roots) should be pasted together with the washings of rice. The paste should be covered with (seven) Dhus tiira leaves and baked (on the fire) in the shape of an Apupaka (cake). The cake thus prepared should be given, at the proper time of taking a medicine, to a person bitten by a rabid dog for a complete nullification of the poison. But the use of these cakes is attended with certain other troubles at the time of their digestion and these troubles become subdued by a retiring to in a dry but cool chamber away from water. The patient (after the subsidence of the troubles) should be bathed the next day and a diet of boiled S'dli or Shashtika rice with tepid milk^ should be prescribed for him. On the third and on the fifth day, the aforesaid anti-vencmous compound should again be administered in half doses to the patient for the elimination of the poison. 8-B.

t Some commentators prescribe the roots of Dhustura to be taken, while others hold that its fruits should be used.

* Some explaiQ "S'vetd Punamavd" to mean "white Punarnavd", but others explain it to mean "S'veta (Katabhi) and Punamavd".

X Dallana says that in place of "^^t^^nfwV Gayadasa reads "<IWJH|atifl", that is to say, the diet should be taken with clarified butter.

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The person in whom the poison (of a rabid dog or jackal, etc.) is spontaneously aggravated has no chance of recovery. Hence the poison should be artificially aggravated (and then remedied) before reaching that stage of aggravation. The patient should be bathed at the crossing of roads or on the bank of a river with pitcherfuls of water containing gems and medicinal drugs and consecrated with the appropriate Mantra. Offerings of cooked and uncooked meat, cakes and levigated pastes of sesamum as well as garlands of flowers of variegated colours should be made to the god (and the following Mantra should be recited). "O thou Yaksha, lord of Alarka, who art also the lord of all dogs, speedily makest me free from the poison of the rabid dog that has bitten me." Strong purgatives and emetics should be administered to the patient after having bathed him in the above manner, since the poison in a patient with an uncleansed organism may sometimes be aggravated, even after the healing of the incidental ulcer. 8.