An English Translation of the Sushruta Samhita, Vol. III: Uttara-tantra — trans. Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna (1916)

the strength as well as the complexion of the body and is virtniLlly the sum-total of all the. other diseases. It is, therefore, called ,the lord of all bodily diseases. It is common to all created beings (men and animals), affects the whole of the organism (including also the mind), is extremely hard to cure and is present in all cases at the time of the death of all creatures. Hence it is rightly called the destroyer of created beings. 1 57.

Thus ends the thirty -ninth chapter of the Uttara Tantra in the Sus'rutra Samhiti which deals with the (symptoms and) medical treatment of fever.

CHAPTER XL

Now we shall discourse on the (causes, symptoms and) medical treatment of diarrhoea, etc. (Atls^rapratlshcda). i.

Causes Of Atlsif ra : — The excessive use of extremely heavy (hard to digest), oleaginous, dry, hot, cold, fluid, thick, and incompatible articles of food, eating irregularly and at improper time (or unaccustomed articles of fare), indigestion, eating before the digestion of the previous meal, excessive use or misuse of any lardacious substances, etc., (Sneha, Sveda, etc.), use of any poison, fright, grief, drinking impure water, the excessive drinking cf liquor, change of season or physical contrarieties, indulgence in aquatic sports, voluntary repression of any natural urging (of the body) or germination of parasites in the intestines are the causes which bring on an attack of diarrhoea (Atisrfra) the symptoms whereof will be dealt with presently. 2.

Pathology : — The liquid part (Ap-dhdtu) of the body, if aggravated and carried downward by the bodily Vdyu, impair^ the fire in the stomach (fire of digestion) and mixing with the fecal matter, is painfully and constantly emitted through the anus. This dangerous disease is named Atisrfra from the constant oozing out (Ati and Sarana) of the liquid fecal matter from the anus. It is usually classified into six different types, viz., those due to the predominance of the deranged bodily Doshas severally involved therein, that due to the concerted action of the three Doshas, one due to grief and that due to the indigested mucous accumulations (Ama)

dhap. XL.}

UTTARA-TANTRA.

** 3 in the intestines. Some authorities hold that Atisira is of metny kinds but the holy Dhanvantari, on the contrary, holds that it is not so but that the physical conditions of a diarrhoeic patient undergo changes and become manifold. 3.

Premonitory Symptoms Piercing pain

in the regions of the heart, umbilicus, rectum, abdomen and in the Kukshi (sides of the abdomen), a sense of numbness in the limbs, stoppage or suppression of flatus and of stool, distension of the abdomen, and indigestion are the premonitory symptoms of the disease. 4.

Symptoms of Vsftaja, Pittaja, Kaphaja and Tri-doshaja Types s— The

Vtfyu-origined type of the disease is marked by £>ula (colic), suppression of urine, rumbling sound in the intestines, looseness (constant movement in the intestines) of the abdominal (Ap£na) wind, a gone feeling in the waist, in the thighs and in the legs, and frequent emissions with flatus of a scanty, frothy, dry (Ruksha) brown-coloured (yellowish black) stool. The specific features of the Pitta-origined type are that the stool is fetid, hot, yellow, blue or slightly red-coloured, or resembles the washings of meat, and is emitted with sharp or acute force and is accompanied by thirst, epileptic fits (fainting), burning sensation, perspiration, suppuration and inflamation (Pâka) of the affected organs, and fever. In the Kaphaorigined type of the disease the stool becomes loose and constant, gets mixed with the lump of mucus and looks white. The stool comes out without an^ sound. A sense of constant urging is complained of and each, motion ' only creates the apprehension of a fresh one in the mind. The patient becomes drowsy or sleepy, and feels a sense of heaviness in the limbs, nausea, disrelish for it 4 THE SUSHRUTA SAMHITX. tChap. XL.

food, horripalation and lassitude. The symptoms which mark a case of Tri-doshaja type (due to the concerted action of the three simultaneously deranged bodily Doshas) are drowsiness, swoon, lassitude, dryness of the mouth, thirst and a varied colour of the stools. A case of Tri-doshaja type, if attended with all the symptoms, is very hard to cure and* if occurring in an infant, or an old person, is scarcely amenable to medical treatment. 5-8.

Symptoms of dokaja and Amaja