Charaka-Samhita — trans. Kaviraj Avinash Chandra Kaviratna

Then again as regards all those diseases that are capable of being cured by (the application of) means, success cannot be achieved without the application of means. In respect of diseases that are incurable, treatment does not prove efficacious. The physician, even if possessed of wisdom, is not competent to restore (to health) the dying man. Those physicians, indeed, that set themselves to the task of treatment after a careful examination (of every circumstance connected with the case) succeed in displaying their skilfulness. As a bowman, possessed of good aim and practice, taking up the bow and shooting the shaft, never fails in striking a big object that is not distant and thereby accomplish his object, even so a physician, possessed of proper qualifications, equipt with proper appliances, taking up the treatment after careful enquiries, succeeds of a verity in bringing about the cure of a patient afflicted with a curable disease. Hence, the application of treatment and its non-application are not the same.6

Of these we have direct experience, viz., that we treat patients suffering under particular diseases with medicines possessed of virtues opposed to their symptoms.*

One whose humours have been dried up is treated by us with drugs possessing opposite virtues. A lean and weak man is fat¬ tened and strengthened by us. A corpulent and fatty person we reduce to proper dimensions. One whose system has become warm we treat with drugs that are cooling. One whose system has become abnormally cool we treat with drugs possessed of warming virtues. When particular ingredients of one’s body become diminished, we restore them to their proper measure.

* ‘ Anaturena ’ is explained by the Commentator as ‘ possessed of virtues opposed to the symptoms of disease.’ — T.

CHA RA K A-S AM HI TA.

p. 109

When particular ingredients again increase into abnormal propor¬ tions, we reduce them to their normal measure. In fact, by treat ing diseases with medicines endued with virtues opposed to their originating causes, we succeed in fully restoring the patients to their normal condition. By acting towards them in this way our application of medicines becomes productive of agreeable results.7

( Here occur some verses.)

The course of treatment which a physician, conversant with the distinction between curable and incurable diseases, commences at the proper time with the aid of intelligence, verily succeeds (in accomplishing its object).].

That physician who takes up the treatment of a disease that is incurable incurs loss of wealth, loss of knowledge, loss of fame, censure of the world, and incapacity for practice.2

As regards curable diseases, they are of two kinds, viz., those that are easily curable and those that are curable with difficulty. Incurable diseases, also, are of tw© kinds, viz., those that are capable of being suppressed, and those that have no treatment.*3

As regards diseases that are curable, they may again be re¬ garded from three points of view, viz., those that are capable of being cured by the application of means that are easy, those that are curable by means neither easy nor difficult, and lastly those that are curable by means that are difficult. Incurable diseases, which have no treatment, do not admit of being looked upon from different points of view.f This much on the points of view from which diseases may be looked upon.4

* ‘ Yapya ’ means those diseases which without admitting of radical cure can, by medicine and diet and change of air, be kept in a state of partial suppression. “ Anupakramam” is explained by the Commentator as those for which there is no treatment, i. e., those in which treatment is productive of no beneficial consequence. — T.

+ ‘ Alpasadhya’ is explained is ‘ Alpopayasadhya.’ Similarly, ‘ Madhyasadhya ’ and * UtkrishtasJdhya ’ have reference to the kind of means by which the Cure is to be effected. ‘Niyatanam’ is ‘ anupakramanam,’ i. e., those for which there is no treat¬ ment. Incurable diseases do not practically admit of a classification, for they cannot be cured by the three kinds of means, easy, middling, and difficult. For all that, the Commentator points out that incurable diseases may be looked upon from two points of view, viz., as quickly fatal or the reverse. The second classification, it will be marked, d epends upon the kind of means necessary for cure.

no

CllARAKA-SA mhita.