Page:Sushruta Samhita Vol 1.djvu/117

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Chap.I.]
SUTRASTHANAM.
13

skin, nails, wool, blood, flesh, fat, marrow, bones, are procured from the animal world.

Metals and minerals such as gold, silver, gems, and Manahshila (Realgar), as well as pearls, clay and Kapalas (bones), etc. should be included in the list of the earthy substances. *[1]

Gale, windfall, sunshine, shade, moonshine, darkness, heat, cold, rain, day, night, fortnight, month, seasons, and solstices, etc. should be deemed as the works of eternal time, which, by virtue of their natural effects, contribute to the accumulation, augmentation, pacification or diminution of the deranged bodily humours (such as, wind, etc.) .

Authoritative verses on the subject:—Physicians should look upon these four factors of (food, conduct, earth and time , as the accumulators, aggravators and pacifiers of the deranged bodily humours and of the diseases resulting therefrom in man. Diseases due to causes which are extraneous to the body may affect the mind or the body. When it would affect the body in the shape of any traumatic disease (such as an inflammation due to a blow or a sword cut), it "should be treated medicinally like the rest of the physical maladies, while the remedy should consist in the enjoyment of

  1. *Oxide of Iron, sand, yellow sulphurate of arsenic (Orpiment), salt, Gairika (ferruginous earth), Rasanjana (antimony) should be regarded as appertaining to the class of earthy substances.