blood stand in danger of being attacked with an incurable disease peculiar to their genus, and which is known as Indramada. The leeches should then be put into a new pitcher, and treated as before laid down, after they had fully emitted the sucked blood.
An ulcer incidental to an application of leeches should be rubbed with honey or washed with sprays of cold water, or bound up with an astringent (kashaya) sweet and cooling plaster, according to the quantity of blood removed from the part.*[1]
Authoritative verse on the subject:—The physician who is fully conversant with the habitat, mode of catching, preservation and application of leeches, can well aspire to cure the diseases which yield to them or in which their use is indicated.
Thus ends the thirteenth Chapter of the Sutrasthanam in the Sushruta Samhita which treats of Leeches and of how and which to use.
- ↑ * In case of full and proper bleeding (Yoga) the ulcer should be rubbed with clarified butter technically known as the Shatadhautam (lit: hundred times washed) Ghritam (clarified butter), or a piece of cotton, soaked in the same substance, applied as a compress over the part. The ulcer should be rubbed with honey in a case of insufficient bleeding, while it should be washed with a copious quantity of cold water if excessive bleeding (Ati-Yoga) should set in. Similarly in a case marked by the absence of any bleeding at all (Mithya-Yoga) a sour, sweet and cooling plaster should be applied over the ulcer.
