CHAPTER XVIII.
Now we shall discourse on the Chapter which treats of dressings and bandages of ulcers (Vranálepana-Vandha-Vidhi-madhyayam).
A medicinal plaster should be regarded as the general and most important remedy in all cases of (inflammatory) swelling. We shall presently discuss the nature of plasters to be used in each specific form of disease. A bandage plays a more important part (than a medicinal plaster) as regards its healing and curative efficacy, inasmuch as it materially contributes to the purification and healing of an ulcer and keeps the joints steady. A medicinal plaster should be applied from down upward or in a direction contrary to that of the local hair (Pratiloma). It should never be applied (so as to run down with the local hair), since a plaster, applied as directed above, would firmly stick to the surface of the affected part, and naturally percolate through the follicles of the hair and the external orifices of the vehicles of perspiration (Sudoriferous ducts), thus permeating the organism with its own native potency and virtue.
A medicinal plaster should be removed or replaced by a fresh one as soon as it has become dry, except in cases where the purpose of its application
