This section is from the book "The Sushruta Samhita", by Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna. Also available from Amazon: The Sushruta Samhita.
Now, hear me describe the specific traits, which characterise the body of a short-lived man. A man with short phalanges of fingers, a narrow back, and external ears abnormally raised up from their natural seats, and who is possessed of a large penis, a high nose, a breast covered with ringlets of curly hair, and who exposes the gums of his teeth, or whose eyes roll while talking or laughing, is not expected to see more than twenty-five summers.
We shall now give the exact measures of the different limbs and members of the body for the better ascertainment of the duration of life of a patient under investigation. - The legs, the arms, and the head are called the limbs of the body, while their component parts are called the members (Avayavas). The great toe of a man, or the one next to it, measured with his own fingers should measure two fingers' width in length, the lengths of the other toes (the third, fourth, and small ones) successively diminishing by a fifth part of that of his middle finger (Pradeshini).
The fore-sole and the sole proper respectively should measure four fingers' width in length and five fingers' width in breadth. The heel of the foot (Parshni) should measure five fingers' width in length and four fingers' width in breadth. The foot itself should measure fourteen fingers' width in length. The girth of the foot, as well as the circumference of the middle parts of thighs and knee-joints, respectively should measure fourteen fingers in width.
The part of the leg between the ankle and the knee-joint should measure eighteen fingers' width in length, while the part between the joint of the waist and the knee-joint should measure thirty-two fingers' width in length, the entire leg thus measuring fifty fingers' width in all. The length of the thigh is the same as that of the part lying between the heel and the knee-joint (Jangha) .
The scrotum, the chin, the (two rows of) teeth, the exterior line of the nostrils, the roots of the ears, and the intervening space between the eyes, should respectively measure two fingers' width in length. The non-erected penis, the cavity of the mouth, the two rows of teeth, the nose, the height of the neck, the ears, and the forehead, and the space intervening between the pupils of the eyes measure four fingers' width in length.
The entire length of the vaginal canal should measure twelve fingers' width. The space lying between the penis and the umbilicus, as well as the one intervening between the chest and the upper end of the throat (lit : neck), like the one lying between the tips of the two nipples of the breast, should measure twelve fingers' width in length. The length of the entire face should measure twelve fingers' width. The girth round the wrist and the fore-arm of a man should measure twelve fingers.
The girth round the knee-joint is sixteen fingers' width and the length between the wrist and the elbow should measure sixteen fingers' width. The part of the arm between the elbow and the tip of the middle finger should measure twenty-four fingers' width in all. The length of the entire arm measures thirty-two fingers' width, and the girth round the thighs should measure thirty-two fingers' width. The palm of the hand should measure six fingers' width in length and four fingers' width in breadth. The space between the bottom of the ball of the thumb to the root of the index finger, as well as the space between the root of the ears to the outer corner or angle of the eyes, should measure live fingers' in length. The middle finger should measure five fingers' width in length. The index and the ring-fingers respectively-should measure four and a half fingers in length, the thumbs and the little fingers respectively measuring three and a half fingers.
The fissure of the mouth should measure four fingers in length. The girth round the neck should measure twenty fingers. Each of the cavities of the nostrils should measure one and three quarter parts of a finger in length. The region of the iris occupies a third part of the entire area of the cornea. The region of the pupil should measure a ninth part thereof.
The arch extending from the hairy extremity of the templar region to the middle point of the back of the head should measure eleven fingers. The distance between the middle of the head and the terminal point of the hairy portion of the neck should measure ten fingers in length. The girth of the neck measured from the back of one ear to that of the other should be fourteen fingers. The length of the pelvic region of a young woman measured from below the anterior side of the thigh joints should be found to be equal to the breadth of the chest (Vakshah) in a male subject (twelve fingers).
The thigh of a woman should be eighteen fingers in breadth and equal to that of the waist of a man. The entire length of a male human body should be a hundred and twenty fingers. 40
An intelligent physician should regard the organism of a man of twenty-five or of a woman of sixteen years of age, as fully developed in respect of the maturity of the seven fundamental principles of the bod}' such as, serum, blood, &c). The dimensions of the different limbs and members of the body, laid down above, should be understood as to have been measured by the standard of one's (man's or woman's) own finger's width, and a person, whose limbs and organs are found to correspond to the above-said measures, is sure to live to a good and hearty old age, as a necessary and befitting sequel to a happy and prosperous career in life. In the case of a partial correspondence of one's limbs and organs to the above-said measures and proportions, a man should be regarded as having an average life and prosperity. A person whose limbs fall short of the abovesaid measures should be regarded as an indigent and short-lived person.
 
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