This section is from the book "The Sushruta Samhita", by Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna. Also available from Amazon: The Sushruta Samhita.
Now we shall describe the characteristic traits of the different preponderant principles Sara) or temperaments of the human organism. A man, who is possessed of a good retentive memory, and is intelligent, valorous and cleanly in his habits, and whose mind is graced with such rare and excellent virtues as, purity of thought, and a fervent and unflinching devotion to gods and the reverend, and who exerts himself for the furtherance of the absolute good, should be regarded as a man of Satvasara (psychic or illumined) temperament.
A man with glossy, white and close-set bones, teeth, and nails and who has begotten a large family of children, and shows a marked amative tendency, should be looked upon as a man in whom the principle of semen decidedly preponderates. A man with a thin and sinewy body, and who exibits traits of excessive strength, and possesses a deep resonant voice, and a pair of large and handsome eyes, and who is successful in every walk of life, should be looked upon as one in whom the principle of marrow preponderates. A man with a large head, and a large pair of shoulders, and having firm teeth, bones, cheek-bones, and finger-nails, should be considered as one in whom the principle of bone preponderates.
A man with a large and bulky body, and who is capable of enduring a large amount of fatigue or physical exertion, and who naturally talks in a soft and melodious voice, and whose bodily secretions such as urine and perspiration are characterised by coldness should be regarded as one of a fatty temperament. A man with an erect and upright frame, and deep-set bones, and joints in thick layers of flesh, should be regarded as one in whom the principle of flesh predominates.
A man, whose finger nails, eyes, tongue, palate, lips, palms of hands and soles of feet are glossy, and tinged with a shade of red, should be looked upon as one in whom blood forms the essential and predominant principle. A man with a soft, smooth and pleasant skin and hair should be considered as one in whom serum (Tvak) forms the essential principle of the body. In respect of worldly success and longevity, men of each of the aforesaid types should be successively judged inferior to men belonging to the one preceding it in the above order of enumeration.
Authoritative verse on the subject: A qualified physician should examine the duration of life in a patient with the help of the aforesaid measures of limbs and the essential bodily principles, before proceeding to take up his medical treatment, and his professional success should be decidedly increased thereby.
All the diseases, whose names have been specifically enumerated before, may be grouped under any of the three different heads as the curable, the suppressive (Yapya) and the incurable (lit: fit to be pronounced as hopeless).
Each of these different types, in its turn, should be carefully observed so as to determine whether it is a primary or an independent disease, or merely an accessory or sympathetic one, or the premonitory indication of an incipient distemper in its incubative stage.
An Aupasargika (sympathetic) disease is merely a symptom developed in the course of an original or primary malady, and which has its foundation in the very nature or component factors of the pre-existing distemper. A disease, which manifests itself from the commencement of a case and is neither an accessory symptom, nor a premonitory indication of any other distemper, is called a Prak-kevalam (primary or original) one. A disease which indicates the advent of a future or impending malady is called a Purvaru-pam (premonitory stage or indication of a disease)..
The medicinal remedy to be administered in any particular case should be selected with an eye to the curative virtues of each of its components, so as not to clash with the nature (cause) of the disease and its accompanying symptoms, and to prove simultaneously soothing to both of them. On the contrary, a violent unfavourable symptom should be first attended to and checked in a case where it would be found to have grown stronger and more distressing or dangerous than the original malady in course of which it has been developed.
A primary or independent malady, unattended with any of the distressing or unfavourable symptoms, should be treated according to its indications and the nature of the deranged humours involved therein, while in an incubative disease the treatment should consist in subduing a premonitory symptom as soon as it would make itself manifest.
 
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