Medicinal Plasters For Kushtha

Having first soothed the patient with any of the preceding medicated clarified butters and having his body fomented, the surgeon should have recourse to the venisection. One, two, three, four, or five s'irás (veins) of the patient may be opened (according to the circumtances). The raised or elevated patches on the skin should be scraped off, or should be kept constantly covered with a medicinal plaster. As an alternative, the characteristic patches of the disease should be first rubbed with the substance known as the Samndra-pliena or with the leaves of S'áka, Goji, or Kákodumbara and a plaster (Lepa) composed of Lákshá. Sarja-rasa, Rasánjana. Prapunnáda, Avalguja, Tejovati and the roots of; As'va-máraka, Arka, Kutaja, and Arevata, pasted with the urine or bile of a cow, should be applied to them; of Svarjiká, sulphate of copper, sulphate of iron, Vidanga, Agára-dhuma, Chitraka, Katuka, Sudhá, turmeric and Saindhava pounded together with the urine or bile of a cow should be applied to the diseased localities.

As an alternative, the alkali, prepared from the ashes of Palás'a wood in the prescribed manner, should be boiled with the powders of the preceding drugs; it should be removed from the oven after reducing it to the thickness or consistency of a Phánita and used in plastering (the diseased patches); or a plaster composed of Jyotishka fruits,. Lákshá, Maricha, Pippali and the leaves of the Játi flower pasted together; or a plaster composed of yellow orpiment, Manah-s'ilá, the milky juice of Arka, sesamum, S'igru and Maricha, pasted together; or a plaster composed of Svarjiká, Kushtha, sulphate of copper. Kutaja. chitraka, Vidanga, Maricha and Manah-s'ilá pasted together; or a plaster of Haritaki, Karanjiká, Vidanga, white mustard seeds, rock-salt, Goro-chaná, Somaráji and Haridrá pasted together should be applied to the diseased localities.

Metrical Text

The preceding seven medicinal plasters are possessed of the virtue of destroying or curing Kushtha in general. Now hear me deal with the remedies to be specifically employed in cases of ringworm (Dadru) and leucoderma (Svitra) 11.

Treatment Of Dadru

A plaster composed of Kushtha, mustard seeds, S'ri-niketa, Haridrá, Trikatu and the seeds of Chakra-marda and of Mulaka pasted together with Takra (butter milk?) should be applied to the ringworm. The disease is found to readily yield to the curative efficacy of a medicinal plaster, composed of Saindhava. Chakra-marda seeds, treacle, Kes'ara (Vakula), and Tárksha-s'aila (Rasanjana)pasted together with expressed Kapittha juice. Preparations of Hema-kshiri, Vyadhi-gháta (Aragvadha), S'irisha, Nimba, Sarja, Vatsaka and Aja-karna (a species of Sarja) should be used in cases of ringworm of a virulent type for baths (D. R. Drinks), * plasters and rubbing. 12.

Treatment Of Svitra

in cases of Svitra and Pundarika, the patient should be made to drink a lukewarm decoction prepared with equal parts of the roots of Bhadrá (Udumbara) and Malapu. The use of this potion would produce blisters on the patches. These blisters should be trcated,after their bursting,with a plaster (Pralepa) composed of the ashes of the burnt skin of leopards and elephants and made into a thin paste with (mustard) oil. A plaster composed of the insect known as the Puti and the Kshára (alkali; of Aragvadha should be found to be the best remedy for Svitra. 13

* In drinks or baths, a decoction should be used and in plasters and rubbings the ingredients should be pasted with Takra and the expressed juice of Kapittha.

All kinds of Svitra are found to readily yield to the application of a medicinal plaster made of the black ashes of a well-burnt cobra (Krishna-Sarpa) pasted with the oil of Vibhitaka. The white ashes of the said cobra mixed with one and a half time of its own weight of water should be filtered seven times in the manner of preparing an alkali. Mustard oil * should be cooked with this alkaline water weighing four times as much. An appli-cation of this oil proves curative in cases of Svitra. 14.

The Prapunnáda seeds. Kushtha and Yashti-madhu should be pasted together with clarified butter. The plaster thus prepared should be given to a domestic white cock, purposely kept without food for a day and a half when it would evince any sign of hunger after the period. The dung of the said cock should then be collected after a full digestion of the said medicated drugs and applied as plasters on the affected patches for a month. It would bring about the cure (even) of internal† Svitras. 15.

Well burnt ashes of the dung of an elephant ‡ mixed

* This is the best medicine for curing S'vitra.

† The internal S'vitras are those under the blisters produced by the application of the remedy mentioned first in the list.

‡ S'ivádása, the commentator of Chakradatta, says that some read in place ofin which case it would mean "S'amatha." with elephant's urine, should be filtered several times (twenty-one times or seven times) after the manner of an alkaline preparation. A Drona measure of this alkaline solution should be boiled with the seeds of the Somaráji weighing a tenth part thereof. This compound should be taken down from the oven as soon as it assumes a glossy hue and should then be made into boluses. Having rubbed the diseased patches of Svitra, a plaster of these boluses should be applied to them which would soon assume a healthy and natural complexion. 16.

The leaves and bark (Dala tvacham) of the Amra (mango) and the Haritaki * should be well soaked in a decoction of the same drugs (after the manner of a Bhávaná-saturation) and made into Vartis (i.e., plugs). These Vartis should again be well soaked in the milky exudation of the Vata tree and lighted (with mustard oil) in a copper vessel used as an Indian lamp. The lamp black, thus produced, should be collected and well soaked in a decoction of Haritaki. Kilása (a particular kind of Kushtha) is destroyed, if rubbed with this preparation for several times after having been lubricated with mustard oil. † 17.

* According to some, both the leaves and bark of the "Amra" and of the "Haritaki" should be taken.

† The leaves and bark respectively of the A'mra and the Haritaki should be taken in the preparation. The whole stanza seems to be of faulty construction. Dallana, in his commentary, says that some read the fourth line as This seems to be a better reading. It removes the difficulty in the construction, but it omits also the word "Kilása" from the text. This, however, is also an improvement, inasmuch as this preparation seems to be a remedy for Svitra (which is only a variety of Kilása) like the preceding and the following ones; and it seems unlikely that Sus'ruta would introduce a remedy for Kilása in general in the special treatment of S'vitra.

A case of leucoderma would (undoubtedly) yield to the curative virtue of a medicinal plaster composed of Somaráji seeds, Mákshika, Kákodumbara, Lákská, powdered iron, Pippali and Rasánjana, taken in equal parts and black sesamum equal to their combined weight, pasted with the bile of a cow and applied to the diseased patches. Similarly, a case of Svitra would prove amenable to the application of peacock's bile, or of burnt Hrivera mixed with the said bile. 18.

Various types of Svitra are cured with the application of either of the two following medicinal plasters. The first consists of Tuttha (sulphate of copper), Haritála (yellow oxide of arsenic) Katuká, Trikatu, Simha (Rakta-Sobhanjana), Arka, Karavira, Kushtka, Avalguja, Bhal-látaka, Kshirini, mustard seeds and Snuhi; and the second consists of the leaves of the Tilvaka, Arishta (Nimba) Pilu and Aragvadha pasted together with the seeds of the Vidauga and Karavira and Haridrá, Dáru-haridrá, Vrihati and Kantakári. 19.