Diet - Meat, Etc

The flesh of a crow or an owl or a mungoose or a cat or a Gandupada (earthworm) or a cormorant or a beast of prey (Vyala) or of any animal of the Viles'aya or Jangala class mixed with Saindhava salt and fried in mustard oil, should be prescribed in various ways for a patient laid up with Phthisis. The diet may also consist of Mudga-soup or of Adhaki-soup or of the flesh of an ass, camel, elephant, mule or horse variously prepared and well cooked. Meat in combination with any Arishta as well as wine mixed with Madhvika may also be given. 23.

Various articles of food made of barley-grains previously soaked in the alkaline water duly prepared with Arka and Amrita may likewise be prescribed. Clarified butter skimmed off from the milk of a ewe or a she-goat, may be given with gruel at the meal-time to an extremely emaciated patient. A compound consisting of Tri-katu, Chavya and Vidanga made into a paste with honey and clarified butter should be given to be licked up by a patient suffering from Phthisis. The use of a medicated clarified butter duly cooked with the essence of the flesh of any carnivorous animal and mixed with Pippali and honey as an after-throw proves remedial in a case of Phthisis. A lambative consisting of Draksha, sugar and Magadhika pasted together with honey and oil proves efficacious as a cure for Phthisis. A^case of Phthisis would yield to the use of a lambative consisting of Tila, Masha-pulse and Asvgandha ground to a fine paste with the addition of honey and clarified butter skimmed out of the milk of a she-goat, or of sugar, As'vagandha and Pippali pounded together and made into a fine paste with the addition of honey and clarified butter. Milk duly cooked with the admixture of As'vagandha may be prescribed as a constructive tonic. Butter skimmed out of the preceding preparation of milk and mixed with copious quantity of sugar should be taken, as an alternative, every morning and this should be then followed by a draught of milk. 24.

As'vagandlia, Punarnava and Yava should be used in rubbing (Utsadana) the body of the patient. Clarified butter duly cooked with (the decoction of) the whole of a Vasaka tree {viz., its roots, leaves, branches and barks) and with its flower (as Kalka) and mixed with an adequate quantity of honey * should be taken by a consumptive patient strictly conforming to the regimen of diet. Thus a virulent attack of Phthisis accompanied with cough, asthma and chlorosis would be speedily conquered. 25-26.

A wise physician should take equal parts of clarified butter, milk, decoctions of Murva, Haridra and of Khadira and the expressed liquid of the dungs of a cow, a horse, an elephant, a she-goat and a ewe. Ten equal parts of the above ten articles should be duly boiled and cooked together with the Kalka of powdered Tri-katu, Tri-phala, Devadaru and the drugs of the sweet (Kakolyadi) group. This medicated clarified butter would be found highly beneficial in the cure of Phthisis (Yakshma). 27.

Six Patra measures of the duly prepared decoction of Das'a-mula, Varuna, Karanja, Bhallataka, Vilva, the two kinds of Punarnava, Yava, Kulattha, Badara, Bhargi, Patha, Chitraka and Mahi-Kadamba should be cooked with a Patra measure of clarified butter and with (the Kalka of) Vyosha (Tri-katu), the milk of Maha-vriksha (Snuhi), Abhaya, Chavya, Devadaru and Saindhava salt (D. R. Pippali). The medicated clarified butter thus prepared proves efficacious in cases of Phthisis, Ascites and Vataja-Prameha. Clarified butter duly cooked with the milk, blood, meat-essence and the expressed liquid of the dungs of a cow, a mare, a ewe, a she-goat, a cow-elephant, a hind, a she-ass and a she-camel and with the Kalka of Drakslia, As'vagandha, Magadha and sugar proves extremely beneficial in cases of Phthisis. 28-29.

* This preparation is also found in the Charaka Sanihita though in different language under the treatment of Rakta-pitta.