CHAPTER XLIII.
Now we shall discourse on the chapter which deals with the (symptoms and) medical treatment of the disease of the heart (Hridroga- Pratishedha). 1.
Etiolog^y and Nomenclature:— The deranged Doshas of the body, aggravated by such causes as voluntary repression of any natural urging (of stool, urine, etc.), external blow or hurt, use of extremely dry (Ruksha) and heat-making articles of fare in inordinate quantities or of such articles as are indigestable or are incompatible in combination or are uncongenial to the system as well as taking food before digestion, contaminate the bodily Rasa (lymph chyle) and find lodgement in the heart, producing the characteristic pain in the organ, which is known as Hridroga (the disease of the heart). The disease may be divided into five distinct types, of which four are Dosha-origined, (viz. — Vátaja, Pittaja, Kaphaja, Sánnipátika) and the fifth is due to the presence of worms (Krimi). The different symptoms should be first described and then the medical treatment thereof. 2-3.
Specific symptoms:— In the Vátaja type, a pain is felt in the region of the heart which seems as if being drawn and crushed, pierced and cracked, pricked and split. Thirst with a burning sensation, a gone- feeling and a sucking pain in the heart, epileptic fit, perspiration, fumy eructation and dryness of the mouth, are the symptoms which characterise the Pittaja type. A sense of heaviness in the chest, secretion of mucus (from the nose and the mouth), an aversion to food, feeling of numness (in the body), dulness of appetite and
