the margins of the wound should be rubbed with the fingers (so that they may have a level surface and be of uniform structure throughout.) Then the wound should be washed with an astringent decoction (of Nimba, Triphala, etc.) which should be wiped and made thoroughly dry with a piece of clean linen. Then a lint plug (Varti) plastered over with the (paste) Kalka of sesamum, honey and clarified butter, and soaked in disinfectant (lit:—purifying medicines such as Ajagandha, etc. i should be inserted deep into the cavity of the wound. After that, a poultice made of officinal substances should be applied over it and the whole should be bound up with thick layers of tow (Kavalikas—such as the leaves and bark of the Indian figtree etc.) which are neither too irritant nor too cooling in their effect; and finally scraps of clean linen should be wound round them. The limb, [or the affected part] should be subsequently fumigated with the fumes of pain-killing (anodyne) substances and also with those of drugs which are supposed to ward off all malignant spirits (from the bedside of the patient.)*[1]
Then it should be fumigated with the drugs, known as Guggulu, Vacha, white mustard, Saindhava and the leaves of the Nimva tree, soaked in clarified butter. The residue of the clarified butter [dripped
- ↑ * Even the bedsheets, etc. of the patient should be fumigated as above. This foreshadows the germ theory of the modern days— Tr.
