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Chap.XIV.]
SUTRASTHANAM.
115


Authoritative verses on the subject:—Therefore blood-Jetting should be performed on a patient not in an extremly hot or cold season, neither on one who is too much heated or improperly diaphorised (before the act). The patient should be given gruel (Yavagu) before the operation. A spontaneous cessation of red flow would indicate that there has been a free discharge of blood.

An act of complete and successful blood-letting is followed by a feeling of lightness and alleviation of pain in the affected part, by an abatement of the disease, and a general sense of cheerfulness.

A person, accustomed to blood letting, enjoys a kind of immunity from all types of skin diseases, sarcomata, aneurism, oedema, and diseases brought about by a vitiated condition of the blood such as, Ovarian tumour, Carbuncle, Erysipelas, etc.

A plaster composed of Ela, Shitashiva, Kustha, Tagara, Patha, Agaradhuma, Bhadradaru, Vidanga, Chitraka, Trikatus, Ankura, Haridra, Arka, and Naktamala, or three, or four, or as many of them as are available, pasted together and soaked in mustard oil saturated with common salt, should be rubbed over the mouth of the incision. By this means the blood will fully come out. In a case of excessive flow or haemorrhage, the mouth of the incision should be gently rubbed with a composition consisting of the powders of Lodhra,