lead, anyhow inserted into a human organism, are soon melted by the heat of the Pittam and are assimilated and transformed into the fundamental principles of the body. Metals or substances of kindred softness, and which are naturally cold, are melted and become amalgamated, under such circumstances, with the elements of the organism. A hair, or a particle of hard bone, wood, stone, bamboo scraping, or clay, which remains lodged in the body as a Shalyam, does not melt, nor undergo any change or deterioration.
The physician, who is fully conversant with the five different courses or flights of an arrow (Shalyam), whether feathered or unfeathered, and has minutely observed and studied the symptoms due to its lodgment in any of the eight different seats of ulcers (Vrana) in the human organism (such as, the skin, etc.), is alone worthy of attending on kings and nobles.
Thus ends the twenty-sixth Chapter of the Sutrasthanam in the Sushruta Samhita which treats of exploration of splinters.
