This page needs to be proofread.
264
THE SUSHRUTA SAMHITA.
[ Chap. XXVII.

swallowed a stomachful of water (as in a case of drowning). As an alternative, he should be buried under the ashes up to his chin.

Strong wine should be given to the patient, or he should be slapped on the shoulders, so as to cause him to suddenly start in a case where a morsel of food would be found to have obstructed and stuck fast in his gullet. A tight gripe about the throat of a person with a creeper, rope or the arm of an antagonist, tends to enrage the local (Kapham), which obstructs the cavity of the passage (Srota) producing salivation, foaming at the mouth and loss of consciousness. The remedy in such cases consists in lubricating and diaphorising the body of the patient with oil and heat, and in administering strong errhines (Shiro-Virechanam), and the juice or extract of meat which is possessed of the virtue of subduing the deranged Vayu.

Authoritative Verses on the Subject:—An intelligent physician should remove a Shalyam with due regard to its shape, location and the adaptability of the different types of surgical instruments to the case under treatment. A physician should exercise his own discretion in extracting feathered shafts (Shalyas) from their seats of lodgment, as well as those that are difficult of extraction.

A physician is at liberty to exercise his own skill and wisdom, and to devise his own original means for