CHAPTER XL.
Now we shall discourse on the Chapter, which treats of drugs and their flavours, virtues, potencies and chemical actions. (Dravya-Rasa-Guna- Virya-Vipaka-Vijnaniya-madhyayam).
Certain professors of the Ayurveda hold that a medicinal drug or substance is pre-eminently the most important matter with which the science of medicine is concerned. First because, a drug, as a substance, has a definite and continuous existence, which its attributes (such as, taste, etc.,) do not possess. As for example the tastes, etc., which characterise a fruit in its unripe stage, are not perceived in its ripe or matured condition. Secondly because, a drug is real (Nitya) and invariable, whereas its attributes are but transitory and accidental at the best. As for instance the real character of a drug cannot be destroyed whether it be powdered or pasted. Thirdly because, a drug or a substance never can lose its own generic character. As for example, a drug possessed of attributes peculiar to the fundamental matter, earth, can never be transformed into one of watery attributes—a truth which does not hold good of its attributes. Fourthly because, a drug or a substance is an object of all the five senses of a man, whereas its attributes of tastes, etc.
