measure, or with milk or extract of meat, acts as a good purgative, which should be prescribed for infants, old men, or persons debilitated from the effects of ulcer cachexia, or of delicate constitution.
I have finished describing the preparation and application of fruit purgatives. Now hear me, O Sushruta, discourse on similar milky exudations of plants and trees, etc. which are possessed of purgative properties. The milky juice of a Sudha plant is the strongest of all purgatives, which being imprudently used by a medical ignoramus, may be attended with dangerous consequences, while the same in the hands of a judicious physician proves strong enough to disintegrate a mighty accumulation of deranged humours and to successfully combat many an irremediable distemper.
One part of the decoction of each of the drugs constituting the group of major Panchamulam and Vrihati, etc. should be mixed with one part of the milky juice of a Sudha plant (thus forming an eighth part of the whole compound). After having boiled it over a charcoal fire, the compound should be taken with two Tola (kola) weights of any acid liquid (such as wine, sour rice gruel, cream of curd, etc.) in the manner of Trivrit compounds. A gruel made of rice saturated with the milky exudation of a Mahavriksha, or a sweetened, porridge-like preparation of the same substance (Utka-
