CHAPTER XVIII.
Now we shall discourse on the Chapter which treats of the preparations and uses of the medicinal measures (external applications) to be adopted or employed in treating ocular affections in general (Kriyá-kalpa). I.
Here follows a general exposition of the instructions which the sainted lord of Benares, the holy Dhanvantari of profound intellect imparted to his disciple the son of Viśvámitra (Suśruta) regarding the different medicinal measures (Kriyá) such as Tarpana (soothing), Seka (sprinkling), Áschyotana (eye-drops), Puta-pákas Anjanas (eye-salves), etc., mentioned before in different places to be employed in diseases of the eye. 2-3.
The Tarpana Measure:— The measure known as Tarpana should be employed in respect of an affected eye either in the fore-noon or in the after-noon under the auspices of propitious astral combinations, after having purged the head and bowels of the patient and subsequent to the digestion of any food previously taken. The patient should be laid on his back in a chamber not exposed to the rays of the sun, and the gust of the wind, and where the atmosphere is not charged with minute particles of floating dust. The region of his eye (i. e. eye-lids) should be thickly coated with powdered Másha pulse, pasted (with water) in the form of a circular wall which should be even, hard and compact. Then a quantity of the transparent upper layer of clarified butter should be stirred with the admixture of a quantity of lukewarm water and poured (Purana) into the cavities of the eye up to the eye-lashes and retained therein for as
