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l86
THE SUSHRUTA SAMHITA.
[Chap. XXXIX.

undigested state of the deranged bodily Doshas ushering in an attack of fever. 52.

Time for administering Febrifuge:— According to several authorities, medicines (febrifuges) should be given in a case of fever after the seventh, or according to others after the tenth day of the attack. Febrifuges may be administered earlier in the cases of Pittaja fever, or in the event of the deranged bodily Doshas being digested earlier. An administration of (febrifugal) medicine in an undigested stage of the fever is sure to produce a recrudescence of the disease. Corrective, purifying and soothing (Śamaniya) remedies (in a case of fever with undigested Dosha) helps the lapse of the disease (fever) into a Vishama type. 53—54.

The spontaneous motions of the bowels (Mala) of a patient suffering from fever should not be stopped unless they are excessive, when the case should be medically treated as one of Atisára (Diarrhea). 55.

Preliminary Treatment:— A suitable purgative should be administered even in a case of acute fever if the digested Malas (fæcal matter etc.) are accumulated in the internal passages of the Koshtha (abdomen), in as much as their presence in the organism in that undigested state may usher in an attack of Vishama Jwara attended by distressing symptoms, or may produce loss of strength. Hence they should be eliminated from the system with the helf of emetics, etc. Emetics, Ásthápana-enemas, purgatives, Śiro-virechana and errhines should be successfully employed for the purpose. Emetics should be at the outset exhibited in a case of Kaphaja fever where the patient would be found to be a person of considerable physical strength, and purgatives should be given in a case of