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278
THE SUSHRUTA SAMHITA
[Chap. XLV.

blood through both these outlets, upward and downward, should be regarded as incurable 3.

Premonitory Symptoms:— A sense of lassitude in the limbs, desire for cooling things, a sense as if fumes are rising in the throat, vomiting and fetor of blood in the breath are the symtoms which usher in an attack of Rakta-pitta. The number of the cases of Rakta-pitta as well as the aggravation of the different Doshas involved in each case should be ascertained from the colour and nature of the ejected blood (as described before in Chap. XIV-Sutra-sthána). 4-5.

Supervening Symptoms:— Weakness, laboured breathing, cough, fever, vomiting, mental aberration (lit: a state like intoxication), yellowness of complexion, burning sensation in the body, epileptic fits, acidity of the stomach,restlessness, extreme pain in the region of the heart, thirst, loss of voice (D. R. loose stool), heat in the head, fetid expectoration, aversion to food, indigestion and absence of sexual desire (D. R. bending of the body after sexual act) are the usual complications in a case of Rakta-pitta. 6.

Symptoms of Incurable Types:— In a case of Rakta-pitta the emitted matter resembling the washings of meat or drug-decoction, or turbid water or fat or pus, or being liver-coloured or dark-black or blood-red in colour or looking like a ripe Jambu-fruit or blackish blue or variously coloured like a rain-bow or having a very fetid smell as well as the presence of the above mentioned supervening symptoms — these are the indications which show that the case should be given up as incurable . 7.

General Principles of Treatment:— It is improper to arrest the emission of blood immediately at the outset of the disease if the patient be a