CHAPTER XLVI.
Now we shall discourse on the chapter which deals with (the symptoms and) the medical treatment of fainting fits (Murchchhá-Pratishedha). 1.
Defination:— The deranged and aggravated Doshas of the body of a person who is emaciated or accustomed to the use of incompatible articles of food or who has become very weak on account of a sudden suppression of his natural urgings or of any external blows or injury give rise to fainting fits. The deranged bodily Váyu. etc. choking up the sense-carrying nerves of the body, produces that giddy state in a patient in which the world seems to vanish from the eyes of the afflicted person and the perception of the pleasure or pain is suspended for the time being. The patient, in consequence of this suspension of the sense-perception drops down insensible as a log of wood and this disease is called Murchchhá or Moha (fainting). It admits of being divided into six kinds or types according as an attack is due to the action of the deranged Doshas separately or to that of blood, wine or poison, but a predominance of the deranged Pitta may be detected in all forms of the diseases due to any cause whatever. 2.
Premonitory Symptoms:— Pain or oppression of the heart, yawning, lassitude, loss of consciousness and of strength are the symptoms which usher in an attack of the disease (Murchchhá) according to the nature of the deranged bodily Dosha lying at its root. 3.
The natural elements, water (Ap) and earth (Kshiti) abound with the attribute of Tamas (insensibility). A smell of blood also contains the same attribute, Tamas.
