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328
THE SUSHRUTA SAMHITA
[Chap. LII.

spit blood with the progress of the disease. The patient feels an excessive pain in the throat and his Uras (chest) seems to be broken and pricked into with sharp needles, and cannot bear the least touch on account of the pressure of an intolerable aching pain (Śula) in the locality. Breaking pain in the joints, fever, asthma, thirst, and loss of voice are the symptoms which mark the Kshataja type of the disease and the patient lies moaning like a pigeon. 10.

Kshayaya- Kása.— The fire of digestion in a person who is addicted to the habit of taking unwhole-some and incongenial food or of taking it at improper time and quantity or who is given to sexual excesses or who indulges in grief or disgust or abhorrence (of food) in his mind, or who voluntarily represses any natural urging of his body, becomes affected and diminished. It (thereby) aggravates all the three Doshas of the body, which, in their turn, give rise to a type of cough attended with a gradual emaciation of the body. The disease is called Kshayaja Kása. Cramps in the limbs, fever, burning sensation in the body, fainting fits (Moha), loss of strength (Prána) and of flesh, emaciation of the body, spitting blood streaked with pus, and weakness are the symptoms of this type of Kása known as Kshayaja Káśa. It is said by medical experts to be due to the concerted action of all the three Doshas and to be included within the category of diseases which are very hard to be cured. A case of cough (in an old man) due to his declining years is only susceptible of palliation. 11 — 12.

General Treatment:— A compound consisting of Śringi, Vachá, Kat-phala, Ka-trina, Musta, Phanyâka, Abhayá, Bhárgi, Deva-dáru, Viśwa and