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382
THE SUSHRUTA SAMHITA
[Chap. LXI.

classified into four distinct types — viz., Vátaja, Pittaja, Kaphaja and Sannipátaja. 4.

Premonitory Symptoms:— The throbbing of the heart, emptiness or lightness (of the chest i.e. a sense as if the external world is vanishing away fastly), perspiration, pensiveness, fainting, stupid appearance and sleeplessness are the symptoms, which are usually found to usher in an attack (of Apasmára). 5.

Symptoms of Vátaja and Pittaja types: — In the Vátaja type of Apasmára the patient fancies that a dark supernatural being is coming after him to seize his person and is frightened and faints in consequence with shivering grinding of the teeth i. e. lock-jaw, laboured breathing and foaming at the mouth. Fainting is excited by a terror of being seized by a yellow and fierce-looking being in the Pittaja type which is further marked by thirst, increased heat of the body, perspiration, fainting, mild tremor of the limbs and restlessness. 6 — 7.

Kaphaja and Sannipátaja Types:—Where the patient is excited by a fancied dread as if a supernatural being of white colour is coming to apprehend him, it is a case of the Kaphaja type which is moreover characterised by the exhibition of such symptoms as shivering, nausea, sleepiness, falling prostrate on the ground and vomiting of mucus. Pain in the heart, thirst and nausea are the specific characteristics of the three types respectively. But delirious talk and the making of indistinct and moaning sounds are present in all the types The specific features of all the three foregoing types manifest themselves in concert in a case of Sánnipátika type. 8 — 10.

Discussion on its cause:— The sudden appearance of the disease without any apparent cause