Susruta Samhita - Mandhata Global

Chap, VIII.] ^ SARIRA STHANAM. 1 99
blood-poisoning (such as snake-bite etc.) and in fatal
diseases (Vidradhi etc.). 3-4.
Preliminary rules :—The patient should be
duly fomented i,Sveda) and anointed (Sneha) with oily
preparations, A liquid* food or diet consisting of articles
which are antidotal to the bodily principles iDoshas)
which engendered the disease or Yavagu (gruelj should
be given to him at first. Then at the proper season (i.e.,
not in the rainy or winter season etc.) the patient should
be brought near the surgeon and made to sit or lie down
and the part to be incised upon should be bound, neither
too loosely {eg ,
in
the extremities etc.) nor too tightly
{e.g.^ in the head etc.), with any of the accessories, such as
cloth, linen, skin, the inner fibres of a bark, creepers etc.,
so as not to create any pain or agitation in his mind.
Then the vein should be duly opened with proper instru-
ment (and with a careful regard to the situation of any
local Marma\ 5
Metrical text :— Venesection should not be
performed in an extremely cold or hot, cloudy or windy
day. It is forbidden to open a vein without necessity
or in a healthy person, or in a disease in which such as a
proceeding is absolutely prohibited. 6,
The Yantra-Vidhi :— The patient whose
vein is to be operated upon should be seated on a stool
to the height of an Aratni (distance of the elbow from
the tip of the small finger) with his face turned towards
the sun. He should keep his legs in a drawn up or
contracted posture resting his elbows (Kurpara) on his
knee-joints and the hands with his two thumbs closed
in his fists placed on (the upper ends ofy his Manyds
(sterno mastoid muscles), Then having cast the binding
* A liquid food is recommended for the purpose o( liquefying the
blood so as to bleed easily. ....