Susruta Samhita - Mandhata Global

Chap. X.] SARTRA STHANAM. 22^
proving the bodily strength of the child. O, thou with
a beautiful face, may the child, reared on your milk,
attain a long life, like the gods made immortal with
drinks of ambrosia". 22.
A child nursed at the breast of any and every
woman for want of a nurse of the commendable type,
may fall an easy prey to disease, owing to the fact of the
promiscuous nature of the milk proving incongenial to
its physical temperament. The milk of a nurse not
being pressed out and spelled off at the outset may
produce cough, difficulty of breathing, or vomiting of
the child, owing to the sudden rush of the accumulated
milk into its throat choking up the channels. Hence
a child should not be allowed to suck in such milk. 23.
The loss or suppression of the milk in the breasts of
a woman is usually due to anger, grief, and the absence
of natural affection for her child, etc. For the purpose of
establishing a flow in her breast, her equanimity should
be first restored, and diets consisting of Sili-rice, barley,
wheat, Shashtika, meat-soup, wine (Surd\ Souviraka,
sesamum-paste, garlic, fish, Kas'enika^ S'ringdtaka, lotus-
stalk, Viddri-kandi, MadJuika flower, S'atdzari, Nalikd,
Aldvu, and Kdla-S'dka, etc., should be prescribed. 24.
Exams nation, etc., of milk :—The breast-
milk of a nurse or a mother should be tested by casting
it in water. The milk which is thin, cold, clear, and
tinged like the hue of a conch-shell, is found to be
easily miscible with water, does not give rise to
froths and shreds, and neither floats nor sinks in water,
should be regarded as pure and healthy. A child fed
on such milk is sure to thrive and gain in strentgh and
health. A child should not be allowed to take the
breast of a hungry, aggrieved, fatigued, too thin, too
corpulent, fevered, or a pregnant woman, nor of one in