Susruta Samhita - Mandhata Global

Chap. I.] CHIKITSA STHANAM. 249
patient, or of one incapable of bearing the pain (of a
surgical operation), or of a person of a timid disposition,
as well as in the case of a woman, and in the case of
swellings which appear on the vulnerable parts (Marmas)
of the body. Remedies which lead to the spontaneous
bursting of a swelling should be applied by a wise
physician to a well-suppurated swelling drawn up and
with all its pus gathered to a head ; or an alkaline
substance should be applied on its surface and a
bursting should be effected when the Doshas are found
to be just aggravated by the incarcerated pus. 47,
An ulcer which is indurated, whose edges are thick
and rounded, which has been repeatedly burst open,
and the flesh of whose cavity is hard and elevated,
should be scarified b}- a surgeon ; or, in other words,
an indurated ulcer should be deeply scarified, one
with thick and rounded edges should be excessively
scarified, while the one which has been repeatedly
burst open should be entirely scraped off. An ulcer
with a hard and elevated bed should be scraped evenly
and longitudinally along the length of its cavity. In
the absence of a scarifying instrument, the act should be
performed with a piece of Kshauma (cloth made of the
fibres of an Atasi plant), a linen (Plota) or a cotton pad
(Pichu), or with such alkaline substances as nitrate of
potash, Samudra-phena, rock-salt, or rough leaves of
trees (e. g., those of Udumbara, &c.). 48.
The cavities or courses of a sinus, or of an ulcer which
had any foreign matter lying imbedded in its inside, or
which takes a crooked or round about direction, as well as
of the one formed into cavities within its interior, should
* This scraping off of the ulcer should be done by an instrument of
Surgery and not by any rough leaf or the like, mentioned hereafter.
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