Susruta Samhita - Mandhata Global

Chap. XV.] CHIKITSA STHANAM. 407
the foetus should be drawn out by pulling it at its chest
or at the shoulder with a Sanku (forceps). Where the
head would not be punctured and smashed, the fcetus
should be drawn out by pulling it at the cheeks or the
eye-sockets. The hands of the fcetus should be severed
from the body at the shoulders, when they (the shoulders)
would be found to have been obstructed in the passage
and then the foetus should be drawn out. The abdomen
of a child, dead in the womb, should be pierced and the
intestines drawn out, in event of the former being swollen
into a flatulent (Vata) distension like a leather bag ^for
holding water), as such a procedure would remove the
stiffness of its limbs^ and then it should be drawn out. The
bones of the thighs (Jaghana-kapala) should be first cut
out and removed, where the fcetus would be found to have
adhered fast to the passage with its thighs (Jaghana). 7.
Metrical Texts :— in short, that part of the
body of the foetus should be severed and removed
which Iprevents its (foetus) withdrawal from the womb
and the life of the mother should be saved at all
hazards. The different types of false-presentations
should be ascribed to the abnormal coursing of the
deranged Vayu (in the uterus), and hence an intelligent
physician should adopt, after careful considerations,
proper remedies (for its pacification). An intelligent
physician should not waste a single moment in drawing
out the foetus, as soon as it would be found to be dead
in the womb, since neglect in such cases leads to the
instantaneous death of the mother, like an animal dying
of suffocation. An erudite physician, well-versed in
anatomy, should use in such cases a Mandaljigra instru-
njent for the purpose of cutting out (the foetus), since
a sharpe-edged Vriddhi-patra may sometimes hurt the
mother during the operation. 9-1Q.