Page:A Short History of Aryan Medical Science.djvu/172

152 organs of generation, diseases of the mouth, and minor diseases. Sharngdhara enumerates eighty principal diseases caused by wind, forty by derangements of bile, twenty by abnormalities of phlegm, and ten by faulty conditions of blood. Sushruta traces all diseases to one or other of the following seven causes : — (a) corrupt semen virile or ovum of the father and mother respectively, causing leprosy, etc. ; (b) indulgence in forbidden food by the mother during pregnancy, or the non-fulfilment of any of her desires during that condition, causing blindness, etc., to the child ; (c) the derangement of humours in the body, causing fever, etc. ; (d) accidents, as fall, snake-bite, etc. ; (e) variations in the climate, causing cold, etc. ; (f) superhuman agencies ; (g) nature, as hunger, etc.

Harita reduces the number to three, and says that diseases are caused by Karma, or by the derangement of the humours, or by both. Karma is the unavoidable consequence of good or evil acts done in this or in a past existence. "Misery and happiness in this life are the inevitable results of our conduct in a past life, and our actions here will determine our happiness or misery in the life to come. When any creature