Page:A Short History of Aryan Medical Science.djvu/176

156 different bites. Both kinds of poisons are used therapeutically by the Hindoos. Sometimes one poison is used as an antidote against another — Vishasya visham aushadham — as the dictum is — by administering a Sthavara poison to one suffering from the effects of a Jangama poison, and vice versa. A curious antidote is suggested by one writer, who says that the beating of a kettle-drum, besmeared with a preparation called "Ksharagad," before a person under the influence of poison, has the power of effecting a cure !

In diagnosing a disease, the Hindoo physicians have been guided from an early date by physical signs afforded by inspection, palpation,* percussion, auscultation, olfaction and degustation. Certain ancient writers take exception to the last, but others do not, and expect the physician to employ every one of his five senses, if necessary, in arriving at a correct conclusion regarding the seat and nature of a malady. The physician is required to note the patient's appearance, eye, tongue, skin, pulse, voice, urine, and faeces. The