Page:A Short History of Aryan Medical Science.djvu/190

170 have their own reasons to urge in her favour. It is beside our purpose to undertake to decide whether astrology is based on a scientific truth or is a relic of old superstition. Our present object is simply to record the fact that the Indian physicians are in the habit of consulting their patients' horoscopes when ordinary remedies fail to effect a cure. The malignant planets are appeased by various means. Mars, for instance, when he enters the house of the Moon, subjects the patient to blood-diseases. His evil influence is averted by reciting a certain sacred verse, by the gift of a red bullock to a learned Brahman,* and by an oblation of clarified butter in fire. Certain baths and wearing coral ornaments are also recommended under the circumstance. Different positions of the planets in the patient's horoscope are believed to have different effects, and the remedies vary accordingly. Predictions as regards the duration of a disease, or the possibility of its being cured or not, are now and then hazarded by certain Vaidyas from a consideration of the day of the fortnight or of the week on which the disease manifested itself. There are two opinions on the point, as