Page:A Short History of Aryan Medical Science.djvu/193

IX.] Just as the outward form and bearing are supposed to enable the Indian physicians to say how long a person may be expected to live, there are certain signs and indications which it is believed enable them to conjecture when inevitable death will overtake him. Thus, if the breath flow through a man's right nostril continuously for one whole day, he will be no more after three years ; if for two days, he will die in a year ; and if it continuously flows from the same nostril for three days, he will not live beyond three months. If he breathes through the left nostril rapidly during the day and not at all during the night, he will die within four days. Again, he who breathes through the two nostrils simultaneously for ten days together will continue in life for three days only. If the right pulse is intermittent and the left nostril ceases to work, the patient is at the point of death. If his nose becomes bent, and if he is obliged to breathe through the mouth instead of through the nose, he will draw breath for thirty hours only. If one naturally dark suddenly becomes yellow he will die within two months. He whose teeth, lips, and tongue become dry, and eyes and nails black, and to whom yellow,