Page:A Short History of Aryan Medical Science.djvu/57

IV.] the orifice, until it is expelled with the after-birth." Untimely straining makes the child deaf, dumb, hunchbacked, asthmatic, consumptive, or weak. In cases of complicated labour obstetric operations are recommended. If the child dies in utero, the woman feels thirsty, suffers from hard breathing, languishes, and becomes insensible. Prompt measures should then be taken to save the life of the patient. Harita recommends, among other measures, the use of a surgical instrument called Ardha-chandra, with which the arms of the child should be amputated and taken out and then the body. In cases of tedious labour a paste of a drug called Langali (Gloriosa superba) is to be applied over the hypogastrium to hasten delivery.

Those who are given to supernatural beliefs draw a double triangle interlaced, one triangle pointing upward, the other downward, with certain mystic letters written within. This figure, drawn on a metal plate, is shown to the woman in birth-throe and placed under her bed to hasten delivery. In cases of tedious labour the medical works of the Hindoos mention certain charms and incantations which are supposed to render the delivery easy. It is curious to note that the use