Page:A Short History of Aryan Medical Science.djvu/77

Rh help me to digest the food I have eaten ; let me have the happiness resulting from well-digested food ; and relieve me from all diseases." Mangala, Surya, and Ashvinikumaras are also piously remembered, as the mention of their names is said to possess the power of helping the digestive organs. After dinner, aloe-smoking or the chewing of Pan (betel-leaf) with certain aromatics and spices is advisable, for it has the property of expelling the phlegm which increases after dinner. The Pan is astringent, exhilarant, aromatic, stimulant, carminative, aphrodisiac, 'light,' and heating. It is a good phlegmagogue, generates semen and blood in the body, and lessens wind and fatigue. The various ingredients mixed in certain proportions with the betel-leaves are catechu, lime, betel-nut, cardamum, clove, nutmeg and some other spices. In the masticatory to be taken in the morning the quantity of betel-nut may be a little more than at other times ; at noon catechu may be a little in excess ; and at night the proportion of lime may be a trifle more. It removes all fetor from the breath, imparts fragrance to it, and improves the voice. The Pan is not beneficial to those who are suffering from tooth and eye diseases, who have taken