Page:A Short History of Aryan Medical Science.djvu/85

V.] and woman's company on Sundays, if freedom from disease be desired. It is also said that "putrid flesh, old women, the autumnal sun, half-curdled milk, and morning cohabitation and sleep are fatal." Again, Sushruta is of opinion that the carnal desire may be gratified at the interval of a fortnight in summer, and at the interval of not less than three days in other seasons. Those who have eaten a heavy meal, are hungry, thirsty, impatient, boyish, old, with aching limbs and pressed with the calls of nature, should abstain from the indulgence. It is not proper to peep into the privacy of a bed-chamber. But the ancient writers on Medicine and Religion have not omitted to prescribe rules of conduct to be observed even there. Hiranyakeshi advises the housewife to light the lamp, and keep the bed in good order. She should make a bow to her husband, and approach the bed after removing her bodice. The retention of the bodice is supposed to bring on widowhood. She is to exclude black apparel, which has the effect of making the progeny wicked and degenerate. She is to put on clean clothes, deck her body — the nose especially — with jewels, to apply cohol to the borders of her