Page:A Short History of Aryan Medical Science.djvu/93

VI.]

INDIAN Medical Science attributes all morbid phenomena to the disordered condition of the three principal humours in the body, called Doshas, viz., wind, bile and phlegm. These fluids pervade the whole microcosm of man. So long as these are in their normal condition the body remains healthy. If they be deranged they subject it to all sorts of disorders. The three humours fill the whole body which they support ; yet the principal seat of wind (VATA) is between the feet and the umbilicus ; of bile (PITTA), between the umbilicus and the heart; and of phlegm (KAFA), between the heart and the vertex. Wind predominates in old age, bile in middle age, and phlegm in childhood. Evening is the time for the predominance of wind, and noon and morning for the prevalence of bile and phlegm respectively. Similarly, the influence