Page:Sushruta Samhita Vol 1.djvu/155

Chap.VI.] characterise the different parts of a complete day and night, [or in other words] traits peculiar to spring time exhibit themselves in the morning; the noon is marked by all the characteristics of summer; the evening by those of the rainy season; the midnight by those of autumn; and the hours before dawn by those of Hemanta And similarly, like the seasons of the year, the different parts of the day and night are marked by variations of heat, cold, etc. [or in other words] the deranged bodily humours such as wind, bile, etc. naturally and spontaneously accumulate, aggravate, or subside during the different parts of the day as they do in the different seasons of the year [represented by those parts of the day and night as stated above].

Water and vegetables retain their natural properties when the seasons are natural, and do not exhibit contrary features, and they then tend to increase the appetite, vitality, strength, and power of the human system. Contrary or unnatural seasons are but the consequences of sin committed by a whole community and portend the workings of a malign destiny. A season, exhibiting unnatural or contrary features, affects or reverses the natural properties of water and vegetables peculiar to it, which, drunk or partaken of, cause dreadful epidemics in the country. The best safeguard lies in not using such defiled water and vegetables when an epidemic breaks out in the country.