Page:Sushruta Samhita Vol 1.djvu/171

Chap.VIII.] shall be described later on. The top-ends of the Vadisha and the Danta-Shankhu (Dental pincers) are a little bent down and their faces are made to resemble sharp thorns, or the newly sprouted leaves of a barley plant. The top-end of an Eshani closely resembles the mouth of an earth-worm. The length of a Mudrika should be made equal to that of the top phalanges of the index finger (of a man of average height.) A Shararimukham measures ten fingers in length. The rest of the instruments are mostly made to measure six fingers in length.

Commendable features in a Surgical instrument:—Instruments that are fitted with handles of easy grip and are made of good and pure iron, well shaped, sharp, and are set with edges that are not jagged and end in well formed points or tops, should be deemed as the best of their kind.

Curvature, bluntness (Kuntha—lit:—incapable of cutting hair), unequal sharpness of the edge, rough-edgedness, over-thickness, over-thinness, over-lengthiness, and over-shortness are the defective traits in a surgical instrument. Those possessed of contrary features should be used. But a Karapatram set with a very rough (dentated) edge may be used for the purpose of sawing the bones.

A surgical instrument meant for excision (Bhedanam) should be set with an edge as thin as that of a Musura