Page:Sushruta Samhita Vol 1.djvu/202



Now we shall discuss the Chapter which treats of leeches and of how and which to use (Jalauka'- vacha'raniyamadhya'yam).

Leeches should be applied where the patient would be found to be old or imbecile, or a woman, or an infant, or a person of an extremely timid disposition, or a person of a delicate constitution, and as such is not fit to be surgically operated upon, since this mode of bleeding is the gentlest that can be possibly devised. The blood vitiated by the deranged wind (Váyu), bile (Pittam), and phlegm (Kapham) should be respectively sucked through a horn, by leeches and a gourd appliance (Alávu-Yantra) or with whichsoever of them is available at the time, irrespective of the cause of such vitiation, whenever such bleeding or sucking would be found to be imperatively necessary.

Authoritative verses on the subject:—A cowhorn is described in the Shastras as of a hot or heat making potency, and as possessed of a slightly cooling (Snigdha) or soothing (Madhura) property. Accordingly it should be used in sucking the blood vitiated through the action of the deranged bodily wind. Leeches, which are born in water, are possessed of Madhura (sweet or soothing) properties, and hence they