Page:Sushruta Samhita Vol 1.djvu/243

Chap.XV.] equipoised. A man possessed of such a body is capable of all kinds of work and movement. He can fairly stand the inclemencies of weather and the keenness of hunger and thirst, and will gain in strength and energy. Care should be always taken to have such a well equipped body of moderate size.

Authoritative verses on the subject:—Excessively corpulent and excessively lean persons are alike condemnable. A body which is neither too stout nor too lean, but strikes the mean as regards plumpness, is the best. A lean frame should have the preference to a stout one. The enraged or aggravated bodily humours dry up the fundamental principles of the body, such as the lymph chyle etc., just in the same way as a well-kindled fire will evaporate the water contained in a basin placed over it. Since (the temperament, constitution, size and the fundamental principles of) the body vary in different individuals; (and since the body, in its turn, undergoes such gradual transformations as infancy, youth and old age), and changes its state each moment, it is absolutely impossible to lay down the exact quantity of the deranged humours, excrements and fundamental principles (of lymph chyle, blood, semen, albumen, etc.) that may be found in the human organism. Hence it is necessary for a physician to ascertain their state of equilibrium (their continuance in normal state and