Page:Sushruta Samhita Vol 1.djvu/262

158 reaches its former height when the pressure is removed. The pus or the suppurated matter changes its place, or shifts from one part of the swelling to another under pressure like water in a bloated leather bag. The distressing symptoms gradually subside; the patient again evinces a desire for food, and feels a constant inclination for scratching the affected part which is characterised by a sort of aching pain. Sometimes, as in cases of traumatic swelling or in those brought about by a deranged condition of the Kapham, the suppurating process is restricted to the deeper tissues of the affected part and hence fail to exhibit its characteristic symptoms—a fact which often misleads a physician (surgeon) as regards the true state (lit:—whether suppurated or not) of the accompanying swelling. But the knowledge that a process of suppuration, occurring in the deeper tissues of an affected part, is accompanied by alleviation of the pain and swelling which becomes as compact as a stone and cold to the touch, and the local skin resuming its natural colour, would unquestionably ward off all apprehensions for error of judgment.

Authoritative verses on the subject:—A physician (surgeon) who is fully conversant with the symptoms which are respectively exhibited by (an inflammatory) swelling in its unsuppurated, suppurating and suppurated stages, is alone worthy of the epithet; the rest are but impostors. Since there can