Page:Sushruta Samhita Vol 1.djvu/265

Chap.XVII.] or to corrective or blood-letting measures, speedily and uniformly suppurates, and is marked by a small and restricted base and a circular or conical elevation. As a blazing fire fed by gusts of favourable wind soon consumes a withered forest, so the incarcerated pus, in the absence of any outlet, attacks and eats away the healthy flesh, veins and nerves of an organism.

Surgical acts in connection with an abscess (Shotha) may be divided into seven kinds such as i. mutilation (Vimlápanam) of the swelling by massage, 2. Avashechanam (bleeding or application of leeches) 3. Upanáham (poulticing) 4. Pátanam (opening or incision) 5. Shodhanam (purification of the internal morbid matter of an incised boil with corrective medicines) 6. Ropanam (healing) and 7. Vaikritápaham (restoring of the natural colour of the skin to the cicatrix).

Thus ends the seventeenth Chapter of the Sutrasthanam in the Sushruta Samhita which treats of how to distinguish between suppurating and non-suppurating swellings.