Page:Sushruta Samhita Vol 1.djvu/317

Chap.XXII.] irregular habits and treated by a quack or an ignorant physician, will develop into one of a malignant type, which can be healed only with the greatest difficulty, on account of it becoming aggravated by the deranged bodily humours involved therein.

Symptoms of Dushta-Vranas:— Malignant ulcers (Dushta Vranas) are known by the following indications:—They are either too narrow or too widemouthed. They feel either extremely hard or soft to the touch and present either a raised elevated or a depressed aspect. They are of either a black or red, yellow or white colour, and are characterised by extremes of temperature. Exhibiting strange and unusual features, they are checkered with networks of veins, ligaments, etc., and are filled with putrid and sloughing flesh and fetid pus. Indefinite and irregular in shape, they are found to exude a sort of dirty, fetid pus, which runs into fissures and cavities, following an oblique or upward course. They have a cadaverous look and smell and are characterised by extreme pain and burning sensation, attended with swelling, redness, itching and suppuration. Pustules crop up round these ulcers, which largely secrete vitiated blood, and linger unhealed for an inordinate length of time.

These ulcers may be divided into six classes [according as, they are severally caused by the deranged bodily humours (Vayu, Pittam and Kapham), or are