Page:Sushruta Samhita Vol 1.djvu/374

 CHAPTER XXIX.

Now we shall discourse on the Chapter, which treats of favourable or unfavourable prognosis in diseases, as known from messengers, omens and dreams etc. (Viparitaviparita-Duta-Shakuna- Svapna- Nidarshaniya-madhyayam).

Metrical Texts:—The favourable or unfavourable termination of a disease may be predicted from the appearance, speech, dress and demeanour of the messenger sent to call in a physician, or from the nature of the asterism and the lunar phase marking the time of his arrival, or from the direction of the wind (Anila) blowing at the time, or from the nature of omens (Shakuna) seen by him on the road, or from the posture, temperament or speech of the physician himself.

A messenger belonging to the same caste as the patient* should be regarded as an auspicious omen, whereas one from a different caste would indicate a fatal or an unfavourable termination of the disease,

A eunuch, a husband of many wives, a messenger