Page:Sushruta Samhita Vol 1.djvu/377

Chap.XXIX.] perturbation, is to be looked upon as a messenger foreboding evil.

A messenger, seeking the interview of a physician while he is engaged in offering oblations to his departed manes, or to the gods, or one who calls on him at noon or at midnight, at morning or at evening, or during the happening of any abnormal physical phenomenon, or at an hour under the influence of any of the following asterisms (lunar mansions), viz. the Ardra, the Ashlesa, the Magha, the Mula, the two Purvas, and the Bharani, or on the day of the fourth, ninth, or the sixth phase of the moon (whether on the wane or on the increase), as well as on the last days of months and fortnights, should be considered as a messenger of evil augury.

A messenger, hot and perspiring from being seated near a blazing fire, and calling upon a physician in the midday, should be deemed as an inauspicious one in the case of a Pittaja distemper; whereas a messenger of similar description should be looked upon as foreboding the favourable termination of a disease, if due to the action of the deranged Kapham. The favourable character of a messenger should be likewise determined in diseases originated through the action of the deranged Vayu,* etc.; and an intelligent physician is