Page:Sushruta Samhita Vol 1.djvu/427

Chap.XXXV.] distressing cough. Such a man is incapable of all acts, and does but imperfectly perform all bodily functions. He has grown old.

The dose of medicine should be increased with the age of a patient till the age of decay, and reduced after the expiry of the seventieth year to the quantity (which is usually prescribed for an youth of sixteen).

Authoritative verses on the Subject:—Kapham is increased during the years of childhood and Pittam in middle age; while an increase of Vayu (nervous derangement) marks the closing years of life. The use of strong or drastic purgatives, and cauterisation are alike prohibited in cases of children and old men. They should be used only in weakened or modified forms if found indispensably necessary.

It has been stated before that the body of a person is either stout, thin or of an average (middling) bulk. A stout person should be reduced in bulk with depletive measures, while a physician should try to make a thin patient gain in flesh. A human body, which is neither too thin nor too stout, should be made to maintain its shapely rotundity.

We have already discoursed on the strength of the body. Now in a particular case under treatment, it is primarily incumbent on the physician to enquire whether the patient is naturally weak, or has become