Page:Sushruta Samhita Vol 1.djvu/530

426 Marwar) is possessed of a bitter saline taste, or is endued with a sweet taste blended with a shade of the astringent, and is easily digestible and strength-giving in its properties.

Every kind of terrestrial water should be collected early in the morning, since it is obtained the clearest and coolest at that part of the day; and since these two attributes by far form the most commendable traits in water.

Metrical Texts:—The water, which gets the light of the sun in the day and reflects the moon in the night, and which, moreover, neither produces Kapham nor a parched condition in the body, should be regarded as one in virtue with the atmospheric water. Atmospheric water, collected in a good and proper receptacle, has the virtue of subduing the three deranged humours of the body, and acts as a pure tonic and elixir, its virtue varying with the excellence of the vessel in which it is contained. The cool and limpid washings of the gem known as the Chandrakanta Mani (the moon- stone) should be regarded as possessed of the mystic virtue of warding off the attacks of monsters and demons, and of subduing the deranged Pittam. They are beneficial in fever and in cases of poisoning marked by a burning sensation of the body, etc.

Cold water usually proves beneficial in epileptic fits,