Page:Sushruta Samhita Vol 1.djvu/534

430 The Milk Group:—The milk of a cow, she-goat, she-camel, ewe, she-buffalo, mare, she-elephant, or of a woman, is what generally comes to the use of man.*

The milk is the white fluid essence of drugs and cereals, which enter into the food of the aforesaid milk-giving animals, and is therefore the best of all nutritive substances (literally life-giving). It is heavy, sweet, slimy, cold, glossy, emollient, laxative and mild.

Hence it proves congenial to all sentient animals. And since milk is kindred in its nature to-the essential principles of life and so very congenial to the panzoism of all created animals, its use may be unreservedly recommended to all, and is not forbidden in diseases due to the deranged action of (Vayu) or Pittam, or in ailments affecting the mind (Mansa), or the vascular system of man. Its beneficial and curative efficacy may be witnessed in cases of chronic fever, in cough, dyspnoea, phthisis and other wasting diseases, in Gulma (abdominal glands), insanity, ascites, epileptic fits, in vertigo, in delirium, in burning sensation of the body, in thirst, in diseases affecting the heart and the bladder, in chlorosis and dysentery, in piles, colic and obstinate constipation, in Grahani, Pravahika,