Page:Sushruta Samhita Vol 1.djvu/537

Chap.XLV.] The milk of a woman is cold and sweet, leaving an astringent after-taste. It proves beneficial as an errhine and acts as a good wash in eye diseases. It is whole-some, vitalising, light and appetising. The milk of a she- elephant is sweet though it leaves an astringent after-taste. It is spermatopoietic, heavy, demulcent, cooling and tonic. It invigorates the eyesight.

The milk of a she-animal, milched in the morning, is heavy, cold and takes a long time to be digested owing to her entire repose (literally want of physical exercise or locomotion) during the night, when cooling attributes preponderate. Similarly, the milk milched in the evening is found to be possessed of refrigerant and eye-invigorating properties. Moreover, it restores the bodily Vayu to its normal condition owing to the physical labour undergone by the animal in the day time, exposed to the rays of the sun and the currents of free air. Cold or unboiled milk is extremely heavy, and serves to increase the slimy secretions of the organs, whereas by boiling it is freed from those injurious traits. But this rule does not hold good in the case of woman's milk, which is wholesome in its natural or unboiled state. Freshly milched warm milk should be regarded as extremely wholesome, which, being cooled down, loses its efficacious virtues and becomes unwholesome. On the contrary, over-cooked milk is heavy and fat-making