English
^ i i ^^ gi’:re 140 ancient HINDU MEDICINE "‘Poison is not the only toxin; unpurified ' copper (that has not been incinerated and i calcinated ) is a terrible poison.” Rasendra-Sara- ! mmgraha 1. 136**. I ‘‘Unpurified sulphur (that has not been incin- | erated and calcinated) produces fever, eczema, | delirium and bilious disorders.” Rasendra-sara- samgraha 1. 50*®. Purified mercury (that has been incinerated and calcinated ) is like real ambrosia, but faulty (i. e. incompletely purified or unpurified ) is harmful like venom.” Rasendra-scmi-samgralm 1 . I ~ “ I I ■^ct: I sTwrci i | qR^r I TreHTn:5jsj’ irrf.^nf^Rr ii 62. 5T fqq' f^rn<qiv<5rw^ fqqg’qjt i \, i 63. g fiiq' grs’ 5??f qifife I I, a,°i 61 . ^tqg'st n ^ ■a 1 PATHOLOGY 141 Poisoning might also take place from the in¬ gestion of some fish-eggs at the breeding season, some fish and molluscs which live on putrefied matter, from the cooking earthen vessels that are varnished with substances containing lead, arsenic or Vermillion, foods that are colored and flavored with aniline products or preserved with an excessive dose of salicylic acid. All the snakes are not poisonous however, for though they are provided with a venom gland, all of them do not possess an excretory duct, so that the venom can not he poured out. But all poisons do not act immediately on the organism. Some poisons especially the metallic ones as arsenic, mercury, lead, sulphur have cumulative effect. Though they may he taken in small doses, they may he accumulated in the liver and the osseous system and after months or even years, they might express in violent reac¬ tion of their cumulated effect. But in other poisons as that of morphine, alcohol and tobacco, the harmful reaction ceases more or less after a w'hile when the organism aquires the habit of neutralising the noxious substances of those poi¬ sonings. Tobacco not only harms the organism by the partial absorption of nicotine, but also by the inhalation of carbonic acid, carbonic oxide. 142 ANCIENT HINDU MEDICINE sulphuretted hydrogen, hydrocyanic acid and pyridic bases, which the tobacco smoking pro¬ duces. According to Charaka (III. 6.4), the diseases are innumerable, but Susruta (VI. 66. 6.) calcu¬ lates them as eleven hundred. IV, DISEASES AND THEIR DIAGNOSIS. “The physician in order to make a prognosis, i must examine hj direct {j)ratyahsa), indirect ( = inference ) and differential diagnosis, the color [ of the skin % lemon-yellow tint in pernicious anemia, waxy pallor in nephritis, , bronzing in Addison’s disease, greenish hue in ' chlorosis, blue skin ( cyanosis) in conjenital | heart disease, brownish-yellow coloration in j jaundice, grayish^ tinge in the long-continued therapeutic ingestion of silver nitrate, yellow tint in cancer and a permanent pallor in malarial ' cachexia, tuberculosis, leucemia, syphilis, chronic I mercurial, lead and arsenic poisoning ], voice I [ whispering voice ( aphonia ), coarse or harsh j quality of the voice that is generally known as "hoarseness’ ( dysphonia ) are due to theiuflamma- t tion of the larynx, or disease, or pressure upon | the recurrent laryngeal nerve; chronic aphonia ■ ( hysterical aplionia is only temporary ) is said PATHOLOGY 143 to be prodromal of leprosy and chronic hoarseness that of cancer ; deep, hoarse voice and brassy cough indicate interference with the superior laryngeal nerve and if there is aphonia without cough or dysphonea, it may be due to paralysis of all the laryngeal muscles ; a flat and toneless voice results form one-sided paralysis of a cord and a falsetto voice from paresis of the tensors of the cords ; the open nasal tone is indicative of the paralysis of the soft palate or destruction of the soft palate by ulceration, usually syphilitic or of congenital cleft of the palate, and the closed nasal voice is often suggestive of coryza, hay asthma, hypertrophic rhinitis, nasal polypus, postnasal adenoids, enlarged faucial tonsils, suppui’ative tonsilitis, acute pharyngitis and retropharyngeal abscess; the varied forms of aphasia, motor ( apliemia, agraphia ), sensory ( visual, auditory ), conduction, are the sympto¬ matic expressions of the focal cerebral lesion, occurring in the left hemisphere in the right handed and the right hemisphere in the left- handed, but might also occur in cerebral hemorrhage, thrombosis, embolism, abscess, tumor, gumma, depressed fracture of the skull and more rarely in hysteria, neurasthenia and immediately after epileptic convulsion ], odor 144 ANCIENT HINDU MEDICINE [ an unpleasant odor of breath is usually present in the mouth of those whose teeth ai’e not cleansed and food particles are allowed to accumulate on them and to cause decomposi¬ tion and fermentation ; a foul odor in stomati¬ tis and glossitis; a stale and musty odor with the accumulation of sordes upon the teeth as in typhoid ; caries of the teeth, necrosis- of the jaw, pharyngeal or tonsillar diphtheria, follicular tonsilitis and locunar concretions also produce had odor; but the most fetid odor attends the mercurial and gangrenous stomatitis and less so scurvy; in uridrosis occurring with diseases in which the action of the kidney has been impaired, the sweat has a urinous odor, and deposits white scales or crystals of urinary solids upon the skin ; there is volatile fatty emanation from the sebaceous secretion and mixed with perspiration, the odor varies in health and sickness, according to age and race ; among the Negroes, it is the most pronounced and in the Mongolian race, it is the least ], tasie [ a bitter taste is felt in jaundice a coppery taste in gastro-duodenal catarrh (biliousness) ; diversified taste sensations as sweetish, sour, foul are felt when the tongue is coated and furred from whatever cause PATHOLOGY 145 abnormal taste with the long continued use of certain drugs as potassium bromide, iodide or tartar emetic; perversions of taste in hysteria ; absence of taste ( ageusia ), if it is unilateral is indicative of the disease of the glosso-pharyngeal nerve, and if it is bilateral, of the diseases of the ■ nose as cory2ia or polypus ; partial impairment of taste ( hemiageusia ) may be due to the facial paralysis, or due to local conditions of the mucous membrane of the tongue, involving the taste buds and end-organs of the gustatory fibers, as in thickly furred or coated tongue, or due to the irritating(as of piperine)or blunting(as of bromides) action of the drugs or condiments), touch {sparse) comprises tactile sense ( esthesic ), pain sense ( algesic ), temperature sense ( thermesthesic ), muscle sense ( myestliesic ) i the loss of tactile sensibility ( anesthesia ) is indicative of cerebral lesions ( causing hemiplegia ), hysteria, traumatic neuroses, diseases of the spinal cord, especially locomotor ataxia, neuritis and leprosy ; hemi¬ anesthesia, the loss of sensibility confined to one side of the body or to lower extremities or of unequal distribution, are mainly due to hysteria ; an excessive sensibility (Jiyperesthesia) is gener¬ ally met with in hysteria, chiefly in the hystero¬ genic zones, which are in the breasts and below 10 146 ANCIENT HINDU MEDICINE them in the central part of the chest, in the pelvic region and the back ; in neurasthenia, there are localized hypersensitive tender spots, along the spine, scalp and the chest; in meno¬ pause and gouty diathesis, there are also tender- points on the scalp ; a general hypersensitiveness may be present in influenza, typhoid fever, and. in alcoholic intoxication , disturbances in the heat and cold sensation {thermaesthesic) are due to syringomyelia and to a less extent to the lesions of the medulla and locomotor ataxia; disturbances of the pain sensation—either hyper- —or hypo-sensibility are due to syringomyelia,. Morvan’s disease, hysteria and syphilic chord disease ; loss of muscular sensation is characteris¬ tic in locomotor ataxia, paramyoclonus multiplex,, myeletic disease, and the lesions in the medulla, and the pons ; transference of sensation {allo- chiria) so that a touch, on one side of the body is felt on the other, is symptomatic of hysteria, locomotor ataxia, disseminated sclerosis, myeletis;, delayed conduction so that a tactile or pain sensation requires 5 seconds or more, instead of one-tenth of a second, is characteristic of locomo¬ tor ataxia and peripheral paresis), the eye (edema of the eye-lid, particularly the lower one, is- usually symptomatic of renal'disease ; morning. PATHOLOGY 147 puffiness with bloated face is also seen after a night of debauchery or in cases of profound anemia, chlorosis or in neui'otic adoloscents ; in erysipelas, glanders, severe coryza, hay fever^ measles, variola and occasionally in varcella, as well as the prolonged use of arsenic and iodine may induce the swelling of the ej’e-lids ; ptosis— the dropping of the eye-lid—is either congenital or due to the paralysis of the third nerve lagophthalmos—imperfect closure of the lid& follows paralysis of the orbicularis muscle, either due to lesions of the portio dura of the facial nerve or leprosy ; blepharospasm—spasmodic closure of the lids is due to the reflex excitability of the fifth nerve in photophobia, in ocular disorders and is symptomatic of meningitis, cerebral tumors, typhus, measles in certain, stages of their evolution and may be also present without actual inflammation of the membrane in hysteria and in chorea in children ; hordeolum— a sty or minute boil on the palpebral margin, if small and single may be of local origin or indicative of the over-use of defective eves or more frequently of digestive or genital disorders blepharitis—inflammation of the margi