English
Food should be varied, easily digestible, appetizing and nutritious, However, all irritating spices must be avoided though aromatic and sweet-smelling substances can be added with advantage, with only exception to old wine ■which is very Avell tolerated in ‘sutika’. Meat broth of pigeon, dove, chicken, tender goat or lamb ( from lamb, fat should be taken out ) is very useful in fighting this tragic malady which pitilessly transforms the long-dreamt happy motherhood into painful suffering and sad struggle for life. Lean, light fish can be given in any appetizing way, but fatty and heavy fish shf)uld be avoided. Antistreptococcic seruni which is calculated to destroy the bacteria either by producing agglutins or phagocytosis can be injected three times daily with promising result unless there is pyomia, in which case it is apt to do positive harm according to Menzer whose serum has good reputation for its efficacy. The inunction of unguentum is claimed by Crede^to be beneficial. But none of these preparations have given completely satisfactory results. They are more or lesscmpirical. The antipyretics are recommend¬ ed by some. But as fever is the e.Kpression of the bodily 252 AKCIENT HINDU MEDICINE reaction against the toxic products of the in¬ vading micro-organisms, suppression of fever is apt to do rather inore harm than good unless absolutely necessai’y to reduce the temperature and relieve certain nervous symptoms. More¬ over all the antipyretics—antipyrin, phenacetin, acetanilid, malakin, kryofene, lactophenin and others are all coal-tar products. And the use of these drugs is followed by depression and some¬ times serious collapse. Therefore its repeated use in continued and prolonged fever might endanger the life of the patient by heart failure Avhich is seriously damaged by this disease, though the temperature of fever is thereby reduced. Quinine of course in non-malarial septicemia, is hardly of any value. Only it is. very useful wdien ‘sutika' is complicated by malarial infection. Frophylaxis in 'sutika’ is the absolute aseptic handling at every child-birth, for otherwise ivitb leas- wound or abrasion of the female genital organs wliicli is inevitable, circulatory system may be invaded by pathogenic micro-organisms through lymph channel or veins. All the instru¬ ments must be thox'oughly sterilized, and sterilized glove should be used. Genital organ also should be carefully examined before delivery DISEASES 253 for aujr, infectious disease, especially gonorrhea. In case of gonorrhea all jirecautions must ho taken and the baby’s eyes should be washed with one to two per cent silver-nitrate solution, or better still — Argyrol in 1-50 to 1-20 solution to prevent the affection of the eyes with its virus (ophthalmia neonatorum^. III-Diahetes. ‘‘The causes, lesions and the organs that are affected which provoke temporary (alimentary) diabetes ai’e as follows : too often an excessive consumption of various kinds of new cereals, bean-broths (of new pisum sativum and phaseoliis roxhurghi) seasoned with clarified butter, meat of animals and amphibious creatures, vegetable- leaves, sesame-seeds, rice or wheat cakes, rice¬ pudding, rice and lentil curry, pulf-corn, sugar¬ cane-juice, milk, fermenting milk, fluid-food, sweet-meats and the intemperate eating of other products which are phlegmatic (reduces meta¬ bolism), fattening and diuretic— they are etiologic factors of diabetes (that is, the excessive consump¬ tion of carbohydrates in various forms above the assimilative power of the organism). Excessive liquid phlegraa is the pathological production and abnormal accumulation of fat, flesh, per- 254 ANCIENT HINDU MEDICINE spiration, (production of) semen, blood, marrow,, lymph, chyle and lecithin (oja) are the predispos¬ ing causes ( become affected ) ”Cliarciha II. 4. There are various kinds of diabetes : “The urine is whitish, painless (micturition) and aquatic in ‘udaka-meha’ [diabetes insipidus, in which the quantity of urine is enormously increased ( 10 to 30 pints), it is light-pale in color and the specific gravity is low (1.002 to 1.007) ; the total urea output is slightly increased, but it does not contain albumin, sugar or casts ; only inosite (muscle-sugar ) is met with on rare occasions. Except excessive thirst and loss of fluid, the patient otherwise might be in apparent good health. This disease is supposed to be of nervous origin] ; the urine is (sweetish) like the cRiw'iun SiflKsra 3: niPuci 3VI DISEASES 255 sugar-cane juice in 'iksu-meha' ( diabetes mellitus or glycosuria in which the urine contains one to ten per cent of glycose, is pale, acid and has a sweetish odor ; the quantity of urine is greatly increased (5 to 20 pints) and is usually of high, specific gravity (l.O.'lO to 1.046) ; urea is in¬ creased and in advanced stage of the disease acetone, diacetic and B oxybutyric acid may be present. This disease is due to the lesion of the pancreas which seems to control the carbohybrate metabolism); the urine is like spirituous liquor in *sVjra-meh(C \<icetoniiria in Avhich a large amount of acetone is excreted with the urine, indicating incomplete oxidation of albumiaes and fats, especially in absence of carbohydrate Avhicli is needed for their complete combustion. Acetonuria is met with in inanition, typhoid fcA'er, pneumonia, acute miliary tuberculosis, acute rheumatic fever, cancerous cachexia intestinal auto-intoxication, septicemia and in diabetes, especially when sugar is completely withdrawn from diet for some time or simar metabolism is disturbed. Acetone is a colorless- mobile liquid of pleasant odor, produced commer¬ cially by the destructive distillation of acetates (whence the name ^pyroacetic spirit*), and of sugar, cellulose and various organic compounds. 256 ANCIENT HINDU MEDICINE Acetone is the simplest representative of the aliphatic ketones and is known as ‘demethyl- h^tone\ It has some anesthetic quality and smells as etlier. Pure alcohol when ingested in excess or under certain pathological condition of the alimentary canal passes with the urine (A. Ilonchese : L'cmalyse desur'ms, p. 306) ; urination is painful and the urine contains sand-like minute but hard and angular crystals (uric acid sands) in ‘sikata-ineha’ {gravel —very small concretions, usually of uric acid, calcium oxalate or phos¬ phates, are formed in the kidney and pass through ureter with the urine) ; repeated micturition of phlegmatic (colorless, jellylike) and viscous substance in mnalrmeha' [ fibrinuria in which a colorless sticky sediment {coaguhm)^ or if much febrin is present, the conversion of the urine into a jellylike mass upon standing takes place. It is due to the presence of fibrinogen and a ferment capable of forming fibrin. It occurs in cases where the plasma of the blood enters some portion of the urinary tract, as in chyluria, crou¬ pous inflammation of the tract, villous growths •in the bladder] ; the urine is clear and saline in ‘lavanameha* ( chlorides are normally present 4n the urine and are daily excreted from 8 to J.0 grams ; but a persistent increase of 15 to 30 DISEASES 257 grams occurs in the prodromal stage of general pa¬ resis and diabetes insipidus, during convalescence from lobar pneumonia and post convulsive stage of epilepsy) : there is horripilation ( peripheral contraction) and the urine is whitish like thick rice-paste water {albuminuria occurs in acute nephritis, chronic parenchymatous nephritis and urethritis) ; the discharge is turbid and thick in *sandra-meha’ {gleet in chronic urethritis causes a thin whitish discharge, hut becomes, also, thick and yellowish under various causes. The origin of the discharge is the numerous mucous follicles, lining that portion of the urethra correspond¬ ing to the site of the chronic inflammation. When congested, granular or abraded patches exist, there is a constant hyper-secretion of mucus or muco-pus with exfoliation of the epithelium upon the surface of the lesion. In this condi¬ tion the current of urine, as it passes over the diseased ^portion of tlie canal, rolls up into strings or threads the desquamated epithelium and muco-purulent deposit upon the surface and this appears in the urine as the delicate thready filament which is a familiar occurrence in chronic gonorrhea ) ; the discharge is like the semea in ‘sukra-meha’ ( spermatorrhea is indicative of self-abuse, excessive coitus, sexual ueui’asthenia 17 258 ANCIENT UINDU MEDICINE as cause or consequence, and prodrome of loco- motor ataxia. Sedentary habits, ah habitually loaded rectum, ascarides, and the too free use of condiments and liquors may be responsible for the slighter degree of the symptom. In a continent individual involuntary emissions during sleep, if occurring at intervals of 2 to 6 weeks, are quite normal. But if it be much more frequent and if the emissions occur without erection, unconsciously to the patient, in the day time or while straining at stool, their pathological character is marked. Sper-’ matozoa are found in the first urine passed after emission in men. • They occur also in some cases of injury or disease of the spinal cord. Occasionally a small amount of semen is expressed from the vesiculae seminales by the pressure of hard fecal masses, during severe expulsive efforts accompanying obstinate constipation. The persistent presence of sper¬ matozoa in the urine is symptomatic of sperma¬ torrhea ) ; scanty foamy urine in 'fhenameha^ ( in renal congestion, the urine is scanty, acid, of high specific gravity and usually cloudy with urates ). Tlie urine is frothy, transparent and bluish ( indicanuria in which indican is found in largh DISEASES 259 quantity.