4 SA^SKHIT MATERIA MEDICA. 







Susruta divides medicines into thirty seven classes, named after 

 the first article of each class. The medicines included in each 

 class have certain common properties, snch as acidity, sweetness, 

 astringency, etc., are often used in combination, and can be 

 substituted for one another. This has the advantage of bringing 

 analogous substances under one head, but numerous medicines 

 come to be written under two or more heads. The Ni ghaut u and 

 some other works on the properties of medicines adopt the 

 following classification in describiag them: — 1. Strongly scented 

 substances. 2. Moderately scented substances. 3. Weak scented 

 substances. 4. Extracts. 5. Precious stones. 6. Metals. 7. Sweet 

 plants. 8. Acid plants. 9. Potherbs. 10 Bitter herbs. 11. Flower 

 plants. 12. Fruitbearing creepers. 13. Eoot-stocks. 14. Large 

 trees. 15. Middle sized trees. 16. Small trees or shrubs. 

 17. Creepers. 18, Corn and Pulses.' 19. Cooked food. 20. Different 

 sorts of water. 21. Fluids as milk, honey, etc. 22. Necessaries 

 of life, such as baths, dress, ornaments, etc. 23. The influence of 

 the elements and imponderables etc. 



THE PROPERTIES OF MATERIAL OBJECTS AND THE ACTION OF 



MEDICINES ON THE HUMAN SYSTEM. 



Mateeial objects, according to Sanskrit writers, have six sorts 

 of tastes, twenty sorts of qualities, and two sorts of forces in them. 

 The six tastes are sweet, acid, salt, bitter, . acrid and astringent. 

 The twenty qualities of objects are as follows :— Heavy, light, soft, 

 dull, oily, consistent, watery, hot,- fixed, sharp, tremulous, delicite, 

 demulcent, smooth, harsh, transparent, hard, pungent, coarse and 

 cold. The two forces are heating and coolitg. All sut stances are 

 supposed, after digestion, to assume one or other of three sorts of 

 properties : thus sweets and salts are supposed to be turned after 

 digestion into sweets ; acids, into acids ; and bitters, acrid s and 

 astringents, into acrids. Besides the above properties, each 

 medicine has a special action of its own. It is that quality which 

 shows itself superior to the usual properties of taste, force, and 

 result of assimilation ; as for example, Danti ( Baliospermum Mon- 



) 



) 



The result 



