"\ 



INTKODUCTIOX. 9 



- 



Supposing the full dose of a medicine for adults to he two 

 tol'is, the doses for children of different ages would be as 

 follows.: — For infants a month old, one gunjd, and an additional 

 gunj& for each additional mouth. For children a year old, the 

 d^sa would be one mdshd or twelve gunjd*, and an additional 

 mdihd for every year, till the full dose of sixteen mdshds or two 

 tolis is reached at the sixteenth year. From sixteen to seventy 

 the full dose shouM be used, after which it should be again 

 gradually i educe i. When infants are unable to take decoctions 

 and other bulky medicines, their nurses are made to take them. 

 Sometimes small quantities of medicines are applied to the 

 nipples, and the infants made to suck them. 



Medicines may be administered during four periods of the 

 day, namely, sunrise, mid-day, evening and night. Sometimes 

 they are administered frequently. Morning is regarded as the 

 be.^fc time for administering such medicines as purgatives, emetics, 



decoctions and pills which are generally given once daily. When 

 no specific direction is given regarding the time of administration, 

 morning must be taken for granted. Very often one sort of 

 medicine is given in the morning and another in the afternoon. 

 Some medicines for dyspepsia are given before, along with, and 

 after meals. 



FORMS OF MEDICINES. 



^Tff Churna or powders are* prepared by pounding dry sub- 

 dances in a mortar with a pestle and passing the powder through 

 cloth. 



^T^ Svarasa or expressed juice is prepared by pounding fresh 

 vagetables in a mortar, expressing the juice and straining it 

 through cloth. 



KalJca or paste is prepared by grinding dry or fresh 

 vegetable substances on a stone with a muller, and then making 



IR 



>aste, with the addition of water when necessary. 



Kvdtha or decoctions are, as a general rule, prepared by 

 boiling one part of vegetable substances with sixteen parts of 

 water, till the latter is reduced to one-fourth. The medicines 

 should first be pounied small, then boiled over a slow fire, and the 

 decoction strained through cloth. When decoctions are prepared 



2 



