Treatment for fever (107): Mritasamjivana-suchikabharana-rasa

Incinerated diamond and vaikranta (garnet), one fourth tola, in weight, each; half a tola of shringi poison, (?) tola of nava sara (sal-ammoniac), 1¼ tola of agni-jara, and three tolas of incinerated mercury arc to be mixed together, and rubbed well, for three days. They are then to be rubbed and subjected to bhavana, for twenty three times, with a solution of the alkali prepared from the sarngasta-varga (detailed below). They are then to be dried well, and rubbed once more, for a day, and kept in in a pot made of ivory.

This medicine is to be applied to a patient in a moribund condition, suffering from a sannipatika fever of a virulent type, and laid on the ground in expectation of death. The flesh at the crown of the patients’ head is to be cut a little with the point of a needle, wet with water, and the medicine applied on the spot, by mixing it with the blood that comes out of the spot. The body of the patient is then to be rubbed with oil, and he is to be kept in a place not agitated by wind. If, after the lapse of one and half hour, the patient discharges stool and urine, regains consciousness, moves his head again and again, and his whole body is found to be heated, he is taken to be saved from the clutches of death; otherwise, not.

In the event of the above mentioned symptoms occurring, the patient is to be seated in a tub, full of cold water, which is to be thrown out as soon as it grows hot, and is to be replaced by a fresh quantity of cold water. The process is to he repeated for some time. If the patient asks for food, he is to be allowed to drink sugar, dissolved with water or mixed with water, or cocoanut water, and to eat ripe banana fruits. If such diet is not given to him, he may die. He is to be taken out of the tub, as soon as he regains, consciousness and asks for food. Subsequently, the oil on his skin is to be removed by rubbing it with powdered rice, etc. After the removal of the oil, his whole body is to be smeared with thin sandal paste, mixed with camphor. These processes (viz cold bath, etc.) are to be performed for seven days, at a stretch.

During these seven days, cold water is to besprinkled, over and over again, upon the ears eyes, nose, and face of the patient. On the eighth day, he is to drink a little of the juice of mandukaparni, mixed with sugar. This will counteract the intensity of the medicine. The patient is there-after to take a sufficient quantity of boiled rice, mixed with curd.

This medicine, if applied in the above-men tinned way, may cure even a patient who has last all symptoms of life, living a pretty long life and keeping a good state of health.

The following are the sarngastaka varga:—sharngasta (kakajangha), kantakari, sprouts of bamboo, tilaparni, indrabaruni, musta, haridra, roots of ankola, apamarga, pippali black dhustura, bitter alabu, and tamarind. These are pacifiers of an excess of the three doshas. Water, dissolved with alkalies prepared from these, is to be used for the purpose of bhavana, as referred to above, in the present case.