Chapter CCXI - Medical treatment of cuts, wounds, scalds, burns, etc.

Hari said:—A cut, or a lacerated wound, tilled with melted butter, will heal up at the first instance without producing any pus or inflammation. The juice of Apamarga, squezed out with finger and poured into the cavity of a cut or wound, will at once arrest the bleeding. O Rudra, a plaster of Hijjala roots and Langalika roots pasted together and applied to the mouth of a wound will spontaneously expel any foreign substance, through the passage of its penetration, that might have been lodged therein, no matter how long it might have remained thus imbedded. Applications of plasters composed of Vana roots and Meshashingi roots pasted together with water will bring about the healing of sinuses. A sinus may be healed by dusting it with powders of Kanku-roots; the patient shall be enjoined to live on curdled buffalo milk and cooked Kodrava grain during the period of treatment. Plasters of Vrahmadandi seeds pasted with water prove remedial to skin diseases due to the vitiated condition of the blood. Take ashes of burnt barley corn, Vidanga, Gandhapashanam and Shunthi; pound them together, and soak this pulverised compound with Lizard’s (Krikalasa) blood and dry it in the sun in the manner of a Bhabana saturation. Apply this plaster, O Shiva, to abscesses and carbuncles and wonder at the result. Take Shobanjanam roots, burnt linseed, and white mustard seeds; pound them together, O Shankara, and reduce the compound to the consistency of a paste with the addition of whey, which is not acid in its flavour. Plasters of this pasted compound prove curative in Granthikam. For the exorcism of a malignant spirit, an errhine composed of white Aparajita roots pasted with rice-washings should be given to the possessed person. Errhines of the expressed juice of Agastya flowers, saturated with the powders of black pepper, relieve colic pain. O Shiva, plasters of snake-skins, Hingu, Nimva-Ieaves, Yava, and white Sarshapa pasted together have the virtue of exorcising ghosts. Anjanams composed of Gorochana, Maricham, Pippali and rock salt, pasted together with honey have the virtue of warding off the influences of malignant stars and spirit. For relieving quotidian ague and warding off the influences of malignant planets, the patient should be wrapped with a black cloth and fumigated with the vapours of a compound consisting of Guggulu, and owl’s feathers pounded together.