Indian Medicine (Medicin), translated by C. G. Kashikar c13.17

c13.17

According to Dutt, leprosy is meant by *vātarakta*, *vātasoṇita*, *vātāsṛj*. *Vātarakta* is caused by corrupted blood that immediately runs in the feet and is towed there. The blood is corrupted by hot food and drink and other defects of diet, sleep by day, long walk in heat, want of movement, grief, anger etc., particularly if one lets hang the legs from a carriage or a riding animal ( AS, AHr ). According to Suśruta, there is in the feet pain, pricking, dryness, numbness or excessive burning, or they only itch, but are white, cold and swollen. According to AS, AHr the preliminary signs of *vātarakta* are similar to those in *kuṣṭha*. There is, moreover, fatigue, looseness of limbs, itching, convulsion, joint-trouble, pricking, heaviness and numbness in the knees, legs, thighs, hips, shoulders, hands, feet and joints. These signs come and go. *Vātarakta* is first *uttāna*, i. e. confined to the skin, then *gambhīra* " deep " when it catches hold of all the seven elements of the body, so that the limbs grow crooked and the patient becomes lame or limps ( Car, Su, AS ). In the variety caused by *vāta* there is severe pain, convulsion and joint-trouble, the tumour is black, the vessels, fingers and joints grow crooked, the limbs are stiff and benumbed and shiver. In blood there is a copper-red painful swelling with pricking in the skin. In the variety caused by *pitta* there is excessive heat, suppurating abscesses, numbness and delirium. In the variety caused by *kapha* heaviness, insensibility, coldness of the skin, itching and little painfulness. Many times the ailment spreads over the body after it has reached the ankle-bone and wrist. The disease is incurable if an open wound rises up to the knee or the tumour bursts and suppurates, or vitality and flesh are reduced or if there are other bad complications like sleeplessness, breathlessness, decomposition of flesh, faint, delirium, fever, numbness, erysipelas, crookedness of fingers and toes, lameness, formation of glands etc. The treatment is partly external, partly internal. Many decoctions in butter and oil are especially recommended ( Car 6.29; Su 2.1; 4.5; AS 3.16; 4.22; AHr 3.16; 4.22; MN 187-90; Bhāv 2.2; Vang 405-25; Vr 9 ). From the above symptoms *vātarakta* cannot exclusively be identical with leprosy, but covers also gout and rheumatic ailments¹, perhaps other skin diseases.