A History of Indian Medical Literature v1.c24.82

v1.c24.82

Chapter three (raktapittakāsanidāna) deals with: the aetiology and pathogenesis of raktapitta (3.1–4ab);⁵⁷ the prodromes (3.4cd–7ab);⁵⁸ the symptoms of its three types: moving upwards, moving downwards and moving in both directions (3.7cd–8ab);⁵⁹ the upwards moving type is curable, because of the predominance of kapha; the general principles of its treatment (3.8cd–10); the downwards moving type is palliable, because vāta is the predominant doṣa; the general principles of its treatment (3.11–12); the type moving in both directions, associated with kapha and vāta, is incurable; the reasons for its incurability (3.13–15);⁶⁰ the doṣas involved can be recognized in the same way as in bloodletting by means of phlebotomy;⁶¹ the complications are described in the vikṛtivijñāna chapter;⁶² cough (kāsa), a complication of raktapitta that may become fatal, will now be dealt with (3.16–17ab); cough is of five kinds: brought about by vāta, pitta, kapha, a traumatic lesion (kṣata), and kṣaya;⁶³ if neglected, all these types lead to kṣaya;⁶⁴ they are more serious in character in the mentioned order (3.17cd–18ab);⁶⁵ the prodromes (3.18cd–19a);⁶⁶ the pathogenesis; the explanation for the occurrence of different syndromes (3.19b–22ab);⁶⁷ the symptomatology of cough caused by vāta (3.22–24ab), 68 pitta (3.24cd–25), 69 kapha (3.26–27ab); 70 the aetiology and symptomatology of cough caused by an injury inside the chest (3.27cd–32ab) 71 and of cough occurring in patients with rājayakṣman (3.32cd–35); 72 the prognosis of cough due to an injury and to kṣaya (3.36); 73 cough due to one doṣa is curable; cough due to two doṣas and cough due to old age are amenable to palliative treatment (3.37); 74 complications arising from neglect (3.38).