A History of Hindu Chemistry from the Earliest Times to the Middle of the Sixteenth Century A.D. v1.c10.t16.3

v1.c10.t16.3

"The object of the tongue is taste. Water and earth are the objective existences in which taste inheres. In its manifestation and as regards particular kinds of it, space, air and light are also its adjuncts. Sweet, sour, salt, pungent, bitter and astringent, these are regarded as the sixfold catalogue of tastes. * * * Objects are again known to be of three kinds, viz., animal products, vegetable products and products appertaining to the earth. Honey, vaccine, secretions, bile, fat, marrow, blood, flesh, excreta, urine, skin, semen, bones, tendons, horns, nails, hoofs, hair, bristles and the bright pigment called *Gorochana*,¹ are used (as drugs) among animal products. Gold, the five metals and their ordure [*i.e.* their calces, the five metals *viz.*, silver, copper lead, tin and iron], sand, lime, red arsenic, gems, salt, red chalk and antimony, are indicated as drugs appertaining to the earth.”²