Hindu Medicine c8.103

c8.103

Phlegm, functioning within the microcosm of the human body, represents the mild and cool, milky and nourishing substance of the moon which feeds the vegetable and animal realms of the macrocosm. Bile, on the other hand, is the microcosmic form of the Fire-god, which manifests itself as the sun in the firmament and, at the same time, as the sacred domestic fire on the house-altar. Suśruta states (I, 35):