different organisms, or could be separate stages in the
mucus and blood, and cannot take nourishment. The doctor should investigate whether it is the male or the female type of saang daeng [see pp. 40, 575, and satisfy himself quite definitely whether it is a fatal or mild form. He should give considerable care to his choice of treatment, because the baby will be in great difficulty within nine days if the wrong medicine is given [see p. 45, note 25. Whether they have studied the texts or not, doctors should take great care in their deliberations. After three more months [at seven months of agell, another major pustule of saang will appear, another after six months [now aged ten months], and another after nine to eleven lunar months [about one year old], each coming from one of the primary pustules in the crown [see p. 46, note 1], which are the most virulent ones. These have six heads, and are poisonous and extremely painful. The doctor should be very careful with his treatment, because the baby will die unless he knows how to cure it [see p. 45, note 2]. Drastic purgatives and drugs to expel flatus should not be given, otherwise it will be very difficult to cure later. When the baby is a year old, the primary pustule subsides to re-emerge
in and on the navel. It is joined by another at one year and three months of age, another at one year and six months, one year and eight months, one year and eleven months, and at two years and two months. There are then six major pustules altogether in the navel. Now the 72 followers break out,
with the major saang, in the bladder, ileum, colon, pubic area, spine, or on the chin; on both sides of the body, in the chest, the throat, or on the tongue, hurting all over. If they
erupt in the pubic area and bladder, they cause difficulty in micturition, and constipation; in the colon, diarrhoea; in the ileum, heavy urination. When they are on the sides, they produce a high temperature; in the long muscles of the back, insomnia; in the stomach, vomiting; in the bladder, extreme thirst; in the throat, dryness and coughing; in the eyes, soreness; in the mouth, redness; and those pustules in the ears produce a foul discharge from the ears. In order to be able to distinguish between male saang daeng and female saang daeng [see pp. 40, 57], the doctor should know that, if
it [unspecified] comes up in the armpits, it withdraws and re-emerges on the right side of a male child, and on the left side of a female child. When the female variety of saang daeng is finished, the male variety of saang daeng develops as one pustule under each arm. Then the baby will die. Saang daeng establishes itself at three to nine months of age, continuing until one year and nine months of age, when it enters the
body internally, resulting in the child passing blood, mucus and pus in the stools. The spleen hangs down [becomes enlarged, see p. 49, note 1], the patient has a high temperature, is thin and yellow, passes yellow faeces and urine, has abdominal colic, and excessive mucus arises left, right, or centre,^ causing 1 This is unclear; also, the 1961 edition contains misprints.
Thus we have in the 1871 text: 'semha fuum ok maa thang saai khwaa lae suun klaang ko dee'
, while the 1961 edition substitutes
'fuuk' <Hn for 'fuum' vkj , and omits 'ko' n . However, these same words, 'maa thang saai khuaa lae suun klaang ko dee'
3 -j n m u t m 11, a ~ fVuli n a n n ft
are repeated in the following statement about the navel, which might suggest an error in the compilation of the 1871 text. The
translation might then be rendered: 'excessive mucus arises, causing muscular spasm of the hands and feet'.
56 muscular spasm of the hands and feet. When he sees this,
the doctor should examine the navel, to see if it has dropped down on either side, or in the centre. If so, he must take the precaution of treating it. If this is not the case, then this lorn is called utthangkhammaawaat. 1 It will go away by itself if care is taken of the baby from the time it is by the fire until it is three months old. If the doctor gives medicine and exorcises the spirits, and it does not go, then
it will move from the navel and ribs and chest, and become established in the navel.2 it is then called tom hong y a i ,3 and it moves [literally, blows] from the navel, up along the tendons, and blood and mucus travel up close by the spine to the upper chest and the throat, from there, quickly diffusing to the ears, nose, and the crown of the head.^ Doctors should understand clearly that the baby will die if it is the time
of the waxing of the moon; if it is the dark of the moon, it will not die. This disease is called trabong Rihü, maanthalun,
atsawamukkhee or taphan fat - it has many n a m e s . I t can happen to both boys and girls, there is no difference. KPC II; 121.
There is one kind of saang which produces no pustules, but a red eczematous eruption, which spreads. This is called saang daeng.
1 ^ms-^Fiunmei Päli uddhangconäväta. The 1871 text has utthangkhawaat . Lorn iw has several meanings, the most common being ’wind' or 'air in motion'. Lorn is also the Thai word used for the element wind, see p. 6, when it equates with
the Sanskrit 'väta' or 'V a y u ', and it is in this context that it is used here. Lorn utthangkhammaawaat or utthangkhammaawaataa is the wind which starts from the feet and rises to the head. Mulholland, J S S , p. 94, quoting A/D, p. 11. Another meaning of
tom is 'disease', see pp. 69, 70, 82 ff. For a searching discussion of the meaning of 't om', see Scott Bamber, Lorn: An Examination of a Term Used in Association with Illness in Traditional Thai Medicine, B.A. (Asian Studies) Honours sub thesis, Australian National University, 1982.
2 The first use of the word 'navel' could be replaced by 'abdomen'; see pp. 45, note 1; 47, note 1.
3 fwriENlmy
4 The navel is the centre from which the ten major tendons