and corneal ulcers, pterygium, and other eye diseases. See p. 245.
78
La and La-ong1
General
KPC II; 103, 104.
There are nine kinds of la which occur in association with birth saang.2 if a doctor is to treat birth saang, he should examine the mouth and tongue in order to diagnose which kind of la the baby has. The pustules of la may be yellow, red, as black as ink, leaf-green with visible blood vessels, as dark as sapphires,^ the Creddish-purple! colour of the almost ripe black plum, indigo coloured or white. In treating 7a, the type of saang affecting the child should be taken into consideration. La is very bad if it makes the inside of the mouth red, and medicine should be administered with care. If the la gives a yellow coating to the tongue, it is called la-ong phrabaat. If the la is corn coloured, it is called saeng phrachan, and with this, the baby has diarrhoea and cannot sleep...
If the pustules are red, this saang is called
utthayakaan Ccf. p. 803. At first, the eyes are yellow,
the baby clenches its hands and feet, kicks in its sleep, and neither the bowels nor bladder function...
If the pustules come first, it is called foi f ai.^ After three days, the back hurts, and the rest of the body hurts, and breathing becomes difficult...
The leaf-green pustules with tiny blood vessels in them, by the fifth day cause flatulence, diarrhoea, and dry lips, and make the baby cry in a dry C?husky! voice...
If the pustules are as dark as sapphires, it is called
ninlakaan. After a day, this changes to ninlafai, then,
after two days, to ninlaphet. It is the same on both sides of the mouth. If ninlakaan lasts three days, half the body is paralysed, and the baby cannot cry.^
1 La and la-ong are evidently symptoms of saang, usually occurring in the mouth and throat, but sometimes in other parts of the gastro-intestinal tract. The differences between the two are not made clear in the text; it is almost as if the details of
these symptoms were common knowledge. M D, p. 447, explains that
la refers to pustules, or small, inflamed elevations in the mouth, either convex or flat, of which there are various kinds,
of different colours. It frequently occurs in children suffering from saang. La-ong refers to vapours emanating from the abdomen causing a film or membrane to adhere to the areas of the mouth. The text seems to imply that it is the film or membrane rather than the vapour that is la-ong. This is borne out by lie's
interpretation of la-ong to mean ’dust', ’powder' or ’small
particles' (p. 736). Another meaning of la-ong is'fur on the tongue'. So Sethaputra, p. 815.
2 Only eight kinds are given in the following list. The 1871 text is the same.
3 See p . 38, note 1 ] .
4 foi fai eJau'VH shower of fire.
5 ninlafai fire sapphire.
The La and La-onq of Children Born on Sunday KPC III, 1; 141.
Description of saang kraai, which is the minor saang of saang phloeng, together with a description of the la called la utthayakaan of the days Cof the week!, and the la-ong phrabaat called la-ong pleo fai faa. La utthayakaan is explained with saang daeng in Part 3. La-ong pleo fai faa is described with saang chon in Part 7. Here, in
Part 1, on saang phloeng, we will discuss only saang kraai Csee p. 70]. These three - the minor saang, la, and la-ong - whenever they occur together with or following saang phloeng, might continue until the child is twelve years of age.
KPC VI; 223, 224.
In the main body of KPC it says, concerning the child born on Sunday, that saang phloeng is the birth saang,
saang kraai is the minor saang, and la utthayakaan is the la. Here, we say, concerning taan chon,* that, with saang phloeng, sometimes saang kranae chon occurs,^ sometimes saang kratang chon; that not only la utthayakaan occurs with saang phloeng, but that la ninlakaan, la saeng phloeng, and la ninlaphloeng chon sometimes accompany it. Similarly, not only is the la-ong phrabaat associated with saang phloeng la-ong pleo fai faa, but
also la-ong kaeo morakot, la-ong phloeng, and la-ong thap thim sometimes occur with it. This is the way these diseases are manifested. If the doctor is not fully aware of what is stated in KPC, these diseases will kill many people. That is why the masters call this disease taan chon, because this saang is changeable. It is so strange that it is beyond description. Here, we have explained only one kind of saang, but doctors should realize that all seven kinds of [birth! saang behave similarly.^
The La and La-ong of Children Born on Monday KPC III, 2; 145, 146.
Here the masters discuss la saeng phrachan, which is associated with saang nam.
La saeng phrachan may occur with other kinds of birth saang as well as with saang nam. It is explained in Part 6
Csee p. 821. Here, in Part 2, only prescriptions for the treatment of this form of la are given.
1 This passage is taken from a section of Book VI where taan