Diagnosis and Prognosis:

The diagnosis and prognosis of disease were done directly by  seeing, hearing, smelling and touching all external human organs and human waste and often indirectly by  pulse examination. These observations. singly or in combination, were correlated in specific diseases. Thus, in an abscess,  the physician heard the bustling sound of  air with frothy blood. Similarly, the sounds in entrails. the crack of  a  joint, changes in voice etc.. gave other indications. His diagnosis was based not only on direct observation but on knowledge of the patient's home, caste, mode of  living, diet and other aspects of medical history. Prognosis was based on the dictum that a clever physician should not treat an incurable patient. Accordingly, detailed examination of  'arista' or bad omens (classified according to the nature of disease) which led to death, was madc.