Ginseng and Astragalus Decoction for Abscess

Bojungikgi-tang with bupleurum dropped and four medicinals put in — atractylodes lancea and medicated leaven for the stomach that will not take food, liriope for the dryness, and a small dose of phellodendron, four fun against the one don of astragalus, for the heat that is still smouldering. The frame is Dongwon's, and the reason for choosing it here is plain in the indication: the abscess has already opened, the pus is away, and what is left is a patient who cannot eat, cannot sleep and is still running hot. The three findings belong together and the chapter knows it. 少食 is the stomach; 不眠 and 煩熱 are what a long febrile illness leaves behind. Rather than treat any one of them, the leaf rebuilds the centre and lets the rest settle, which is the 托裏 logic of the section applied to the aftermath rather than to the abscess itself. Read it against Takri-san, which answers the wound that will not close, and against Omija-tang in the same section, which answers the dry mouth of the same stage from the fluid side. The honest modern reading is modest and defensible. Appetite, sleep and nutritional repletion genuinely matter to recovery after a drained infection, and a patient in that state is the one this leaf describes. What the decoction cannot do is substitute for drainage or for treating an infection that is still active. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.