Formulas · Purge Downward 瀉下 · Uihak Immun (醫學入門)

Another Formula for Scrofula

Ilbang

한글 일방(나력) · Pinyin Yi Fang

一方

Headed 一方 in the source, an unnamed formula standing at the end of the 瘰癧 section at 033b, immediately before the 外治法 sub-section; it is entered here under an identifier taken from that section. It has nothing to do with the three unnamed 一方 entries of the 黃疸 chapter (chihyeok-bang-1 and following), the 肺癰 one (pyeongong-ilbang) or the 疔疽 one (jeongjeo-ilbang) of the 癰疽門. 烏雞卵, the egg of a black hen, is registered under 雞卵 as gyeran; the paper that seals the hole is apparatus and is named in the method only. The beetle is discarded after steaming, so no weights are entered.

Composition 構成

Gyeja Ji Zi
雞子 계자 · Hen's Egg

—
Chief 君

烏雞卵一枚 — one egg of a black hen, the top pierced and the hole sealed with paper, steamed through
Banmyo Ban Mao
斑猫 반묘 · Blister Beetle

—
Deputy 臣

一箇 — one beetle, put inside the egg and removed after steaming; cantharidin, a blistering agent and renal toxin

Total g per packet (첩) · representative dosage — verify against source texts. Excludes 2 ingredients measured by count or used as a vehicle, shown as —.

Received this formula from your practitioner? Amounts shown here are classical reference values — granule and prepared products differ. Always follow your prescribed dosage and directions.

Actions 效能

Treats scrofula
A cantharides beetle sealed inside a black hen's egg and steamed, the beetle removed before the egg is eaten
One egg a day, sent down with a decoction of Ojeok-san; four or five eggs answer

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

瘰癧 — scrofula

Biomedical correlates

Tuberculous cervical lymphadenitis

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

治瘰癧. 烏雞卵一枚, 穿頂, 納斑猫一箇, 紙封其竅, 蒸熟, 去猫. 日一服, 煎<a href='/formulas/ojeok-san'>五積散</a><span class='sochu'>方見寒門</span>送下, 四五枚卽效. 《入門》

Translation

Treats scrofula. One egg of a black hen: pierce the top, put in one cantharides beetle, seal the hole with paper, steam it through, and take the beetle out. One a day, sent down with a decoction of Ojeok-san <span class='sochu'>the formula is given in the Cold chapter</span>; four or five eggs and it answers. — Uihak Immun 入門 (Donguibogam · Jechang)

Clinical commentary 臨床

Two things and a piece of paper. A hole is pierced in the top of a black hen's egg, one cantharides beetle goes in, the hole is papered over, the egg is steamed through, the beetle is taken out, and the egg is eaten — one a day for four or five days, each one washed down with a decoction of Ojeok-san. The egg is both the cooking vessel and the dose, and the beetle is never swallowed: what the patient takes is whatever passed out of it into the albumen. The method is the chapter's way of using 斑猫 at a dose it could not otherwise control. In the 瘰癧 formulas the beetle is the drug that is supposed to drive the toxin out through the urine — 立應散 says so explicitly, 毒從小便出 — and the egg is a buffer against what it does on the way. It is a real pharmacological intuition and a dangerous one. **斑猫 is the blister beetle and its active principle is cantharidin, a vesicant that is severely toxic by mouth, causes gastrointestinal and urinary tract injury and acute renal failure, and has killed at small doses. Steaming it inside an egg does not make it safe. This must not be prepared.** 瘰癧 is tuberculous lymphadenitis; nothing here reaches it, and the draining node continues until the infection itself is treated. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.