Yinhuo Tang_Secret Records from the Stone Chamber

陳士鐸-石室祕錄

-- Whenever a person suddenly has swelling and pain in the throat with formation of double moths, food and drink cannot go down; if he does not eat for five days, he will die. However, this condition, when due to excess fire, is easy to treat, while deficiency fire is difficult to cure. For excess fire, people already have effective formulas: for example, using shan dou gen, scutellaria, coptis, pinellia, bupleurum, licorice, platycodon, and trichosanthes root to treat it will immediately disperse it. As for deficiency fire, it is kidney fire not stored in the gate of life, floating and wandering in the throat. Its symptoms also resemble excess fire, except that it is worse at night than during the day, and in the early morning it instead feels somewhat lighter; whereas excess fire is instead worse in the early morning and lighter at night. With excess fire, the mouth is dry and the tongue is dry and cracked; with deficiency fire, the mouth is not very thirsty, and the tongue is slippery and not cracked. By discriminating the condition in this way, one will certainly not err. If this kind of deficiency pain is also treated by the method for excess fire, it is like a person who has already fallen into a well and then adding stones to him. Therefore, not only should cold and cool medicinals not be used, but dispersing medicinals should also not be used. For deficiency fire must be tonified. Yet if one merely tonifies kidney water, although water can control fire and bring slight improvement, when the fire force is too abundant it is not easy to subdue; one should further tonify fire within water, then lead fire back to its source and the fire force will suddenly be removed, vanishing in an instant. -- If the throat swelling is closed and obstructed, so that not even a spoonful of water can go down, even if one has this miraculous formula, how can it be applied? I have another method: take one aconite and five qian of psoralea, grind each into powder, mix into a paste to make an ointment, spread it on cloth like a plaster, as large as a tea cup, paste it at the center of the sole, and bake it with fire for one shichen; the throat will then loosen and open a pathway, and one can take medicine. This wonderful method must also not be unknown.

Prepared rehmannia 1 liang, Scrophularia 1 liang, white mustard seed 3 qian, dogwood 4 qian, northern schisandra 2 qian, Chinese yam 4 qian, poria 5 qian, cinnamon 2 qian. Decoct in water and take. After one dose the sound of phlegm quiets, pain is immediately removed, and swelling also completely disappears; after two doses, complete recovery.

Decoct in water and take.

湯劑

Greatly tonify kidney water and lead fire back to its storage.

Sore swollen throat, throat moth, mild by day and severe by night. Red tongue with no coating or peeled coating; the cun and guan pulses are floating and large, while the chi pulse is weak.