Universal Relief Toxin-Resolving Beverage

Pattern-based

• Epidemic swelling of the head (天行大頭瘟)
• Onset with aversion to cold and a heavy body, then head and face swelling so the eyes cannot open
• Panting above, a throat that will not pass, dry tongue and parched mouth

Biomedical correlates

• Epidemic illness with marked swelling of the head, face and neck
• Cervicofacial soft-tissue swelling with fever
• Possibly mumps and other epidemic parotid or peritonsillar swelling, read with caution

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

治天行大頭瘟. 黃芩ㆍ黃連(並酒炒) 各五錢, 人參 三錢, 陳皮ㆍ桔梗ㆍ玄參ㆍ柴胡ㆍ甘草 各二錢, 鼠粘子ㆍ馬勃ㆍ板藍根<span class='sochu'>無則用靑黛</span>ㆍ連翹 各一錢, 升麻ㆍ白殭蚕 各五分. 右爲末, 取一半白湯調和, 時時呷之, 留一半蜜丸彈子大, 每一丸細嚼, 熟水送下. 或加防風ㆍ薄荷ㆍ川芎ㆍ當歸, 剉取一兩, 水煎, 分二三次服之. 腫甚宜砭刺出血. 《東垣》 ○泰和二年四月, 民多疫癘, 初覺增寒體重, 次傳頭面腫盛, 目不能開, 上喘, 咽喉不利, 舌乾口燥, 俗云大頭天行, 染之多死. 東垣曰, 身半已上天之氣也, 身半已下地之氣也. 此邪熱客於心肺之間, 上攻頭面而爲腫盛, 遂製一方, 名曰普濟消毒飮子, 服之皆愈. 人謂之仙方, 謂天仙所製也, 遂刻諸石以傳永久. 《東垣》

Translation

Treats epidemic swelling of the head that goes about with the season. Scutellaria and coptis, both wine-stir-fried, 5 don each; ginseng, 3 don; tangerine peel, platycodon, scrophularia, bupleurum and licorice, 2 don each; arctium seed, puffball, isatis root <span class='sochu'>where there is none, use indigo</span> and forsythia, 1 don each; cimicifuga and white silkworm, 5 fun each. Powder them; take half and stir it into plain hot water, sipping it at intervals, and keep the other half bound with honey into pills the size of a bullet, chewing one fine and sending it down with boiled water. Or add saposhnikovia, mint, chuanxiong and angelica, cut up, take 1 nyang of it, decoct in water, and drink it in two or three doses. Where the swelling is severe it should be lanced to let out blood. — Dongwon 東垣 (Donguibogam · On) ○ In the fourth month of the second year of Taihe the people suffered much pestilence. At first they felt aversion to cold and a heaviness of the body; next it passed to a full swelling of the head and face so that the eyes could not open, with panting above, a throat that would not pass, a dry tongue and a parched mouth. Common speech called it epidemic big head, and most who caught it died. Dongwon said: the half of the body above is the qi of Heaven, the half below is the qi of Earth. This evil heat lodges between the Heart and the Lung and attacks upward into the head and face, making the full swelling. So he composed one prescription and named it Bojesodok-eumja, and all who took it recovered. People called it an immortal’s prescription, saying it had been made by a Heavenly immortal, and so it was cut into stone to be handed down forever. — Dongwon 東垣 (Donguibogam · On)