Formulas · External Application 外用 · Seui Deukhyobang (世醫得效方)

Chicken-Heart Areca Powder

Gyesim-san

한글 계심산 · Pinyin Ji Xin San

雞心散

The collation line 油 : 冲 falls at the foot of this leaf, at the page break before [051b]. 油 does occur in this leaf, in 淸油, but 淸冲 is not a reading; the annotated word is 杜油 in the preceding 活血驅風散 leaf, where the 初刊本 prints 杜冲 for 杜仲. Nothing in this leaf has been altered on the note's authority. The transcription writes 褁 for 裹 and the corpus form is kept.

Composition 構成

Hwangdan Huang Dan
黃丹 황단 · Red Lead (toxic)

12 g
Chief 君

baked inside the areca · lead tetroxide, toxic
Billang Bing Lang
檳榔 빈랑 · Areca Seed

—
Chief 君

雞心檳榔, two chicken-heart areca nuts, split open, the red lead closed inside, wrapped in wet paper and baked
Yuhwang Liu Huang
硫黃 유황 · Sulphur

16 g
Deputy 臣
Jeongal Quan Xie
全蠍 전갈 · Scorpion (toxic)

—
Deputy 臣

six · toxic
Gyeongbun Qing Fen
輕粉 경분 · Calomel (toxic)

2 g
Assistant 佐

calomel, mercurous chloride · severely toxic
Cheongdae Qing Dai
靑黛 청대 · Natural Indigo

2 g
Assistant 佐
Sahyang She Xiang
麝香 사향 · Musk (prohibited)

—
Envoy 使

a little · CITES Appendix I, prohibited in trade
Cheongyu Qing You
淸油 청유 · Clear Sesame Oil

—
Envoy 使

淸油, for mixing the small quantity used at each application

Total 32 g per packet (첩) · representative dosage — verify against source texts. Excludes 4 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 the kidney-visceral wind breaking out as sores and scabies
Stirred with clear oil, rubbed on both palms and the palms then held against the scrotum, or against both breasts in a woman, through the night

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

腎臟風 breaking out as sores and scabies
Itching of the scrotum and the lower body

Biomedical correlates

Scrotal eczema — external use
Scabies of the trunk and genitals

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

治腎藏風發瘡疥. 雞心檳榔二箇, 破開, 以黃丹三錢合在內, 濕紙褁煨, 全蝎六箇, 硫黃四錢, 入輕粉ㆍ靑黛各半錢, 麝香少許. 右和勻, 磁器收貯, 每用少許, 淸油調抹兩掌, 掩外腎, 女掩兩乳, 各睡至醒, 次日又用之. 經驗. 《得效》

Translation

Treats the kidney-visceral wind breaking out as sores and scabies. Two chicken-heart areca nuts, split open, with 3 don of red lead closed up inside them, wrapped in wet paper and baked in the embers; scorpion 6; sulphur 4 don; then put in calomel and natural indigo, half a don each, and a little musk. Mix the above evenly and store it in a porcelain jar. Each time, take a little, stir it with clear oil and rub it over both palms, then cover the external kidney with them — a woman covers both breasts — and so sleep until waking; use it again the next day. Proven by experience. — Deukhyo 得效 (Donguibogam · Jechang)

Clinical commentary 臨床

The preparation is the interesting part: the lead is sealed inside two split areca nuts, the nuts wrapped in wet paper and buried in embers, so that the metal is roasted inside a vegetable shell before being powdered with sulphur, scorpion, calomel and indigo. The application is stranger still — the powder is rubbed into the palms and the palms are then held over the scrotum, or the breasts, all night. 外用雞心散 at 2.12 pairs it with the decoction above as the outward half of one treatment. Sulphur is the one ingredient here that does what the leaf claims. 發瘡疥 includes scabies, and sulphur ointment remains a first-line scabicide to this day, still used in infants and in pregnancy where other agents are avoided. Applied overnight and repeated the next day, which is exactly the schedule the leaf gives, it would have cured scabies. **Contains red lead and calomel and must not be prepared.** Lead and mercury held against the scrotum overnight is close to the worst case for absorption: the skin there is thin and highly permeable, the contact is occlusive and prolonged, and the dose is repeated. **Contains musk, CITES Appendix I and prohibited in trade.** Sulphur alone, in a bland base, is the part worth keeping. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.