Formulas · Clear Heat 淸熱 · Seui Deukhyobang (世醫得效方)

Fresh Rhinoceros Horn Powder

Saengseo-san

한글 생서산 · Pinyin Sheng Xi San

生犀散

The transcription writes 麄末; the corpus prints 麄 by a majority over 麤 and that form is kept. 薄荷五葉 is counted by leaf and takes no weight.

Composition 構成

Seogak Xi Jiao
犀角 서각 · Rhinoceros Horn (prohibited)

1.2 g
Chief 君

rhinoceros horn · CITES Appendix I
Jigolpi Di Gu Pi
地骨皮 지골피 · Lycium Root Bark

1.2 g
Chief 君
Jeokjagyak Chi Shao
赤芍藥 적작약 · Red Peony

1.2 g
Deputy 臣
Siho Chai Hu
柴胡 시호 · Bupleurum

1.2 g
Deputy 臣
Galgeun Ge Gen
葛根 갈근 · Kudzu Root

1.2 g
Assistant 佐

乾葛, the dried root
Gamcho Gan Cao
甘草 감초 · Licorice

1.2 g
Envoy 使
Bakha Bo He
薄荷 박하 · Mint

—
Envoy 使

five leaves

Total g per packet (첩) · representative dosage — verify against source texts. Excludes 1 ingredient 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 bone-steaming fever — the heat felt to rise from within the bones
Coarsely ground, five mint leaves added, decocted in water and taken

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

骨蒸熱 — bone-steaming fever, the heat of long depletion
Afternoon or evening fever with wasting

Biomedical correlates

Chronic low-grade fever with wasting in a child — tuberculosis among the causes

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

治骨蒸熱. 犀角ㆍ地骨皮ㆍ赤芍藥ㆍ柴胡ㆍ乾葛ㆍ甘草各三分. 右麄末, 入薄荷五葉, 水煎服之. 《得效》

Translation

Treats bone-steaming fever. Rhinoceros horn, lycium root bark, red peony, bupleurum, dried pueraria and licorice, 3 fun each. Grind the above coarsely, add five mint leaves, decoct in water and take. — Deukhyo 得效 (Donguibogam · Soa)

Clinical commentary 臨床

骨蒸, bone-steaming, is the tradition's name for a fever that seems to come from deep inside and that goes with wasting — the fever of long depletion rather than of a sudden illness. In a child, the differential for exactly that picture is narrow and serious: tuberculosis above all, then chronic infection, malignancy, and inflammatory disease. 地骨皮 and 柴胡 are the standard pair for it and 赤芍藥 cools the blood; the formula is reasonable within its own frame and treats none of those diagnoses. Most fevers in a child are viral and resolve on their own, and the signs that matter are how the child looks — feeding, alertness, breathing, colour — not the height of the temperature. But a fever with wasting that has lasted weeks is the exception, and it is an investigation rather than a prescription. See the chapter prose at 1.41 for the taxonomy and its limits. **Contains rhinoceros horn, which is listed on CITES Appendix I. The demand created by this very tradition is the reason the rhinoceros is endangered: horn was taken for formulas like this one, and the poaching that followed has brought several species to the edge of extinction and killed one of them. The horn is keratin, the same protein as hair and nail, and has no antipyretic action of any kind. It must not be obtained, bought or prepared, and trade in it is a criminal offence in most jurisdictions.** **The text gives no dose by weight anywhere, and the patient is a child.** — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.