Musk Powder for Breaking an Abscess Head

A dotting caustic. Blister beetle is the active part: cantharidin raises a blister on contact, and dotted onto the head of a ripe abscess in vinegar it lifts and destroys the thin skin over it so the collection opens. Sparrow droppings add an alkaline irritant, borneol and musk are the aromatics, and vinegar is the vehicle that keeps the dot where it is put. 急以黃連湯洗去之 — wash it off at once with a coptis decoction — is the most important line in the leaf and the one that shows the author knew what he was handling. The medicine is left on for seconds, not minutes, because it does not stop when the skin opens. **Blister beetle is cantharidin, a blistering agent and a renal toxin absorbed through skin, and musk is a protected animal product. This must not be prepared.** Even in small amounts cantharidin causes painful full-thickness skin loss and, absorbed, kidney injury; the thing it is being used to achieve is incision and drainage, which is a sterile procedure done with anaesthesia. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.