Formulas · External Application 外用 · Uihak Immun (醫學入門)

Pus Shooting Pill

Sanong-hwan

한글 사농환 · Pinyin She Nong Wan

射膿丸

The leaf opens without a 治 clause: the chapter's 癰疽作穴出膿法 section names the indication for the whole group and this leaf gives only the compound. 白礬灰 is alum calcined to its dried form and is registered under 白礬. 砒礵 is both this transcription's and the herb dictionary's form for 砒霜. 麫 is printed 麪 above, following the corpus. 錠子 is a small moulded pin, the same dosage form as a modern wound stick.

Composition 構成

Baekban Bai Fan
白礬 백반 · Alum

4 g
Chief 君

白礬灰, calcined alum, 1 don
Bisang Pi Shuang
砒礵 비상 · Arsenic Trioxide

2 g
Deputy 臣

砒礵, 5 fun · arsenic
Hwangdan Huang Dan
黃丹 황단 · Red Lead (toxic)

1 g
Deputy 臣

one ja · lead oxide
Baengmyeon Bai Mian
白麪 백면 · White Wheat Flour

—
Envoy 使

麪糊, wheat flour paste, to roll the pin

Total 7 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

Rolled into a small pin and stuck on the head of the sore
The pus said to burst out of itself

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

瘡頭 — the head of a sore that will not open
Pus formed and undischarged

Biomedical correlates

Abscess requiring drainage
Indurated non-draining wound

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

白礬灰一錢, 黃丹一字, 砒礵五分. 右爲末, 麪糊和撚作錠子, 粘在瘡頭上, 膿自潰出. 《入門》

Translation

Calcined alum 1 don; red lead, one ja; arsenic 5 fun. Powder the above, mix with wheat flour paste and roll it into a small pin; stick the pin on the head of the sore and the pus bursts out of itself. — Uihak Immun 入門 (Donguibogam · Ongjeo)

Clinical commentary 臨床

The most direct of the chapter's needle-substitutes and the most dangerous. Arsenic, red lead and calcined alum, flour-pasted into a little pin and stuck on the head of the sore: the arsenic and lead are escharotics, they kill the skin they are set against, and the collection opens through the dead patch. 錠子, a moulded pin, is a form chosen so the caustic can be aimed at a point and pushed in. It belongs with 替鍼丸, 麝香散 and 涌泉膏 as one of six methods the chapter gives for opening a swelling or drawing the pus out, and the group is worth reading together: the problem they were all solving is a real one, and the only tool they had for it was chemistry. **Arsenic and red lead are cumulative poisons absorbed through broken skin, and this is an escharotic applied in order to kill tissue. It must not be prepared or used under any circumstances.** Chemical cautery of an abscess has been superseded entirely: pus is released by incision and drainage, and dead tissue is removed by surgical debridement. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.