Four Sages Nail-Sore Turning Powder

Four drugs — the four sages the name counts — and the odd thing about the leaf is its order: the method comes first and the composition after, as though the technique mattered more than what was in it. Calomel, sal ammoniac and stiffened silkworm at two and a half don each, with only five fun of croton kernel, stirred into vinegar and smeared over the sore. Then 托裏之藥, an interior-supporting medicine, by mouth, and the claim is 其疔自出 — the nail-sore comes out of itself. It is given for a particular case, and the qualification is careful: 生於四肢勢微者, on a limb and still slight. A 疔 on a limb is further from the trunk and read as less dangerous, and the chapter is choosing a mild caustic for the mild case, just as 保生錠子 is chosen for the frail patient. The 拔疔法 sub-section lists this beside 回瘡錠子 and 保生錠子 as one of the three ways to draw a root. **Contains calomel, which is a mercury salt absorbed through broken skin, and croton kernel, which is a violent vesicant. This must not be prepared or applied.** Mercurial pastes on open skin caused the childhood mercury poisoning that was once common from teething powders, and nothing is gained from the exposure: a small furuncle on a limb discharges and heals with warm compresses and clean dressings, and one that does not is incised. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.