Formulas · Clear Heat 淸熱 · Gogeum Uigam (古今醫鑑)

Toad Venom Pill

Seomsu-hwan

한글 섬수환 · Pinyin Chan Su Wan

蟾酥丸

鍳 is given as 鑑 in the source label and 䓗 as 葱, the corpus form; the collation note 䓗 : 葱 at the page boundary of leaf 010a records the first edition's reading for the 䓗酒 of this leaf and for the 生䓗白 of the 神效奪命丹 leaf above it, and is noted in both entries. 一字 is a quarter of a 錢 and is entered as 1 g. The toad venom is given without a weight, since it is the binder taken fresh on the day; the millet grain that gives the pill its size is method rather than an ingredient.

Composition 構成

Jusa Zhu Sha
朱砂 주사 · Cinnabar (toxic)

12 g
Chief 君

3 don · cinnabar, mercuric sulphide, toxic
Unghwang Xiong Huang
雄黃 웅황 · Realgar

12 g
Chief 君

3 don · realgar, an arsenic sulphide, toxic
Seomsu Chan Su
蟾酥 섬수 · Toad Venom

—
Chief 君

taken on the fifth day of the fifth month and used to bind the pills, no amount stated · toad venom, cardiotoxic
Sahyang She Xiang
麝香 사향 · Musk (prohibited)

1 g
Envoy 使

一字, a quarter don · musk, a CITES-protected material
Chongbaek Cong Bai
蔥白 총백 · Scallion White

—
Envoy 使

葱酒 — scallion wine, the vehicle the pills are sent down with

Total g per packet (첩) · representative dosage — verify against source texts. Excludes 2 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 clove sore, malign sore and unnamed toxic swelling
Three pills to a dose, sent down with scallion wine
Compounded on the fifth day of the fifth month, the toad venom taken fresh that day as the binder

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

Clove sore, malign sore and unnamed toxic swelling (疔瘡, 惡瘡, 無名腫毒)

Biomedical correlates

Furuncle, carbuncle and malignant pustule
Severe skin and soft-tissue infection

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

治疔瘡ㆍ惡瘡ㆍ無名腫毒. 朱砂ㆍ雄黃各三錢, 麝香一字. 右末, 端午日取蟾酥和丸黍米大, 葱酒下三丸. 《醫鑑》

Translation

Treats clove sore, malign sore and unnamed toxic swelling. Cinnabar and realgar, 3 don each; musk a quarter don. Powder the above and, on the fifth day of the fifth month, take toad venom and bind them into pills the size of a millet grain; three pills to a dose, sent down with scallion wine. — Uigam 醫鑑 (Donguibogam · Ongjeo)

Clinical commentary 臨床

The shortest of the chapter's toad-venom pills and the clearest in structure: cinnabar and realgar at 3 don each, a quarter don of musk, and fresh toad venom as the binder. Three pills the size of millet grains, sent down in scallion wine. Where 返魂丹 and 神效奪命丹 pile on alum, chalcanthite, verdigris, calomel and snails, this one strips the method down to its three minerals and the venom, which makes it the best leaf in the chapter for seeing what the class actually is. Compounding on the fifth day of the fifth month is calendrical. The Duanwu date carries protective meaning and the toad is one of its emblematic creatures, so taking the venom fresh that day belongs to the formula's history rather than to its action — the same instruction stands in 賽命丹 in the upper part of the chapter. 無名腫毒, unnamed toxic swelling, is the chapter's catch-all for any acute swelling that does not fit a named category. **Contains toad venom, whose bufadienolides act on the sodium-potassium pump exactly as digoxin does and have caused fatal arrhythmias at ordinary doses, with deaths recorded from toad-venom preparations in the modern literature; cinnabar, which is mercuric sulphide; and realgar, which is an arsenic sulphide. Musk is a CITES-protected material. This must not be prepared.** A clove sore or a rapidly spreading swelling needs antibiotics and surgical drainage. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.