Formulas · Expel Worms 驅蟲 · Manbyeong Hoechun (萬病回春)

Sacred Lime Powder

Seonghoe-san

한글 성회산 · Pinyin Sheng Hui San

聖灰散

Composition 構成

Seokhoe Shi Hui
石灰 석회 · Lime (caustic)

—
Chief 君

quicklime fresh from the kiln, slaked, boiled down and fried to a yellow or ivory colour; 2 to 4 fun by dose · caustic
Soju Shao Jiu
燒酒 소주 · Distilled Liquor

—
Envoy 使

good distilled spirit, one or two small cups, as the vehicle

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 gullet-blocked food and returning food
Brings up or passes down worms

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

Gullet block with food vomited as soon as swallowed

Biomedical correlates

Dysphagia attributed to parasites — historical treatment

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

治噎食病及回食病<span class='sochu'>回食者, 食下卽吐也</span>. 取初出窰石灰, 投入鍋中滾水中化開, 去渣, 止用淸水煮乾, 炒黃色爲度. 黃色難得, 牙色卽可用. 罐收貯封口, 勿令泄氣; 過一二年則無用矣. 凡人年四十餘壯健者用四分, 年老氣弱只用二分或三分. 好燒酒調服一二鍾, 能飮者三四鍾. 或吐出蟲, 或下蟲, 其病卽愈. 如不吐不下, 遇發再服自痊. 《回春》

Translation

Treats gullet-blocked food and the returning-food disease<span class='sochu'>returning food means that the food is vomited as soon as it has gone down</span>. Take quicklime fresh from the kiln, throw it into boiling water in a pan to slake it, discard the sediment, boil down only the clear water, and fry it until it turns yellow — yellow is hard to get, and an ivory colour will do. Store it in a jar sealed at the mouth so that the air cannot get at it; after a year or two it is of no use. A robust person in his forties takes 4 fun; one old and weak in qi, only 2 or 3 fun. Give it stirred into one or two small cups of good distilled spirit, or three or four for one who can drink. Either worms are vomited up or worms are passed below, and the disease is cured. If nothing comes up or down, take it again at the next attack and it will mend of itself. — Manbyeong Hoechun 回春 (Donguibogam · Guto)

Clinical commentary 臨床

**Quicklime taken internally. This must not be prepared.** Calcium oxide is strongly caustic: swallowed, it burns the mouth, gullet and stomach, and in a patient whose gullet is already obstructed it can perforate it. The doses given are small and the preparation slakes most of the lime, but the residue is still alkali, and the chapter is using it deliberately for its violence. The entry is kept as a record of what was tried for a disease nothing would touch. The reasoning behind it is the belief that gullet block is caused by worms, which is why the test of success is whether worms appear in the vomit or the stool; the chapter's own 單方 list has three more remedies on the same assumption. **Progressive difficulty in swallowing is a structural problem — stricture, achalasia or tumour — and needs endoscopic assessment.** — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.