Written By Jun Heo (許浚, 1539~1615), translated by Namil Kim, Wung Seok Cha et al. Published by Ministry of Health & Welfare (Korea).
17 Common Medicinals for Dysentery 痢疾通治藥 이질을 두루 치료하는 약
① Some symptoms of dysentery are as follows: acute pain around the umbilicus, bleeding of fresh blood, static blood, or purple-black blood. Also, there may be white sticky diarrhea, red and white mixed diarrhea, black bean juice-like diarrhea, color of the brain of fish-like diarrhea, or diarrhea like falling water from the thatched roof all accompanied by abdominal pain, heaviness of bottom, and frequenting the bathroom. Prescriptions like Stewed Aucklandia Paste, Six Spirits Pill, Aucklandia and Coptis Pill, Augmented Aucklandia and Coptis Pill, White Atractylodes Calm Stomach Powder, One in a Hundred Powder, Harmonise the Center Drink, Easy and Simple Broken Lower Bowls Decoction, Stabilize Stomach Powder, and Save and Extend Life Pill are commonly used. ② Dysentery after suffering from malaria is prescribed with a Coptis and Aucklandia Decoction.
- Stewed Aucklandia Paste 水煮木香膏 수자목향고: It treats all kinds of dysentery. Pericarpium Papaveris (罌粟殼) (fried after wetted in honey) 3 nyang, Amomi Fructus (砂仁), Myristicae Semen (肉豆蔲) (baked while buried under an ash fire), Olibanum (乳香) 7.5 don each, Aucklandiae Radix (木香), Syzygii Flos (丁香), Terminaliae Fructus (訶子), Agastachis Herba (藿香), Angelica Gigantis Radix (當歸), Coptidis Rhizoma (黃連), Magnoliae Cortex (厚朴), Citrus Unshius Pericarpium (陳皮), Citri Unshius Pericarpium Immaturus (靑皮), Paeoniae Radix (芍藥), Glycyrrhizae Radix (甘草) (baked) 5 don each, Ponciri Fructus Immaturus (枳實), and Zingiberis Rhizoma (乾薑) (baked after wrapped with damp paper) 2.5 don each. Powder these medicines, make into paste with honey, and make into pills the size of a bullet. Put 1 glass of water and 1 Zizyphi Fructus (大棗) together, decoct until 70% is left, then remove the Zizyphi Fructus, and take.
- Six Spirits Pill 六神丸 육신환: This is an important medicine for treating dysentery. Coptidis Rhizoma (黃連), Aucklandiae Radix (木香), Aruantii Fructus Immaturus (枳殼), Poria Sclerotium (茯苓), Massa Medicata Fermentata (神麯) (fried), and Hordei Vulgaris Fructus (麥芽) (fried) all the same quantities. Powder these medicines, make into paste with Massa Medicata Fermentata and make into pills the size of a seed of a foxglove tree. Take 50–70 pills at a time. Take with water decocted with Glycyrrhizae Radix for red dysentery, water decocted with Zingiberis Rhizoma for white dysentery, and water decocted with Zingiberis Rhizoma and Glycyrrhizae Radix for red-white dysentery.
- Augmented Aucklandia and Coptis Pill 加味香連丸 가미향련환: It treats all kinds of dysentery. Coptidis Rhizoma (fried) 2 nyang, Evodiae Fructus (吳茱萸) (fried after soaked in water) 1 nyang, Aucklandiae Radix 1 don, Amomi Fructus Rotundus (白豆蔲) (baked while buried under ash fire) 1.5 don, and Olibanum, Myrrha (沒藥) 1 don each. Powder these medicines, make into dough with Mume Fructus Praeparatum (烏梅) with the removed flesh after being soaked in water, and make into pills the size of a seed of a foxglove tree. Take 30 pills at a time with the water decoction mentioned above in the Six Spirits Pill.
- White Atractylodes Calm Stomach Powder 白朮安胃散 백출안위산: It treats all diarrhea and dysentery regardless of blood and pus. Pericarpium Papaveris (fried after wetted in honey) 2 don, Poria Sclerotium, Atractylodis Rhizoma, Plantaginis Semen 1 don each, Schisandrae Fructus, and Mume Fructus Praeparatum 5 pun each. Slice these medicines as 1 pack, decoct in water, and take.
- One in a Hundred Powder 百中散 백중산: It treats all kinds of dysentery regardless of the color of stool, red or white. Taking it two or three times will be enough for treatment. Pericarpium Papaveris (fried to red after wetted with honey), Magnoliae Cortex (dried after being soaked in Zingiberis Rhizoma juice) 2.5 nyang each. Powder these medicines, mix 2–3 don each with porridge, and take on an empty stomach. Avoid raw, cold, or toxic food.
- Harmonise Center Drink 和中飮 화중음: It treats dysentery. It is used in ineffective cases regardless of the color or duration of the disease. However, it must not be taken when there is fever or the patient’s mouth is closed. Pericarpium Papaveris (fried after wetted in vinegar) 1.5 don, Citrus Unshius Pericarpium, Atractylodis Rhizoma, Poria Sclerotium, Paeoniae Radix 1 don each, old rice 2 don, Amomi Tsao-ko Fructus 7 pun, Glycyrrhizae Radix 3 pun, sugar 3 don, and 1 Mume Fructus Praeparatum. Slice these medicines as 1 pack, put 3 pieces of Zingiberis Rhizoma and 2 Zizyphi Fructus, decoct in water, and take.
- Easy and Simple Broken Lower Bowls Decoction 易簡斷下湯 이간단하탕: It treats all kinds of dysentery. It is especially effective for deficient dysentery and continuous dysentery. Pericarpium Papaveris (sliced after the removal of fascis, tip and calyx, then fried after wetted in vinegar, pounded, and ground), Atractylodis Rhizoma, Poria Sclerotium 1 don each, Glycyrrhizae Radix (baked) 5 pun, and Amomi Tsao-ko Fructus (sliced with its skin) 1 pun. For 1 pack, put 7 pieces of Zingiberis Rhizoma, Zizyphi Fructus, and Mume Fructus Praeparatum in one bowl of water. Decoct until 1 glass remains and take it in two divided amounts.
- Coptis and Aucklandia Decoction 黃連木香湯 황련목향탕: It treats dysentery following malaria. Paeoniae Radix (fried) 2 don, Atractylodis Rhizoma 1.5 don, Coptidis Rhizoma (fried), Aucklandiae Radix, Amomi Fructus (ground), Scutellariae Radix (fried), Citrus Unshius Pericarpium, Angelica Gigantis Radix (washed with alcohol) 1 don each, and Glycyrrhizae Radix 5 pun. Slice these medicines as 1 pack, put 3 pieces of Zingiberis Rhizoma, decoct in water together, and take.
- Save and Extend Life Pill 救命延年丸 구명연년환: It treats severe dysentery of both male and female. Coptidis Rhizoma, Zingiberis Rhizoma, Angelica Gigantis Radix, and Asini Corii Colla all the same quantities. Powder these medicines and make into dough with vinegar decocted with Asini Corii Colla. Then make into pills the size of a seed of a foxglove tree. The effect is dramatic when the patient swallows 30–50 pills with porridge.
18 Differentiation of Easy and Hard Cases of Diarrhea and Dysentery 泄痢易治難治辨 설사와 이질의 이치증과 난치증을 구분하는 법
① When dampness invades the foot great yin spleen meridian, water-diarrhea occurs and when it is prolonged, it becomes pus-blood dysentery. This spreads from the spleen to the kidneys and is hard to treat. Diarrhea following dysentery spreads from the kidneys to the spleen and is easy to treat.
② In swill diarrhea, it is hard to treat when the pulse is large and easy to treat when the pulse is small and the hands and feet are warm.
③ Dysentery accompanying a slight fever, thirst, and weak pulse will be treated naturally.
④ Dysentery accompanying a rapid pulse, slight fever, and spontaneous perspiration will be treated naturally.
⑤ A large pulse in dysentery means that diarrhea will be continuous.
⑥ Treatment is easy when the patient’s hands and feet are warm and hard when they are cold.
⑦ Dysentery with nausea, hiccups, burping, chest discomfort, and bodily fever is hard to treat.
19 Prognosis of Diarrhea and Dysentery 泄痢吉凶證 설사와 이질의 예후
① Half of the patients die and half live when loose bowels resemble a fish’s brain.
② Half die and half live when there is fever and a large pulse.
③ Patients die when stool color resembles dirt.
④ Patients die when feces is whole blood.
⑤ Patients die when diarrhea flows like water from a thatched roof.
⑥ Patients die when the anus opens widely.
⑦ Patients die when the lips turn orange.
⑧ In dysentery with bloody stools, the patient dies if the body is hot and lives if the body is cold.
⑨ This is an outline; depending on accompanying symptoms, a hot body may survive and a cold body may die.
⑩ Moxibustion should be applied for cold hands and feet and weak pulses. If no improvement and dyspnea appears, the patient will die.
⑪ If pulse and extremities do not normalize within a day, the patient will die.
⑫ Rumbling abdomen, bloating, cold extremities, diarrhea, and large pulse are unfavorable; death occurs within fifteen days.
⑬ Abdominal swelling, cold extremities, emaciation, and severe diarrhea indicate death within a day.
⑭ Recovery is likely when appetite and urination are normal and the body is cold. Death is likely with hot body, profuse sweating, severe thirst, urinary difficulty, cold extremities unresponsive to moxibustion, shortness of breath, and inability to eat.
⑮ Delirium, fixed gaze, cold extremities, irritability, insomnia, continuous sweating, undetectable pulse, incontinence, bodily fever with replete pulse are signs of death.
⑯ Chronic diarrhea with cold extremities, collapsed pulse, agitation, burping, short breath, fixed gaze, and semiconsciousness are signs of death.
⑰ Intractable symptoms include large pulse, bodily fever, feces like duck droppings, dry throat, hiccups, five-color dysentery, clenched mouth, bleeding red blood, reddened lips, cold extremities, and dyspnea.
⑱ Longing for water from thirst after dysentery indicates disconnection of heart-qi.
⑲ Anuria indicates disconnection of stomach-qi.
⑳ Anuria from dried stomach as toxins attack intestines is a sign of death.
Repeated damage to stomach-qi with inability to eat in children is called food-denying dysentery. Wide-open anus with dark mud color is fearful. Instant diarrhea after eating and drinking and frequent diarrhea day and night with food passing immediately are negative symptoms. Fluid discharge from opened anus in pediatric dysentery is intractable. When a lying patient does not notice feces passing, death will occur.
20 Feces Coming Out Right After Meals 飯後隨卽大便 밥을 먹자마자 대변이 나오는 것
The spleen and kidneys should be harmonized for proper digestion. Feces coming out right after a meal means spleen qi is strong but kidney qi is weak, so food passes directly from the large intestine. For treatment, a Two Spirits Pill should be taken with salt water on an empty stomach so spleen-kidney qi can circulate together. Then food and water can be digested properly.
