A Method for Dissolving Fish Bones with Medicine

　　Fish bones stuck in the throat are a common occurrence, and often there is no way but to go to the hospital—at a better hospital they can help extract it.

　　But extracting with tweezers also has its conditions. Stuck bones are mostly inone of three places: the left and right tonsils, the piriform recesses of the throat, and the esophagus. If handled improperly, and the fish bone is too deep, the slightest carelessness will pierce the esophagus and even cause esophageal bleeding, making it very hard to extract.

　　One must be careful. The commonly suggested methods of pouring vinegar down or swallowing a steamed bun are both bad ideas. Swallowing a bun may actually push the fish bone deeper, and vinegar’s softening effect on fish bones is in fact very poor—by the time it could soften a fish bone, it would be enough to corrode the throat.

　　A better method should be to take a duck, place ginger or pepper at the duck’s mouth, then turn the duck upside down so that saliva flows out; then take the saliva and slowly drink it down, and the fish bone will naturally soften.

　　What if you can’t find a duck in a hurry? A better method is to keep on hand a plant called weilingxian (Clematis root, Clematis chinensis).

　　Weilingxian is a medicinal plant whose sources are quite numerous. The weilingxian recorded in the Kaibao Bencao, Bentu Tujing, and Jiuhuang Bencao is a plant of the Scrophulariaceae family; the weilingxian recorded in Diannan Bencao is a plant of the Asteraceae family; while what is used today is mostly the Ranunculaceae plants recorded in Zhonghua Bencao—Clematis chinensis, Clematis hexapetala, and Clematis mandshurica. It is widely distributed in China; its roots and stems are used as medicine, with the effects of dispelling wind-dampness, unblocking the channels, and reducing bones stuck in the throat. In modern clinical practice, new uses for it continue to be discovered, such as treating gallstones, calcaneal spurs, heel pain, esophageal cancer, and so on.

Those with qi and blood deficiency and pregnant women should take it with caution.

　　According to records in ancient medical texts, this substance has several effects:

　　① Tang Bencao: For disorders of the waist, kidneys, legs and knees, accumulations and gatherings, and various cold diseases of the intestines that have not recovered for years, taking it is effective.
　② Kaibao Bencao: Governs all wind, promotes the free flow of the five viscera, removes cold stagnation in the abdomen, long-accumulated phlegm-water blocking the heart and diaphragm, fixed masses and abdominal aggregations with qi lumps, old pus and foul water in the bladder, cold pain of waist and knees, and treats injuries from falls and fractures.
　③ Bencao Yanyi: Treats intestinal wind.
　④ Bencao Yanyi Buyi: For pain in the upper body ("upper body"—one version reads "upper and lower body") take it.
　⑤ Benjing Fengyuan: When pox and rash toxins accumulate above and cannot descend, and eruptions on the lower legs and knees are slow to fill, use it as a downward guide.
　⑥ Nanjing Minjian Yaocao: Fresh root soaked in wine and taken treats stomachache; mashed with white sugar and applied to the forehead for a full day and night, removed once blisters appear on the skin, treats swollen and inflamed gums.
　⑦ Anhui Yaocai: Pounded and applied to the glabella treats diphtheria.
　⑧ Guangxi Zhongcaoyao: Dispels wind and dampness, unblocks channels and activates collaterals, promotes urination, and stops pain. Treats rheumatic bone pain, jaundice, edema, difficulty urinating, migraines, and internal injuries from falls and blows.

　　According to experiments by some who soaked fish bones and stones in weilingxian solution: fish bones visibly softening within twenty minutes, while stones after soaking also became noticeably smooth—its effect being even superior to duck saliva.