Properties: Sour, warm, toxic

Meridans Entered:
Primary: Kidney and Large Intestine

1. Relieves toxicity, kills Parasites and stops itching
   Important topically for scabies, tinea, Damp-festering sores, ulcers, carbuncles and recalcitrant Yin flat abscess and furuncles and itching
   Internally for Gu Sydnrome (Fruehauf, 1998)
2. Tonifies Ming Men Fire and strengthens Yang
   Kidney Yang Deficiency with painful lower back and knees and impotence Kidney and Spleen Yang Deficiencies with diarrhoea
   Asthma due to Kidneys unable to grasp Qi
   Constipation or diarrhoea in the elderly caused by Cold

Suggested Daily Dosage: 1.5-3g in pill or powder form for internal use but usually used externally.

Cautions: It is contraindicated for pregnant women because of its toxicity. It should not be combined with Mang Xiao, according to nineteen incompatibilities.

Notes:

In western alchemy sulphur was one of the Three Primes of Paracelsus, along with Mercury and Salt. It represented the flammable, expansive element of nature, governing evaporation, and dissolution. It was the spirit and the connection between the High and Low (Helmenstine, 2020, The Three Primes of Alchemy).

Sulphur is a component of cinnabar, mercury (II) sulfide, the natural mineral ore from which pure mercury is extracted. When heated they separate to form mercury and sulphur dioxide gas. If this gas is distilled into water it becomes sulphuric acid, H₂SO₄ (Science Furry, 2021), known as Vitriol to the alchemists. Sulphuric acid can then be combined with common salt, NaCl, to form hydrochloric acid, HCl, which was called Acidum Salis, Spirit of Salt.

Sulphur and mercury can also be heated together to reform this original crystalline structure of cinnabar (although if not heated sufficiently will form metacinnabar, mercury (I) sulfide, a black mineral).

Sulphur is also the flammable ingredient of gunpowder when mixed with saltpetre (probably the salt referred to in the Three Primes of Paracelsus) which acts as an accelerant, and carbon.