Exploration on the Characteristics of Chinese Medicine External Treatment Method to Prevent and Treat Epidemic Diseases

Chinese medicine has accumulated rich experience in the prevention and treatment of epidemic diseases over the ages, and has formed a complete system for it, among which the external treatment method is a distinctive aspect. This study incorporates a total of 75 formulae on external treatment for the prevention and treatment of epidemic diseases, which have the following characteristics: ①Naming mostly featured by "bi wen (preventing plague)" and "sha gui (killing ghosts)" to highlight the role in preventing epidemic diseases; ②Formulation featured by lozenge, moxa stick, joss stick, medicinal cake, and other 11 types in addition to the common pill, powder and decoction; ③Application method featured by fumigation, wearing, coating, powdering, nose blowing, sneezing, bathing, eye dropping, and other external methods; ④Medication featured by mainly pungent and warm medicines with a medication frequency above 5 out of 24 medicines, metal and stone medicines, aromatic medicines, and other 176 medicines. In addition, there are also some rare medicines, which are worthy of further study and utilization.