Generate the pulse

In the heat of July the body spends itself through the skin. Sweat carries the fluids out, and with them the strength; the mouth is dry, the breath is short, the pulse goes thin and quick like a stream in drought. Sheng Mai San is three plants and a single intention, to generate the pulse again. Ginseng restores the qi that the heat has burnt; ophiopogon tuber, cool and moist, puts the fluid back where it was lost; schisandra, the five flavour berry, draws the pores closed so the leak stops. Tonify, moisten, hold. It is the smallest constellation in the year's sky, three stars in a short line, and one of the most exact. I keep it for the summer weeks when someone comes in grey and damp and says they cannot get their breath back.