Nine Worms

If you want to pass through a fire, ingest one pill and you will not burn. Ingesting this Medicine for one hundred days, the Three Corpses (sanshi) and the Nine Worms (jiuchong) will be destroyed, and you will live a long life free from death. 

The Three Corpses and the Nine Worms are freqnently mentioned in Daoist texts as representations of the agents that cause death. The last sentence translated above also is not fonnd in the Liquid Pearl, which instead explicates the relation between mercnry, worms, and carp gall, saying Worms and the fish gall are Essences of Yin, and mercury is the Essence of Yang. Therefore Yin can control zhi) Yang, and thus the Medicine becomes fixed (fu) and does not dare to escape. The Perfected, the Divine Men, and the immortals keep this method secret, and it cannot be transmitted (1.12a). 

The filariform larva found in moist soils may be either ingested or penetrate the skin of its host. It is then carried through the circulatory system to the lungs and migrates up the respiratory tree into the digestive tract. The worms feed on intestinal tissue and blood. Some worms may persist in humans as long as nine years. Infestations cause cutaneous reactions, pulmonary lesions, intestinal ulcerations, and anemia. 

Glutathione S-transferases have received considerable attention because of their roles in insecticide detoxification and resistance in insects. Cytosolic glutathione S-transferases have been purified from more than two dozen insect species, including Lepidoptera, Diptera, Coleoptera, Dictyoptera, and Hymenoptera. These transferases exist in multiple forms as many as nine isozymes were found in midguts and fat bodies of fall army worm... 

Anderson, B.S. and nine coauthors. 1998. Comparison of marine sediment toxicity test protocols for the amphopod RJiepoxynius abronius and the polychaete worm Nereis (Neanthes) arenaceodentata. Environ. Toxicol. Chem. 17 859-866. Anderson, H.L. and 27 coauthors. 1999. Comparison of short-term estrogenicity tests for femnification of hormone-disrupting chemicals. Environ. Health Perspect. 107, Suppl. 1 89-108. 

Ninth Elixir Cold Elixir (handan). The Ninth Elixir is made with realgar, orpiment, laminar malachite, arsenolite, and magnetite. The crucible is luted with a layer of Mysterious and Yellow, a layer of Mud of the Six-and-One, and a layer of worm excreta and yellow soil (huangtu). The ingredients are placed in the crucible with the Liquid Pearl liuzhu, i.e., the Mysterious and Yellow) and are heated for nine days. 

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