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It does not grow in streams or lakes. Some grow on roofs or walls; those that have been there for many years are of good quality.
The flavor is sweet and the nature is cold. It primarily treats phlegm-fluid retention accumulation and epigastric pain. It manages regurgitation, chest obstruction (Ge Qi), phlegmatic cough, and heart pain due to damp-phlegm. The white conch shell (Bai Luosi Ke) should be washed clean, calcined until it retains its medicinal properties (burned to preserve efficacy while removing moisture/impurities), and then ground into powder.
For chickenpox lesions that fail to heal and close up, wash the white conch shell found on walls, grind it into powder, and apply it externally as a dusting powder.
[Discussion] Field snails are produced in paddy fields (not sea snails); their shells have spiral patterns. Their meat changes with the waxing and waning of the moon. (Wang Chong stated: "When the moon wanes in the sky, the field snail's meat diminishes.") Does this observation relate to the condensation of Yang Qi? The shells of snails on houses can open up damp-heat stagnation.
Kui Ge (Hairy Clam) is the current Arca shell. Its shell is named Walong Zi (Tile Ridge Shell). It resembles a small clam but is rounder, with raised ridges on the back resembling the tiles of a roof. In eastern Zhejiang, they are cultivated in near-sea fields called "clam fields." The meat tastes excellent, absorbing the Yang Qi of water; its flavor is sweet and its nature is neutral. It can be pickled in wine lees to serve as an accompaniment to alcohol. It is rarely used in herbal medicine.
Walong Zi has a sweet and salty flavor and a neutral nature. It primarily resolves blood stasis masses and transforms phlegm accumulations. After calcination, it is quenched in vinegar and formed into pills with vinegar for oral administration to treat all types of blood qi, cold qi, and abdominal masses. When burned together with the meat until it retains its medicinal properties, it is ground and applied externally to treat infantile gangrenous stomatitis (Zouma Yagan), which is effective.
[Discussion] The meat of the clam is very sweet; sweetness harmonizes the blood. The shell is sweet and slightly salty and neutral; its efficacy should be superior to other shells that possess only a salty taste.
[Processing] Select aged specimens. Charcoal-fire roast until red, quench three times in rice vinegar to remove fire toxicity, then grind into powder for use.

Daimao (Tortoise Carapace) must be used raw for medicinal purposes because the raw form preserves its complete nature and flavor. Once subjected to boiling or burning, it becomes unsuitable for use. This principle is the same as that distinguishing raw rhinoceros horn from processed rhinoceros horn.
Daimao has a sweet flavor and cold nature. It primarily resolves hundred-drug poison in Lingnan, breaks up mass formations, reduces carbuncles and swellings, and stops convulsions and epilepsy. (Ri Huazi states it treats Heart Wind, relieves irritability and heat, promotes the circulation of Qi and Blood, and unblocks the Large and Small Intestines.) (Chen Shiliang adds) It can also resolve chickenpox toxin with miraculous effect. Daimao belongs to the turtle family, inheriting the extreme Yin Qi of water; therefore, its nature is cold and it detoxifies.
[Daimao grows in...] [Text contains fragments: "same grind", "earth", "Miao family"]. For cases of chickenpox that are deficient and cold and fail to erupt, it should not be taken.