What it is:
This herb is the skeleton fossil ofprehistoric mammals like hipparion, rhinoceros, deer, oxen, elephants, etc. Such fossil is found in Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Gansu and Hebei provinces. The fossil should be stored in a dry place after digging out and getting rid of sand, soil and impurities.It is used unprepared or calcined.

Property:
Sweet and astringent in flavour,slightly cold in property, acting on the heart and liver channels.

Effects:
Calming the liver and suppressing hyperactivity of the liver-yang, inducing sedation and tranquili-zation, inducing astringency and promoting regeneration of tissues and healing of wounds.

Used for:
1. Irritability, tendency to anger,dizziness caused by hyperactivity of yang due to deficiency of yin. It is used with oyster shell , white piony root and red ochre, as in TranquilizingLiver-wind Decoction( Zhengan Xifeng Tang).

2. Intranquility of the mind, palpitation, insomnia, epilepsy inducedby terror, and mania. If the above symptoms are caused by disturbance of yang-qi, dragon's bone can be used withcinnabar and magnetite; if they are cused by deficiency of yin and blood, it should be used with wild jujube seed,prepared rehmannia root and chinese angelica root; if they are caused by deficiency of the heart-qi, it should be given together with ginseng, poria , polygala root and other herbs.

3. Seminal emission, leukorrhagia, sweating of deficiency type,metrorrhagiaand metrostaxis. For seminal emission due to deficiency of the kidney, it is used with oyster shell , flatstem milkvetch seed and gordon euryale seed,as in Golden Lock Pill for Keeping theKidney Essence(Jinsuo Gujing Wan); formetrorrhagia, metrostaxis and leukorr-hagia,it can be used with oyster shell, cuttle-bone and chinese yam ; for sweating of deficiency type, it is often used with oyster shell and schisandra fruit.

4. In the treatment of protracted sores and ulcers, exudative skin infections, itching eruptions and cutting wounds with bleeding, the mixture of an equal amount of its powder and dried alum powder can be applied externally on the affected areas.

Dosage and administration: 10-30g, crushed before using and decocted earlier than other herbs; proper amountfor external use. For calming theliver,suppressing hyperactivity of theliver- yang and tranquilizing the disturbedmind, it is preferable to use it unprepared; for inducing astringency and promoting regeneration of tissues and healing of wounds, it should be used calcined.