I would like to acknowledge that I also owe much to Dr Chen Jing Hua. Her ideas on asthma
sparked off my new theory about this disease, although any shortcomings in this theory are of
course entirely my responsibility.

Dr Ted Kaptchuk provided my first introduction to Chinese herbs and for that I am very grateful.

I wish to thank Mr You Ben Lin of the Nanjing College of Traditional Chinese Medicine who
drew the characters for the title page with great skill and elegance. I am grateful to Mr Huang Zi
Qiang who drew the Chinese characters that appear at the head of each chapter.

I am indebted to Francesca Diebschlag for editing and proof-reading my manuscript with great
care and for providing useful suggestions.

I am grateful to Alan Papier and Peter Deadman for reading some of the chapters and making
useful suggestions.

I would like to thank the staff of Churchill Livingstone for their expertise, efficiency and
courtesy: in particular, I am grateful to Mary Law, Inta Ozols and Dinah Thom for their help
and support with this project.

Finally, this book would not have come into being without my wife's continuous support,
suggestions and inspiration.

G.M.

Dedication

To my son Sebastian who patiently kept me company throughout the writing of this book.

Note on the Translation of Chinese Medical Terms

The terminology used in this book generally follows that used in the "Foundations of Chinese
Medicine". As in this book, I have opted for translating all Chinese medical terms with the
exception of Yin, Yang and Qi. I have also continued using capitals for the terms which are
specific to Chinese medicine. For example, "Blood" indicates one of the vital substances of
Chinese medicine, whereas "blood" denotes the liquid flowing in the blood vessels; e.g. "In
Blood deficiency the menstrual blood may be pale".