Inward fall

Passage (of evils) into the inner body, due to exuberance of the evil or vacuity of right. For example, when measles is erupting, if the measles toxin is especially strong, or if the wind-cold is contracted, right qì cannot resist, and the evil falls inward. When this happens, the measles papules suddenly disappear, the face becomes white, and breathing becomes rapid and hasty. Inward fall is also observed in patients suffering from welling-abscess (yōng) and sores when the sore-toxin falls inward and enters provisioning-blood, i.e., it starts to affect the whole body in a process corresponding to what Western medicine describes in terms of the development of toxemia (see fall pattern). Distinction is made between fire fall, dry fall, and vacuity fall. Compare running yellow.

Etymology

Chin 内 nèi, inward; 陷 xiàn, collapse, slump, fall.