Oracle bone inscriptions,the earliestform of Chinese writings,were used from the Shang dynasty to the West Zhou dynasty (1 600 BC 1 000 BC).These inscriptions were carved on turtle shells and animal bones,which were primarily used for divination at that time.Among over 150 000 oracle bone pieces excavated,41 956pieces were collected in the book named Jia Gu Wen He Ji in Chinese (Collection and Analyses of Oracle Bone Inscriptions).So far about 4 500 oracle bone inscriptions have been interpreted and about 2 600 have been decoded.Among those,about 1 056 oracle bone inscriptions have been widely accepted by authorities in China and abroad.1 Here we scrutinized the well-interpreted oracle bone inscriptions and selected 95 characters related to medicine and dermatology for discussion.