CHINESE DOCTORS.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 359, 26 March 1903, Page 7

CHINESE DOCTORS.

HINE3E medical mea are net compelled to pnrsne any particular J course, of study and are not able to obtain any university degree. Consequently doctors have no social standing. Medicine may be practiced by *ny OBe. It is only necessary to bang out one's name as 'Dr. Wang' or 'Dr. Li' to become a physician. This seems easy enough; but the doctors are liable to heavy penalties in the event of the death of a patient.

Chinese materia medica is extensive and nonsensical in the extreme. The native doctors have acquired an empirical knowledge of the action of certain remedies, notably of several purgatives and anodynes, but with no certain methods of diagnosis their nsa of these remedies is often fallacious.

A Chinese doctor feels the poise in both the wrists. He places three fingers of his right hand ofter the radial artery of first one arm and then the other. In the first awn he says he can tell by his first finger the condition of the spleen, which is very important. The secnd finger tells him the condition of the lungs, and the third the state of the liver. On the other arm he detects in like manner the diseaßeß of the heart, kidneys and stomach. He leaves the brain, the arteries, venous and nervous systems entirely cut of consideration, as his books do not tell him anything about such systems. The pulse and the pulse alone, to his mind, is an indication of the locality of the disease. It is not at all uncommon for women patients to tbrust an arm out from the curtained bed that the physician may feel the poise and make his diagnosis on that basis abne. If the patient recovers the doctor is credited with the cure; if the patient dies he is accused of murder. Remedies must produce immediate favourable results or the doctor is dismissed and a new one employed, I have known of eleven doctors being sent for in one day. The patient in this case palled through after taking eleven doses, the last doctor, of course, getting the credit of the cure. Several years ago I was called to see the little six-mcntbs-old grandson of the governor of Pekin. The child was in convulsions from having eaten a quantity of indigestible material when it had only two or three teeth. Each one of a number of Chinese doctors had poured down the infant's throat, without effect, some decoction of nastiness, the last dose of which was powdered scorpions taila. By means of chloroform, a hot bath, ice to the head, and other remedies, I managed to bring the infant around, much to the joy of the grandfather. If the child had died I would have been blamed for killing him, especially as I bad dared to use ice, a remedy that the Chinese doctor not only does not use, but condemns as the cause of many fatal illnesses. The nrtive physicians are great believers in the efficacy of counter-irritation, which they use in the form of antimonial and arsenical plasters, often creating intractable ulcers, generally both painful and useless. Tbeir fees are exceedingly small, the usual rate in Pekin being about Bd, but they frequently make up for. this by supplying the medicine, for which they charge in proportion to the wealth and credulity of the patient. One patient of mi-ae paid his native doctor Is 3d' for his visit and .£BO for the velvety fur from a young deer's horns, which waß prepared as medicine.

If the patient recovers he often has a memorial tablet of heavy wood carved in characters setting forth the disease from which he suffered and of which he was marvellously cured by Dr. Wong or any other doctor. The tablet is hung on the wall outside the doctor's residence and is a lasting testimonial hung on their walls. A doctor's house which I often pass has boards reading thus : ' His hand touched and life returned.' Another: 'ln diphtheria the only saviour.' Another: «His art is great.' Still another: * Due to him, I live again.' One day in passing this place in a cart with a Chinese friend I pointed to the numerous boards and said : ' I'hat must be one of your great doctors, judging by the number of grateful patients he has cured.' 'Ho!' rejoined my companion with scorn. 'He had everyone of those boards made himself. The people he is supposed to have cured never existed.'

Some doctors have recipes that were handed down to them by their ancestors and keep them in their family, telling only one member in each generation how the nostrum is prepared. Some of these formulas have great local reputations, but they are never widely known. Since the introduction of vaccination by medical missionaries, the former terrible ravages of smallpox has been abated; bat when they cannot get vaccine matter they will vaccinate with condensed milk, believing that the milk of the cow ought to be as good as the serum, especially hs its inoculation often produces a sore, due donbtless to germs of a pus-producing character introduced through the abraided surface Tuberculosis and blood disease are often spread by means of careless, uncleanly vaccination; but notwithstanding all the unoleanliuess and the unscientific methodf?, smallpox has decreased enormously wifliin the last thirty years, and vaoeination is thoroughly believed in everywhere.