POWERFUL CHINESE MEDICINES

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 422, 26 May 1904, Page 3

POWERFUL CHINESE MEDICINES

Ok* D«MI el a Celestial Contpouai Gwt lately Be Wa»snai[«4 4a

"I Eave always heard.that Chines* medicines are very powerful," said the city saleuinan, "but I never hod any idea what a tremendous effect they were capable of producing on tha system-till I saw a Doyera street Chinaman take a pill the other day, and then.l realized that one dose of a celestial compound can safely be warranted. to kill or cure," aaya a New York exchange.: "Ifere* in my born days rdid I see such a "pill. How on earth the fellow ever got it down ia a mystery. It was fully eb big as a pigeon's egg, and, so the patient told me afterward, fearfully bitter. Upon inquiry I found that that waß a fair sample of most Chinese remedies. No matter what the nature of the medicine, .it is generally made, up into enormous pillf, whose naturally bad taste ik modified by nothing but a little licorice. These pills are iaciostui in wax capsules which preserve them from the air and keep them from being broken to pieces before their time. Aside from the pills the only remedies-, us»'&*'by orthodox .Chinese in New York are a'inedirinr-l ' oil whieh they rub on the temples tu cure headache, and a liquid mada by boilingdowntheleayes,stems,seedsarid roots of certain plants in a quantity of drinking water. According to ray Doyers street authority, this fluid medicine is even worse than the pills, for it has to be cooked till it is almost lika a sirup and drunk scalding hot." •