MEDICINE IN CHINA.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 390, 26 August 1911, Page 7

MEDICINE IN CHINA.

Much is heard in these days of the awakening of China, and undoubtedly progress is being made in various directions. But medical science, as it is known to the native practioncer, remains pretty much in the condition described in the memoirs o' Le Comte, published in the seventeenth century. In urging the need of thoroughgoing reform, the "North China Herald'' points out that foi centuries medical knowledge has been at a standstill, and that the population has been at the mercy of the ignorant charlatans who pass themselves of! as doctors.

"In spite of over half a century of close contact with Europeans, the Chinese doctor of to-day remains ignorant of the rudiments of anatomy and physiology, and lias the most ludicrous notions of the functions of the internal organs and the causes of disease. He pretends to determine the treatment and prognosis of every ailment by feeling the pulse alone, and ascribes several pulses to each arm, and infinite variations to each pulse. Each pulse is supposed to show the condition of some particular organ of the body, and all the pulses may vary at the same time. "Diseases are attributed to occult inf-.ienccs of the most absurd kind, and reliance is usually placed upon the quantity rather than the quality of the medicine swallowed. Thus, doses may vary from thirty to forty pills, and a pint, or even a quart, of liquid. "Surgery, as the word is understood in Western lands, is unknown."