Chinese Doctors in America.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7750, 28 February 1905, Page 3

Chinese Doctors in America.

Among the most successful physicians in the Unitied States are ihe Chinese. Itoir practice, says Chamber's Journal, is by no means confined to those of their own race. The Chinese doctors may bo divided into two classes although the American law does not recognise either class as legitimate physicians. One class treats persons of its own race almost entircfly and does not employ medicine so much as it does 'ampiriets, and what is called in the United States, magic, to drive away |the evil spirits supposed to (.rente. disease. The other class of iljuti.it 'assert that they give treatment .which their ancestors employed centuries before Christ, and that the 'gift of healing had been handed down to them through the ages. I The method of treating sick persons adopted by Chinese doctors in |soine cities- is similar to that of other physicians of the United States 'and those of CJieat Ui'iluin. They 'depend much, however, upon till' exanrination of the pulse. Their sense of touch is so wonderfully developed I that it is claimed they can determine :the condition of the heart as well as some of the other organs by the feebleness or strength of the beats ; but they say there are no fewer than twelve different movements of the arteries in the human body, all of which can be detected by feeling the wrist and arm. When a patient calls upon him for examination, the doctor first presses the arm, lingers and wrist, touching nearly every part.; Sometimes ten or fifteen min'utes are occupied in this cxaminajtion. Then he may ask whether the patient is married or single, aind (also his age ; hut this is about the limit of the examination. Apparently he can tell the nature of the disease without questioning further ; and if the caller wishes a prescription, he writes one in the ordinary Chinese characters on a generous—sized square of paper. Binding" a bell, he bands the prescription to the Chinese attendant who enters, for each physician has his own shop, filled with the ingredients which he uses in treatment. If he has a large ■ practice he may employ a native chemist, who makes up the prescription.

Anyone who chances to visit the chemist's •departemnt of the Chinese physician would be surprised at the inumber of different medicines it contains, labelled in the characters of jthe C\'.estial Kingdom. While most of the medicines consist of herbs., there are also dried flowers, curiouslooking nuts of various kinds, gums .from trees and bushes, as well as scores of different barks and roots. As a matter of fact, the Chinese Lemploy over ,3,000 different substanjces of this sort, in addition to a cunious-looking powder, which is made from the horn of an Asiatic deer. All the medicine comes from Asia, being carefully treated and {Kicked in boxes before it is sent lo the United States. It includes the ; flncst ginseng, which is obtained in Corea. and cinnamon of such high grade that a single ounc? is worth 40s. The horn-powder is one of the most valuable of all. It is used largely as an antidote for opium and morphine eating ; but the physicians also sell a proscription which, it is maintained, will cure drunkennvs and the taste for alcoholic liquors. This is perhaps the most expensive medicine prescribed, for a single dose costs about six pounds-. Occasionally the prescription is made up in the form of pills and powders ; but nearly all the medicine is taken by the patients steaming hot!, as he would drink' a bowl of tea.