MEDICINE IN CHINA.

Ohinemuri Gazette, Volume XXIII, Issue 2988, 4 September 1912, Page 4

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 practiorieer, remains pretty much in the condition described in the memoirs o) Le Comtc, published in the seventeenth century. In urging the need of thoroughgoing reform, the "North China Herald" points out that fox Centuries medical knowledge has been at a standstill, and that the population has been at the mercy of the ignorant charlatans who pass themselves oft as doctors. "'ln 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 has tha 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, anl infinite variations to each pulse. Each pulse is supposed to ' show the condition of some particular organ cf the body, and all the pulses may vary at the same time. "D'scascs aro attributed to occult in";.cnees of the most absurd kind, rn'.l reli nee is usually placed upon the quantity rather than the quality of the moclbim s vallowed! Thus, doses may vary horn thirty to forty pills, anl a pint, or even a quart, of Jiqrid. " Surgery, as the word is understood in Western-lands, is unknown."