MEDICINE IN CHINA.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 27, 16 September 1911, Page 8

MEDICINE IN CHINA.

?iiuch is heard in these days ol tho awakening of China, and undoubtedly progress is being made in various directions. But medical science, as it is known to the native practitioner, remains pretty much in the condition described in the memoirs o! Le Comte, published in tho seventeenth century. In urging the need of thoroughgoing reform, the “North China Herald” points out that for centuries medical knowledge has been at a standstill, and that the population has been at tho mercy of tho ignorant charlatans wjio pass themselves off as doctors. “In spite of over half a century of close contact with Europeans, tho Chinese doctor of to-day remains ignorant of tho rudiments of anatomy and physiology, and has tho most ludicrous’ notions of the functions ol tho internal organs and the causes oi 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,'.yarieties to each pulse. Each pulse is supposed to -show tho condition of some particular organ of the body, and all the pulses may vary at tho same time. “Diseases arc attributed to .occult influences of the most absurd kind, and reliance is usually placed upon tho 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 tho word is understood in Western lands, is unknown.”.