Extracted from the 
TRANSACTIONS OF THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS OF 
PHILADELPHIA, 
THIRD SERIES, VOLUME III. THE STATE OF MEDICINE IN CHINA. 
BY 1 . 
ROBERT P. HARRIS, M.D. ( 
[Read May 2, 1877.] 
the numerous articles in the Chinese sec- 
tion of the late Centennial Exhibition, there was no- 
thing more curious, to the eye of a practitioner of 
medicine, than the collection of specimens of Materia 
Medica, embracing several hundred articles, used by 
the native Chinese doctor in the treatment of disease. 
I shall not attempt to enumerate the various arti- 
cles taken from the animal, vegetable, and mineral 
kingdoms, many of them objectionable, some highly 
disgusting, and a verf few known to us, which enter 
into the Chinese Materia Medica, but will refer the 
curious to the catalogue which I have procured for the 
library of the College of Physicians from the Chinese 
Commissioner, in which will be found the value and 
uses of the several medicines, and from which may be 
learned how little of Chinese therapeutics is based 
upon a course of reasoning from cause to effect. 
The fact that ginseng is still regarded in China, 
after centuries of trial, as a drug of marvellous healing, 
strengthening, and rejuvenating powers; and that 
liquorice root is esteemed only second to it in medici- 
nal effects, shows how little connection there is between 
the real and conjectural value of Chinese medicines. 
The scarcity of a remedy, or the difficulty of obtain- 80 
HARRIS, 
ing it, appears to greatly enlarge its value to the 
Chinese mind. When American ginseng (Arcilea 
quinquefolia) was first exported to Pekin, it sold for 
its weight in gold; but, being abundantly supplied, it 
gradually fell in estimation until now a pound is 
valued at about as many cents as an ounce formerly 
brought in dollars. The native varieties of Aralea, 
which are found wild, and only in small quantities, in 
Chinese Tartary, have, on the contrary, advapccd in 
estimation, so that the price in Canton is reported at 
$26 per ounce. Glue is also considered medicinal, but 
is of very little account unless the variety is prepared 
from materials difficult to procure, such as that from 
tiger bones, which is sold at $11 per pound, etc. 
Thus it will be seen, from articles of known value, 
how little faith is to be placed upon the Chinese esti- 
mate of any medicinal plant or product, although pos- 
sibly having some remedial virtue. The main basis 
of Chinese therapeutics appears*to rest upon mystical 
ideas; and the cure of disease is divided between the 
exorcist, the diviner, the charlatan, and the doctor, all 
of whom are believed, by the native to deal in myste- 
ries, and to derive thejjower through special divinities 
whose name is legion. In fact, the complicated re- 
ligious belief of the Chinaman appears to make it 
almost impossible for him to reason from cause to 
effect in direct medication, even in the management of 
the most simple maladies. 
Conjunctivitis, entropium, pterygium, sometimes 
double in both eyes, and cataract, are common mala- 
dies in China, especially the first two; and blindness 
from defective medical treatment in ophthalmia, very 
abundant; still the native physician does not appear MEDICINE IN CHINA. 
81 
to have the least atom of common sense in treating 
even a simple inflammation of the conjunctiva. 
Imagine the sensation felt, and the result produced, by 
introducing a little pulverized and levigated stalactite, 
fossil crab, or what they call medicine stone, into an 
inflamed and highly sensitive eye; these being some 
of the remedies in use. 
As the “ Outside Barbarian World” was but a few 
centuries ago almost on a medical par with the inhabit- 
ants of the “ Flowery Kingdom,” we might reasonably 
hope for the same degree of enlightenment in a pro- 
portionate period, if it were not for the very strong 
opposition of the better classes of the Chinese to 
everything coming from foreigners, whether in the form 
of customs, change in dress, religion, or improvement 
in the medical or surgical treatment of disease. TVe 
say better classes, because the poor, who are most 
likely to suffer from bad or defective medicine and 
surgery, have been very readily induced to submit 
their cases to the care of English and American prac- 
titioners offering their services gratuitously. This 
prejudice applies not only to foreigners and foreign 
physicians, but also with almost equal force to those 
of their own countrymen educated in and practising 
foreign medicine. As there is no Chinese surgery of 
an operative kind, the work of the knife is gradually 
effecting a change, and preparing the way for the 
introduction of a rational system of medicine which 
must ultimately culminate in the opening of scientific 
medical schools under Chinese professors, and possibly 
even fostered by the government. There are great 
obstacles to be overcome, but the work of the last 82 
HARRIS, 
forty years has effected such changes that a full frui- 
tion would appear to be only a question of time. 
Physicians and apothecaries abound in all the large 
Chinese cities, and, strange as it may appear to us, 
they have such as are recognized as regular, and others 
that are regarded as quacks. The first requisite for a 
Chinese doctor, is hereditary descent; and this is a 
certain guarantee of success in gaining practice if a 
long line of ancestry shall have transmitted the vir- 
tues of the medical succession. The sign of a doctor 
often informs the stranger, not only of ancestral quali- 
fication, but states his several specialties as handed 
down, and claims for him the possession of valuable 
formulae. 
The Chinese doctor, like his brethren of India and 
Japan with some few exceptions, has not the remotest 
conception of the internal anatomy of his patient; and 
his expressed idea is that “it is not necessary to know 
what is in a man to know how to treat his diseases.” 
Those who saw the old Japanese manikin exhibited in 
the collection of models, instruments, etc., before the 
members of the American Medical Association in 
this hall in 1872, will remember how remote the con- 
jectural idea was from the real anatomy of the abdo- 
minal viscera. 
As the dissection of the dead is not a part of his 
education, the Chinese physician has not the remotest 
idea of the arrangement of even the larger viscera. 
He places the heart in the centre, and believes that it 
is surrounded with six organs, three of which are con- 
nected with the pulse of one wrist, and three with the 
other. To feel the pulse with ability, is considered 
the important inherited faculty of the practitioner. MEDICINE IN CHINA. 
83 
When called to a case of disease, he feels the pulse in 
each wrist with three fingers, asks the age of the patient, 
inquires as to the symptoms, assumes a grave import- 
ance, and then writes out a prescription, which in 
general calls for a number of ingredients to be made 
into a decoction; or a number of pills, the quantity to 
be taken being a marvel to any but a Chinaman; or 
it may be a bolus, or other form. This feeling of the 
pulse in both arms, and for a long time, in ignorance 
of the synchronism of the radial beats, is mentioned 
also of the Hindoo and Japanese physicians, who, with 
a few exceptions, have likewise no knowledge of the 
circulation of the blood. 
As there are no native schools of medicine in China, 
an aspirant for medical honor, if he has not the advan- 
tage of being the son of a physician, simply engages 
himself to one, that he may witness his practice, and 
learn as many of his secrets as he may be willing to 
part with. The pupil is taught to believe that the 
power to heal disease lies in the assumption that the 
human constitution is composed of five elements in 
different proportions, all acting in harmony during 
health, and each presided over by a different deity. 
These elements are earth, fire, gold, water, and wood. 
As long as the proper proportion of each of these is 
maintained, the health remains good, but any ascend- 
ency of either one deranges the system, giving rise 
to diseased phenomena, to be recognized by the phy- 
sician, and counteracted by proper antidotes, or regu- 
lators. An example of this kind of practice is given 
in the history of the English embassy to China, uijder 
Sir George Staunton, in 1793. One of the embassa- 
dor’s suite became* affected with dysentery, stopped at 84 
HARRIS, 
a Chinese inn, and was persuaded to consult a native 
physician, who, attributing his disease to a predomi- 
nance of cold humors, prescribed strong doses of pep- 
per, cardamom, and ginger, in hot distilled spirit, by 
which the disease was so much increased that the 
patient made a very narrow escape for his life. 
As the cure of disease is very largely credited to 
the influence of the special deity having charge over 
the deranged element involved in any given case, 
large sums of money are annually expended by re- 
stored patients in processions and feasts in honor of 
the said gods, a portion of the year being specially 
devoted to these religious ceremonials. 
Chinese physicians frequently combine necromancy 
and fortune-telling with the practice of medicine. 
They have one curious custom that prevails all over 
the Empire, which is to deposit in the street or road, 
opposite or near the house of the patient, the residuum 
of any prepared infusion or decoction prescribed for 
him, under a superstitious belief that there is at night 
a roaming divinity on patrol to take care of all dis- 
eased persons. This “ Spirit of the Celestial Cure” 
(Tien-i-star) is believed to make his rounds on horse- 
back, and the object of the deposit is to induce the 
charger to take a sniff at it in passing, by which it is 
held that the rider is influenced to look with favor 
upon the case of the patient. 
A prevalent error with us is the belief that the 
Chinese pay their physician while in health at a 
certain rate, and stop payment during sickness. A 
bargain based upon a prospective cure, with no charge 
except for the medicine in the event of a failure, is 
frequently made, but this belongs‘more to the pro- MEDICINE IN CHINA. 
85 
vince of quackery than to regular practice. The 
general fee for medical attendance varies from sixty 
to two hundred and forty cash, or from four to sixteen 
cents per visit. 
Native surgery has no real existence, as the knife 
is rarely if ever employed. A compound comminuted 
fracture ends usually in gangrene, and frequently in 
death, as amputations are not performed even for such 
injuries. Abscesses are very rarely evacuated, and 
dislocations remain unrestored, being simply dressed 
with some secret vulnerary ointment. 
W e come now to a more interesting branch of our 
subject, viz., the efforts that have been made to intro- 
duce legitimate, or “ western medicine” into China. 
Although some slight progress was made prior to 
that time, the first important step may be said to have 
been the opening of the Ophthalmic Hospital of Can- 
ton, under Dr. Peter Parker, an American, in 1835. 
This specialty was chosen for two reasons; the eye of 
the Mongolian is particularly subject to disease, and 
the treatment of ophthalmic cases involves no risk to 
life. It being the rule to make the physician account- 
able for any fatal result in cases where the knife was 
used, a written guarantee of immunity was obtained 
from each patient before an operation, as it was im- 
portant to run no risks until an inspired and enlight- 
ened confidence should remove this personal account- 
ability. By this plan, Dr. Parker gained the confidence 
of the natives, and was by slow degrees enabled to 
extend his surgical practice, until he could perform 
the capital operations without any fear to himself in 
ease of a fatal result. From this beginning grew the 
present General Mission Hospital of Canton, with its 86 
HARRIS, 
enormous ont-door practice, and its branch dispensa- 
ries in which, collectively, as many as thirty thousand 
patients were treated and prescribed for in a single 
year, before it had been thirty years in operation. 
Fractures and dislocations are very rare among the 
Chinese, who from carefulness, freedom from intoxica- 
tion, and the absence of heavy machinery, are seldom 
injured in this way. Gunshot wounds inflicted by 
river pirates and in clan-fights, are much more com- 
mon, and patients frequently carry balls for years, 
until they are finally removed at some foreign hospi- 
tal or dispensary. 
The practice of obstetrics is entirely in the hands 
of midwives, as it is considered indelicate for a man 
to attend a pregnant Woman, or to officiate at her 
delivery. Foreign physicians, and properjy educated 
natives, have in latter years been sometimes called in 
to use the forceps as a last resort, in cases where the 
midwives have utterly failed after a delay of from two 
to four days. Embryotomy was performed in I860, 
for the removal of a putrid foetus, by Drs. John G. 
Kerr and F. Wong, of Canton, this, as far as known, 
having been the first time it was ever done in China. 
This Chinese, Dr. Wong, is a graduate of the Uni- 
versity of Edinburgh, and has been in Canton since 
1857. He is a valuable assistant at the hospital, per- 
forms many important operations, and has a good 
private practice notwithstanding the prejudice that 
attaches to his foreign medical education. He is also 
an important teacher of medicine to the class of native 
students attending the hospital. 
Insanity is said to be rarely met with in China; but 
this is believed to be due rather to its management than 87 
MEDICINE IN CHINA. 
to its rarity, although one fruitful source (alcoholic 
intoxication) being almost exceptional, the disease is 
no doubt less prevalent than with 11s. Mild cases are 
left at liberty; troublesome patients are shut up, and 
often chained at home, where they not infrequently 
commit suicide; and dangerous subjects are some- 
times quietly put to death by their relatives. There 
has never been a lunatic asylum in China, and never 
will be until introduced by foreigners. 
The Chinese claim to have inoculated for the small- 
pox as early as the tenth century. Their method one 
would suppose might produce a general eruption, as 
the virus is introduced into the nose, in the form of 
powder placed in cotton. The person to be inoculated 
is first prepared by a course of medicine and dieting, 
and a lucky day is chosen for the operation. 
Vaccination was introduced into China about 
1805, by Dr. Alexander Pearson, physician to the 
East India Company, who instructed a Chinaman of 
the Nan-Hoi district, named Yan-Ho-Chun, how to 
perform it. Yan made a special business of vaccina- 
tion up to the time of his death in 1850, and his son 
became his successor. He published a book of one 
hundred pages upon vaccination in 1818, and several 
Chinamen are said to have made fortunes by becom- 
ing professional vaccinators. From this early begin- 
ning under Dr. Pearson, the practice of vaccination 
has advanced to most of the eighteen provinces of 
China, but is still very limited in its application, 
owing to obstacles resulting from superstition and 
prejudice, one of the great difficulties being the im- 
possibility of obtaining a continuous supply of good 88 
HARRIS, 
virus. The natives have a superstitious fear of hav- 
ing the vesicle opened; are very careless in, or opposed 
to, preserving the crusts; and do not like to have the 
operation performed in the warm season. Hence 
native vaccinators, to secure a continual supply of 
virus, have been in the habit of bribing the lowest 
poor to submit their children to vaccination and 
furnish them with the resulting lymph, a very objec- 
tionable practice, owing to the prevalence of syphilis 
and leprosy. To obviate these evils, the mission 
hospitals and dispensaries are in the practice of vac- 
cinating the poor on certain days, and securing their 
return for inspection, and obtaining the virus when 
unobjectionable, by a small pledge deposit, to be re- 
funded to them, a plan not uncommonly adopted in 
our own dispensaries. They also have the means of 
obtaining fresh virus by reciprocal exchange with 
each other, or from physicians in India. As small- 
pox is almost an annual scourge in China, the im- 
portance of vaccination cannot be overestimated. 
Prior to the opening of the Ophthalmic Hospital of 
Canton, in 1835, by Dr. Parker, there were established 
a Macao Dispensary in 1820, an eye infirmary at the 
same place in 1827, and the Dispensary of Canton in 
1828.+ Dr. Parker also established an ophthalmic 
hospital at Macao in 1838, and was the first to open 
a general surgical hospital and to teach medicine to 
the Chinese. His first pupil was Dr. Kwan Ato, who 
died in June, 1874, at the age of fifty-six. He was 
a valuable assistant surgeon, and did great credit to 
his preceptor. He had an extensive practice among 
the higher classes, and did much to introduce rational 
medicine into favorable notice. His uncle, Lamqua, MEDICINE IN CHINA. 
89 
was an artist, and painted a number of oil pictures 
for Dr. Parker, representing patients prior to opera- 
tion, from whom he removed large tumors. These 
pictures were shown and explained by the Doctor at 
the surgical clinic of the University of Pennsylvania, 
during the professorship of Dr. Gibson. "When the 
rebels besieged Canton, Dr. Kwan Ato offered his 
services as a surgeon to the Empire, was accepted, 
and for his skill was honored by the Emperor with 
the title of Mandarin of the fifth rank. 
From the opening of the Mission Hospital of Can- 
ton, down to the present time, it has been in a small 
and imperfect way more or less of a medical school; 
and now gives a promise of becoming a college for 
the education of the Chinese in all the branches of 
medicine. Besides Drs. Kwan Ato and Wong, 
already referred to, we find honorable mention in the 
reports of the hospital, of Drs. So-To-Ming, U. 
A-Chung, and others, with special reference to their 
skill in operations for stone, cataract, necrosis, re- 
moval of tumors, etc. 
The want of medical books in the Chinese lan- 
guage, and the existence of an almost unconquerable 
prejudice against human dissection, or autopsies, has 
Ions: been felt; but the former has been in 
measure provided for, as text-books have been pub- 
lished on all the branches taught in our schools. 
Anatomy has been demonstrated by the use of 
models and plates, and by the dissection of dogs ; but 
recently an advance has been made in the occasional 
autopsy of a patient dying without friends; the dis- 
section of a child, young subjects being less cared 
for by the Chinese than adults; and the hurried 90 
HARRIS, 
examination of an adult arm or leg before the class. 
These have been openly done, to test the progress 
made in overcoming the prejudices of the natives, 
and to pave the way for future advances. As the 
Chinese worship their deceased ancestors, they have 
consequently a sort of reverence for a cadaver, and 
the use of one for scientific study is very abhorrent 
to their feelings: but this antipathy will in all prob- 
ability give way, as many others have, in the progress 
of medical enlightenment. 
The chief contributors to Chinese medical litera- 
ture have been the late Dr. Richard Hobson and Dr. 
John G. Kerr, recently returned to our country after 
an absence of twenty-two years. 
To Dr. Hobson is due the credit of having prepared 
the first medical work, An Outline of Anatomy and 
Physiology, published in Shanghae in 1850. His 
other works were on Physiology, 1851; First Lines 
of Practical Surgery in the West, 1857;.A Treatise 
on Midwifery and Diseases of Children, 1858; and 
Practice of Medicine and Materia Medica, in the 
same year. 
Dr. Kerr published a paper on Vaccination in 
1859; Fever and Hernia, 1859; Materia Medica, 
1871; Bandaging, 1872; Symptomatology, 1873; 
Skin Diseases, 1874; and Chemistry—the last, an 
octavo of 597 pages, in four fasciculi. The first 
two appeared in 1871, and one hundred copies were 
ordered for the Imperial College of Peking, and fifty 
by a bookseller in Yedo, Japan, where the educated 
natives understand the Chinese printed character. 
Dr. Dudgeon, of the London Mission Hospital of 
Peking, published a series of Miscellaneous Essays MEDICINE IN CHINA. 
91 
on Western Medicine, in 1875. Dr. F. P. Smith, of 
the Hankow Hospital, a work on Hygienics, in 1867; 
and Dr. Manson, of Amoy, a large work on Diseases 
of the Testes, in 1874. 
A collection of these works, together with numer- 
ous, illustrated, hospital reports, and some medical 
pamphlets, were placed upon exhibition in the 
Chinese section of the Centennial. When it is re- 
membered that it requires on an average a period of 
six years, under a teacher living constantly in the 
house of the pupil, for an American to obtain even a 
very imperfect knowledge of the Chinese language, 
the labor of preparing these medical works will be 
appreciated. 
Mission Hospitals have been established at Tai- 
wan, in the Island of Formosa; at Canton, where the 
ground and buildings belong to the Society ; at Swa- 
tow, Amoy, Foochau, Ningpo, Shanghae, and Peking; 
and in connection with these, or located at a number 
of inferior stations, dispensaries, the out-practice of 
which is in some instances immense, averaging over 
a thousand cases per month. 
The Province of Kwang-Tung, in which Canton is 
located, abounds in cases of stone in the bladder, 
urethra, and prepuce, and furnishes a large number 
of subjects for the operations of lithotomy and 
lithotrity every year, amounting in 1875 to 31 of the 
former, and 20 of the latter; and for the whole period 
since the founding of the hospital to 332 of lithotomy, 
with 26 deaths, and 87 of lithotrity, with 8 deaths. 
As these cases are generally of long standing, the 
calculi are on the average unusually large. Tumors 
of very large size are also abundant, as the native 92 
HARRIS, 
physicians do not remove them, and they are per- 
mitted to grow until their bulk and unsightliness 
compel their extirpation at the hands of a foreigner. 
At JNdngpo the chief diseases treated are intermit- 
tent and remittent fevers, rheumatism, pneumonia, 
ulcers, ophthalmia, cataract, and scabies. Victims 
of opium-smoking frequently apply for treatment, 
with a view to reformation, and some become broken 
of the habit, although the temptations to relapse are 
very great where the vice is so common. As the 
habit is not a social one, and there is no treating on 
the part of inviting companions, as in spirit-drinking, 
the reformation should be less difficult than that from 
the habit of drinking to intoxication is with us. 
Although very difficult to estimate, it has been 
thought by observers, claiming the requisite expe- 
rience, that not more than from one to three in a 
hundred of the inhabitants of China smoke opium, 
and that these are mainly residents of cities and the 
larger towns. As with our drunkards, the cost to a 
habitual smoker is often half of all that he can make. 
Among children, infantile convulsions, scrofula, 
and hereditary syphilis, are frequently met with. The 
uses of quinine in autumnal fevers, and of the truss 
in hernia, are becoming known to the Chinese through 
hospital and dispensary cases, and the dissemination 
of pamphlets. Surgical instruments are being made 
by native cutlers after European and American mo- 
dels, but the workmanship is inferior to that of the 
Japanese. 
Native physicians and their sons are commencing 
to appreciate the superiority of a proper medical edu- 
cation, and are entering the Canton Hospital as stu- MEDICINE IN CHINA. 
93 
dents. Thus the work of the gradual enlightenment 
of the Chinese mind upon the question of the relative 
merits of the native practice, and of the scientific 
methods of treating diseases and injuries as taught 
and employed by foreigners, steadily advances. Much 
of the prejudice felt by the Chinese could be done 
away with if the prescriptions given them by 
foreigners could be put up at their own apothecary 
shops; and, this being recognized, they are directed 
to them when practicable; but as yet the Chinese 
druggists pay little attention to keeping foreign 
articles such as we prescribe, and when they do pro- 
fessedly, the preparations, such as sulphate of quinine, 
etc., are not reliable. No doubt this will in time, 
however, be met by the education of natives in prac- 
tical pharmacy. 
Dr. Parker has lived to see a wonderful growth in 
the reputation of the Canton Hospital, since the time 
when a few suffering eye patients came almost by 
stealth to consult him at his office. The in-door 
cases are now about 1000 per annum, and the out- 
door somewhere about 18,000. The Hospital Society 
has also under its care four Dispensaries, and the 
whole number of patients prescribed for in all the 
institutions amounts to nearly or quite 35,000, as it 
reached 33,317 in 1875. 
Dr. Happer, another medical pioneer, graduated in 
the University of Pennsylvania in the class of 1844, 
and arrived out at Canton the same year, where he 
has remained almost uninterruptedly ever since. The 
Canton Hospital has been supported mainly by the 
foreign merchants resident in China, but in latter 
years has been largely aided by Chinese government 
officials, merchants, and compradores. 94 
HARRIS, 
Clinical reports, some of them of very remarkable 
cases, occasionally appear in European medical jour- 
nals; such as those of Dr. Edward Henderson, of 
Shanghae, given in the January and February num- 
bers of the Edinburgh Medical Journal for this current 
year. One of his cases would never have occurred in 
any country where operative surgery is legitimately 
practised. A young Chinaman, 'twenty years of 
age, became affected with urethral calculi at the age 
of four, and permitted them to multiply until his 
glans and prepuce were dilated into a calcareously 
lined cyst of twelve inches’ circumference, containing 
thousands of small calculi, and weighing, after re- 
moval behind the corona, a pound and a half. 
Calculi are frequently found in the urethra of the 
Cantonese, located near the end of the canal, and as 
many as 11G have been removed from the cavity of a 
constricted prepuc6 in a man of 72. In the northern 
regions of China vesical calculus is rarely met with 
as compared with the southern. 
The peculiar form of the palpebral opening in the 
eye of a Mongolian, appears to render him especially 
liable to entropium as a result of a chronic conjuncti- 
vitis, and vast numbers present themselves for treat- 
ment. This character of the eye also materially 
interferes with the operation of extracting the lens 
for cataract, especially by the superior incision, and 
the inferior one is generally resorted to, although the 
other is preferred where there is competent assistance 
at hand. Operations for cataract are remarkably suc- 
cessful in Chinese subjects, and the peculiar, innate, 
manual dexterity of the natives appears to fit them 
to become skilful operators. MEDICINE IX CHINA. 
95 
The remarkable prevalence of conjunctival inflam- 
mation among the rice-eating nations of the world, 
has given rise to an impression that this grain has an 
influence in producing it; but a careful investigation 
will determine the existence of a variety of causes in 
different localities, not connected at all with this diet. 
The purulent conjunctivitis of Egypt is believed to be 
due to uncleanly habits, inviting the attacks of flies, 
which thus transfer decomposing matter, obtained 
from dead animals or parts in a diseased condition, 
to the eyes—mostly of children. Not only is the eye 
of the Chinaman peculiarly susceptible to inflamma- 
tion, but this is produced by a variety of influences. 
The cold and dust-storms of the north, the effects of 
heat, sunlight, bad ventilation, and exposure, espe- 
cially in the water-boats, at the south, and of the 
over-straining of the eye in delicate handicraft, all 
act as exciting causes; and, when once produced, the 
inflammation is apt to become chronic, from pernicious 
or the want of proper medical treatment in the acute 
stage. 
No one in China has had so much influence in 
overcoming, at least apparently, the antipathy of the 
natives for foreigners as the operative surgeon. There 
is no question that they at heart hate us, and will 
often be heard, by those understanding them, to apply 
the epithets, “foreign devils,” “outside barbarians,” 
etc., when talking among themselves in regard to us. 
But the surgeon appeals to their sense of gratitude by 
favors conferred, in restoring the blind to sight, re- 
moving diseased growths, etc., and thus secures not 
only their kindly feelings, but in some cases immunity 
from attack, and safety to life and property. He is 96 
HARRIS, 
also enabled to obtain the entree into the houses of 
the nobility, and thus secure the protection of those 
high in authority, and their co-operation in carrying 
on the work of medical reform. 
Among the surgical patients applying for aid are 
great numbers whose cases belong to the domain of 
minor surgery, and who are readily relieved by the 
puncture of an abscess, or performance of some trifling 
operation; but, influenced by the success in these 
cases, are many other patients upon whom the sur- 
geon is expected to exercise his skill, and is given 
full liberty to perform whatever operation he may 
think advisable, no matter how severe or hazardous 
it may be. Confidence begotten of success has done 
wonders for surgery in China, and very fortunately 
the habits and temperament of the natives greatly 
favor them in their recovery. Pyaemia is a very rare 
sequel, although such a drawback to success with us, 
where its occurrence is evidently on the increase. 
AVe believe that both pyaemia and gangrene are 
greatly due to the condition of the tissues and organs 
brought about by intemperance, and that the absence 
of organic changes in children and the Chinese, is 
largely due to freedom from the use of intoxicants, 
which will account for the rarity of pyaemia in both. 
In this respect the Japanese are an inferior race, 
being addicted to intemperance, and having very 
little recuperative power when operated upon. 
Opium smokers are not good subjects for serious 
operations, as their systems are exhausted from the 
effects of the poison; those not addicted to the habit, 
or but slightly affected by it, generally do well. 
As one of the methods of treating hemorrhoids MEDICINE IN CHINA. 
97 
adopted by the native physicians is to apply escha- 
rotics (probably pulverized sulphate of copper, which 
is one of their remedies), patients present themselves 
with cicatricial strictures of the anus; in some cases, 
with the rectum almost entirely closed up. For this 
condition there does not appear to have been found 
any permanent relief. 
Removal of the upper jaw has been several times 
performed at Canton; and a large aneurism of the 
carotid artery was successfully treated by digital 
compression, kept up by relays of the Chinese medi- 
cal students. The method was very painful at first, 
and could not be long sustained, but in time the com- 
pression became much less severe, and was continued 
a number of hours uninterruptedly except for the mo- 
mentary change of students. Treatment in this form 
lasted at intervals twenty days, and the patient was 
under observation for eighty-two. 
Elephantiasis prevails in its most frightful forms 
among the Chinese, attacking in one subject the 
face, and particularly the mouth; in another, the 
upper extremity, enormously enlarging the hand; in 
a third, the scrotum; and in a fourth, the lower ex- 
tremity, as in the Barbadoes leg. Operations have 
in some instances been performed, as upon the face, 
but not with any permanent benefit, as the hypertro- 
phic enlargement is renewed. 
The Chinese evince an excellent capacity for ac- 
quiring medical knowlege, and several have become 
very skilful in their surgical operations. At one 
period the Canton Hospital was conducted entirely 
by them for nine months, during which time the ope- 
rations performed exceeded the average usual for the 98 
HARRIS, 
same number of months, and at all times they now 
do a large share of the hospital work. 
The great central organization, known as the 
“Medical Missionary Society,” which was inaugu- 
rated at Canton, February 21, 1838, under Dr. 
Thomas R. Col ledge, as its first president, and with 
a full corps of officers and directors, appears to have 
been well aware at its beginning of the importance of 
educating the Chinese in rational medicine, and evi- 
dently had it then in view to found a school for the 
training of native physicians and surgeons, as will 
be seen by reference to an address drawn up by Drs. 
Col ledge and Parker and Mr. E. C. Bridgman, in 
April, 1838. To these three also is due the credit of 
taking steps to form this Society in December, 1835. 
Dr. Colledge was a surgeon in the British service, 
stationed at Macao, and divides with Dr. Parker the 
credit of having established the Mission Hospital of 
Canton, although its reputation with the natives was 
chiefly the result of the surgical skill of Dr. Parker, 
who very fortunately possessed the physique to endure 
the vast amount of work that he was called upon to 
perform. Some of the Fellows of this College still 
living, have the satisfaction of feeling that they aided 
in providing a fund with which this hospital pur- 
chased for its use several cases of much needed sur- 
gical instruments, that in their day did very import- 
ant service. 
Much credit is due to the Medical Missionary So- 
ciety in China, for the persevering activity and faith 
with which it has labored to accomplish the ends for 
which the organization was founded thirty-nine years MEDICINE IN CHINA. 
99 
ago ; and we congratulate its members upon the suc- 
cess they have met with in their endeavors to intro- 
duce “ western medicineand make it popular with 
the natives, both as patients and practitioners. It is 
certainly a matter of much professional interest to us 
to know that a revolution in medical ideas is being 
slowly effected even in China.