air, while fasting, would prevent the blood from settling on the chest, where it might corrupt. These remedies, though barbarous and excruciating, cured me so completely, that in seven days I was able to resume my journey."

Surgical operations, however, are principally confined to the extraction of teeth, the amputation of an injured finger, and the operation for a hare lip. Acupuncture and scarification are favorite remedies with the Chinese, the former especially so; and we will describe the operation, which those who have undergone it state is a most painful one. The needles are made either of gold or silver, the manufacture of these instruments being practised and understood by few; they are extremely slender, about four inches in length, and have a spiral-handle for the purpose of more easily turning them round.

When acupuncture was introduced into China, it is impossible to determine, but the operation has been practised from time immemorial, was introduced from thence into Japan and Corea, and acupuncture is as much in vogue in the latter countries as in the former. The first correct information that Europeans received of acupuncture was in the year 1679, when Ten Rhyne, a medical officer in the East India Company's service, stated that a practice was prevalent in Japan, which was unknown to the Greeks, Romans, or Arabians. It appears that a Japanese soldier, who was appointed by the Emperor of Japan to conduct the English to the palace, was seized with vomiting and pain in the abdomen, after drinking iced-water. He took wine and ginger, but these

remedies proving useless, he had recourse to acupuncture, in the presence of Ten Rhyne, popular belief being, that acupuncture allows a subtle and acrid vapour to escape, which was the cause of the suffering. The guard laid himself upon his back, placed the point of a needle on his abdomen, struck the head to make the instrument pass through the skin, then turned it round several times, until the needle had apparently penetrated to the depth of an inch, drew several deep inspirations, and withdrew the needle, pressing the puncture with his fingers, to force out the imaginary vapour. Ten Rhyne affirms that the soldier repeated this operation in his presence four times, when he declared that he was quite well, and perfectly free from pain.

We have seen this remedy applied to one of our domestics in Hong-Kong, who had been suffering from neuralgic pains in the shoulder: acupuncture was applied to the part affected, two needles being left in his flesh for five days, and our servant declared himself greatly relieved by having holes drilled into his person. The use of the puncturing needles requires extreme caution, lest the operator should wound a bloodvessel, and to prevent unskilful practitioners from adopting this remedy, the following edict was promulgated in China. In the 297th section of the code we read, "That whenever an unskilful practitioner in administering medicine, or using the puncturing needles, proceed contrary to the established forms, and thereby causes the death of a patient, the magistrate shall call in other practitioners, to examine the medicine, or the

wound, and if it appear that the injury done was unintentional, the practitioner shall then be treated according to the statute for accidental homicides, and shall not be any longer allowed to practise medicine. But if designedly he depart from the established forms, and deceives in his attempt to cure the malady, in order to obtain property, then, according to its amount, he shall be treated as a thief; and if death ensue from his mal-practice, then, for having used medicine and practised his art with intent to kill, he shall be beheaded."

These instruments are used for the purposes of scarification and acupuncture, which is adopted most successfully in the treatment of tumours, to which the Chinese are especially liable. If the patient does

not bear the operation of the needle, it is at once withdrawn, but if he does, and the disease proves obstinate, it is introduced two, three, or more times. The more severe the affection, the deeper must be the puncture.

There is one practice of the Chinese surgeons which entails too frequently severe suffering upon the

DRUGS USED BY MEDICAL PRACTITIONERS. 77 patient; we allude to the application of powerful caustics: the sufferers have continually applied to our medical men for relief, cases presenting themselves where small sores originally, by the injudicious use of escharotics, have extended, until a portion of the tissue, and occasionally some important organ, has been either seriously injured or partially destroyed. One of the most powerful irritants used is called the moxa, or burning the flowers of the amaranthus upon the skin.

Bleeding is seldom resorted to, but leeches and cupping are employed when local blood-taking is necessary venesection is highly disapproved of in fevers, the Chinese practitioners arguing in this wise, "A fever is like a cauldron boiling; it is requisite to reduce the fire, and not diminish the liquid in the vessel, if we wish to cure the patient."

The practice of midwifery is entirely in the hand of females, many of whom understand the practical part of their art, most thoroughly; some extraordinary theories, however, are maintained on this subject, one of them being, that the pulse of a pregnant woman will indicate the sex of the unborn infant.

The drugs used by the Chinese practitioners are numerous, and the efficacy of some of them extraordinary, in their estimation. In a druggist's shop stags' horns embellish and ornament the walls; these are frequently reduced to a powder, and prescribed for all pulmonary complaints. Although the number and use of mineral medicines are circumscribed, calomel, which they term fluid silver, is extensively prescribed by the Chinese physicians.