THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE 



MONTHLY 



DECEMBER, 1911 



SCIENCE AMONG THE CHINESE 



By Dr. C. K. EDMUNDS 



PRESIDENT OF CANTON CHRISTIAN COLLEGE 



I. Introduction 



(a) Chinese Science a Case of Arrested Development. — In scien- 

 tific knowledge, as in nearly everything else, China presents a case of 

 arrested development. Chinese conceptions regarding the body of 

 man, the materials of the earth's crust, the surface forms of our globe, 

 of its origin and process of formation, of the vast celestial universe 

 through which it whirls, of the nature and origin of matter and of 

 cosmogony in general, are the conceptions characteristic of western 

 peoples before and during the middle ages. Not only so, but they 

 are the same as were held by her own sages centuries before that 

 period; in many cases they express the best thought of China's deep 

 thinkers in the days of Pythagoras and perhaps prior to his time, 

 while in others they give us the cream of Chinese philosophy as de- 

 veloped during the early days of the glorious Sung dynasty (a.d. 1020- 

 1120). While of course those who have within the last few decades 

 read the books of the west have modified their previous notions, 

 the number of such as compared with the general people, though 

 rapidly increasing, is still small and the purely Chinese conceptions 

 of anatomy, physiology and medicine still consist of interacting func- 

 tions of hypothetical organs, the intermixings of various vital fluids, 

 and the subtle influence of capricious humors; chemistry is still 

 alchemy; geography, mere guesswork; geology, vague mythology; 

 astronomy, astrology; and exact physical science, nil. Science in China 

 has made few advances during the last few centuries and is now but 

 slowly responding to a new impulse from abroad in all its departments. 



(b) Their Inventions, Arts, Engineering, not Evidence of Scientific 

 Attainment. — To be sure, several striking inventions are probably to 



VOL. L.XXIX. — 36. 



