528 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



The mathematical writings of the early Eomist missionaries greatly 

 improved the mathematical texts available in Chinese, and since 

 foreigners have begun to introduce western science, the development 

 has been rapid. But aside from the graduates from modern schools, 

 the knowledge of mathematics even among the learned men of China is 

 very small, and the common people study it only as far as their business 

 requires, and that is exceedingly little. The cumbersome notation and 

 the little aid which such studies gave in the ancient system of literary 

 examinations (only abolished in 1905) doubtless discouraged the pur- 

 suit of what they seem to have no taste for as a people. Chinese authors 

 acknowledge the superiority of western mathematicians, and generally 

 ascribe their advance in the exact sciences to this power. 



6. Action and Reaction of Elements. — Williams in his " Middle 

 Kingdom " gives a table showing the leading " elementary " correspond- 

 encies in the curious speculations used by Chinese philosophers to ac- 

 count for any possible contingency in the changes of the visible universe, 

 which in the hands of geomancers and fortune-tellers are the bases of 

 considerable imposition on the people. The five elementary powers or 

 hing are: water, fire, wood, metal and earth, and the table gives the 

 qualities, tastes, and activities of the five hing as correlated with five 

 points of the compass (the fifth being "center"), the five correspond- 

 ing planets, five colors, five viscera, five musical notes, five early emper- 

 ors, four seasons, and four quarters of the zodiac. But to consider 

 these ideas in detail would lead too far afield into unprofitable vagaries. 



7. Chemistry — Alchemy. — Chemistry and metallurgy have been un- 

 known as sciences, but many operations in them are performed with a 

 considerable degree of success, and bear testimony to Chinese shrewd- 

 ness and ingenuity in the existing state of their knowledge. The skill 

 which they exhibit in metallurgy, their brilliant dye-stuffs and numerous 

 pigments; their early knowledge of gunpowder, alcohol, arsenic, Glau- 

 ber's salt, calomel and corrosive sublimate; their pyrotechny; their 

 asphyxiating and anesthetic compounds — all give evidence of no con- 

 temptible proficiency in practical chemistry. In their books of curious 

 recipes (see section 2) are instructions for the manufacture of sym- 

 pathetic inks, for removing stains, alloying metals, counterfeiting gold, 

 whitening copper, overlaying the baser with the precious metals, etc., 

 many of the rules in which are still in common use, and bear in their 

 very terms the stamp of an alchemic origin. Dr. Martin in his " Lore 

 of Cathay " presents striking evidence to show that in all probability 

 western alchemy, from which our modern chemistry has come, had its 

 root in the art as practised in China, where it appeared as an indigenous 

 product, coeval with the dawn of letters. 



One doctrine of Taoism which was developed six centuries before 

 Christ regards the soul and body as identical in substance, and main- 



