PACIFIC AND BEERING'S STRAIT. J 55 



reply to my request that the officers and invahds 

 might be allowed to walk about on shore, An-yah 

 said he had spoken to the mandarin, who had sent off 

 a Loo Choo physician to administer to the health of 

 our invalids, and in fact who would see whether our 

 statement concerning them was correct or not. A 

 consequential little man, with a huge pair of Chinese 

 spectacles, being introduced as the Esculapius in ques- 

 tion, begged to be permitted to visit the sick and to 

 feel their pulse. The surgeon says — " he gravely 

 placed his finger upon the radial artery first of one 

 wrist and then of the other, and returned to the first 

 again, making considerable pressure for upwards of a 

 minute upon each. To one patient affected with a 

 chronic liver complaint, and in whom the pulsations are 

 very different in the two arms, in consequence of an 

 irregular distribution of the arteries, he recommended 

 medicine : of another person affected with dyspepsia 

 whose pulse was natural, he said nothing ; no other 

 part of the animal economy attracted his notice. He 

 appeared to be acquainted with quicksilver and moxa, 

 but not with the odour of cinnamon." 



After this careful examination he returned to the 

 cabin and wrote in clumsy Chinese characters that one 

 of the patients had an affection of the stomach and 

 required medicine ; and inquired of another if he were 

 costive. This report, which we did not understand 

 at the time, was satisfactory to An-yah, who immedi- 

 ately gave us permission to land at Potsoong and 

 Abbey Point, but with an understanding that we were 

 not to go into the town. He then produced a list of 



stance which should be borne in mind by vessels obtaining a 

 supply at this place. 



