1 82 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS [vOL. 45 



There are also accessory canals or vessels, eight of which run trans- 

 versely and fifteen obliquely. 



The materia medica of the Chinese is extensive and is used with 

 prodigality by both the sick and the well. The classical authority 

 for the use of drugs is a sort of dispensatory called Pcn-ts 'ao 

 kang-mu — " A Synopsis of Ancient Herbals," — compiled by one 

 Li-Shi-Chen in the latter part of the sixteenth century. The 

 last reprint of this work was in 1826, and it appears in forty-three 

 quarto volumes, the first three containing over iioo rude wood-cuts 

 of the minerals, plants, and animals treated of in the body of the 

 work. Drugs are classified in three kingdoms and fifteen divisions, 

 as follows: (A) Inanimate substances — water, fire, earth, metals, 

 and stones. (B) Plants — herbs, grains, vegetables, fruits, trees. 

 (C) Animals — insects, scaly animals, shelly animals, birds, quadru- 

 peds, man. Comprised in these divisions, and described in the 

 Pen-ts 'ao, are 1892 distinct drugs. These, in various combinations, 

 are presented for use in about ten thousand formulae. All drugs 

 are considered as having certain inherent qualities of heat, cold, 

 warmth, or coolness, and these are noted. But in spite of the 

 mystical and utterly unintelligible explanations of their actions given 

 by Chinese authors, it is probable that medicines are administered, 

 in China as elsewhere, principally as specifics, that is to say, " good " 

 for tlje disease. 



