454 Voyage of the Novara. 



The Chinese, however, possess themselves a pretty compre- 

 hensive medical literatm.'e, whence we may infer that from 

 the earliest times they paid special attention to the science of 

 medicine. According to a Chinese tradition, the Emperor Schi- 

 nung-, 3200 years before our era, collected a '' Materia Me- 

 dica," and 570 years later, the Emperor Hwang-t^ is said to 

 have written a work with the title " Sonwan " (open ques- 

 tions in medicine). The celebrated work, '' the Doctrine of 

 the Pulse," by Wang-shu-fo, was written in the reign of Tsche- 

 Hwang-te (the book-burner), about 510 B.C. A second 

 edition of this work was published in the reign of Kang-he, 

 in the year 1693 of our era. About a. d. 229 the Chinese 

 physician Tschang-kae-pin wrote the first Chinese work 

 which, in addition to the theory of medicine, also contained 

 prescriptions. The great ^^ Materia Medica'''' of Cliina was 

 compiled by Li-tschi-kan, and was published by his son dur- 

 ing the reign of Wan-Leih, about a.d. 1600. The most im- 

 portant medical work in Chinese is the E-tsang-kin-ksen, or 

 ''the Golden Mirror of Medical Authors," collated by Im- 

 perial authority from the best works of earlier native authors, 

 especially from the ''Nan-king," and the writings of Dr. 

 Tschang-kae-pin. This was • published in 1 743 (the seventh 

 year of the reign of Keen-lung), and consists of thirty-two 

 volumes 8vo, with upwards of 400 woodcuts.* 



* We saw this huge work in the private hbrary of the chief of the medical staff at 

 Hong-kong, Dr. W. A. Harland, who had conceived the idea of publishing a more 

 important work upon Chinese drugs, when death struck down this distinguished 

 and most industrious gentleman while in the active discharge of his duties. 



