CHINA. 



283 



Art and immense and poweiful burning glass, which constituted 

 Scieactt. one O f t he presents to their emperor from the British 

 """ "Y ' embassy. See BURNING INSTRUMENTS, p. 142. 



They are totally ignorant of chemistry, as a science ; 

 but are acquainted with many of its practical applica- 

 tions. Tlie process of smelting iron is well known among 

 them ; and they produce a very thin and neat kind of 

 cast iron ware, which they render less brittle by anneal- 

 in<T in heated ovens. They are able also to convert the 

 same metal into an inferior kind of steel, but their manu- 

 factures of wrought or malleable iron are extremely de- 

 ficient, both in quality and workmanship. In the other 

 metals, their skill is very considerable, and they produce 

 a great variety of the neatest trinkets and jewellery. 

 They display great ingenuity in cutting different kinds 

 of stone into groups of figures and landscapes, in cutting 

 and polishing the harder kinds of which, they make use 

 of the powder of rock crystal. They have a knowledge 

 of the effect of steam as a more powerful instrument of 

 heat than water, and employ a kind of Papm's digester 

 for softening horn ; but they have no acquaintance with 

 its elastic nature, and make no application of it to ma- 

 chinery. Though utterly devoid of all theoretical no- 

 tions of colour, they know how to extract from vege- 

 table, mineral, and animal substances, a variety of the 

 most brilliant colouring materials, which they have the 

 art of mixing up in every possible shade and tint, and 

 which they can communicate to cloth, paper, and porce- 

 lain, in thf richest and most lively hues. They are well 

 versed, also, in the practice of distillation ; and prepare 

 from various kinds of grain, especially from rice, an ar- 

 dent empyreumatic spirit, which they call Sttn-tchoo, 

 and which is said to have some resemblace to the whisky 

 of Scotland. Other instances of their practical applica- 

 tion of chemical principles will occur under the head of 

 Manufactures. 



The Chinese are said to have directed their attention 

 to the cultivation of the h'.-aling arts, from the most re- 

 mote periods ; and to possess a multitude of writings on 

 that 'ubject. But, however these assertions may be re- 

 ceived, it is certain, that they have made very little pro- 

 gress in this mo<-t important science ; that there are no 

 schools of medical instruction in the r mpire ; and that 

 the pr fession is held in no degrte of estimation. Every 

 person is free to exi rcise the trade of a physician ; and 

 those, who wish to be duly prepared for practice, place 

 themselves under the tuition of one of the faculty, who 

 communicate* his secret- and liis skill. The eunuchs about 

 the palace are generally accounted the most eminent 

 practitioners, and the priests, for the most part, exercise 

 the profession ; but the great proportion of acting phy- 

 sicians are to be found among the lower classes of the 

 community, and the multitude of quacks and nostrum 

 venders is said to he immense. The Chinest physicians 

 are altogether ignorant of physiology or the theory of 

 the human frame, as well as of pathology, or the causes 

 and symptoms of disease. They are utter strangers also 

 to every branch of anatomy, as it would both be con- 

 trary to all their custom;, and wholly impracticable for 

 the weak nerves of a Chinese t.> open a dead body. It 

 has been ascertained, in opposition to the assertion of the 

 missionaries, that they are entirely unacquainted with the 

 circulation of the blood ; and their whole art is limited 

 to the study of the pulse. 



According to their theory of medicine, vital heat and 

 radical moisture are the two natural principles of life ; 

 the former of which they suppose to have its seat in the 

 heart, lungs, liver, and kidneys, while they place the lat- 

 ter in the intestines, the number of which they reckon 



Arts and 

 Sciences. 



Medicine. 



Theory of 

 nediune. 



to be six, Of this heat and moisture, the blood and 

 spirits are the vehicles, conveying them from their re- 

 spective seats to the other parts of the body. Every 

 disease, they imagine, acts successively upon the heart, 

 the liver, the bangs, the stomach, the entrails, and the 

 kidneys ; and its passage from one of these parts to ano- 

 ther, produces a crisis, of which it is of the utmost con- 

 sequence to know how and when to take the advan- 

 tage. 



They pretend to judge of the state of a patient, and to 

 determine the nature of his disease by the sound of his t" 3 * 

 voice, the colour of his face and eyes, and the appearance 

 of his tongue, nostrils, and ears ; but it is upon the state 

 of the pulse, that they found their most infallible prog- 

 nostics. They suppose, that every particular part of the 

 body has a separate pulse of its own, and that each of 

 these again has a sympathetic pulse in the arm. The 

 skill of the physician consists in discovering the seat 

 and nature of the disease, by ascertaining the prevailing 

 pulse in the body, in consequence of feeling the corre- 

 sponding pulsations at the wrist. The pulse of the pa- 

 tient, therefore, is always examined with the greatest 

 formality and deliberation ; and the physician proceeds, 

 without asking any questions, to inform the patient 

 where he feels pain, what parts of his frame are affected, 

 and in what manner the disorder will terminate. But, 

 before pronouncing his opinion, he takes care to become 

 secretly acquainted with the case of the patient ; as his 

 reputation always rests more upon assigning the true 

 cause of the disease, than upon his success in removing it. 

 That their information is not derived merely from the Mode of 

 indications of the pulse, is manifest from the modes in feeling tlit 

 which the female pulse is felt. As it would be contrary l' uls '- 

 to all sense of propriety in China, for a stranger to touch 

 the hands of a woman, a silken cord is fastened to the 

 wrist of the sick lady, and passed through an opening 

 in the wall to another apartment, where the doctor, by 

 applying his hand to the string, pretends to distinguish 

 the beats of the pulse. Like all oracular personages, 

 however, unless they have been able, by other means, to 

 learn the feelings of the patient, they generally ascribe 

 the disorder to a cause of universal application, viz. to 

 Fong-shooy, that is a good or bad fortune, and to heat 

 or cold. 



The best of their medical treatises are mere herbals Medical 

 specifying the names, and qualities of plants ; and their writings 

 prescriptions consist chiefly of cordials extracted from and P rac - 

 fruits and herbs, and of strict regulations in point of diet. tlce< 

 Their principal remedies from the vegetable kingdom 

 are gii.senjr, prepared in seventy-sevi-n different ways, 

 rhubarb, China-root, and tea j from the animal king- 

 dom petrified crabs as an antidote against all kinds of 

 poison, nui-k, snakes, beetles, centipedes, the aurelia of 

 the silk-worm, and other insects, the flesh, gall, skin, 

 bones, and ivory of the elephant, the flesh, fat, milk, 

 hair, and even the dung of the camel ; from the mineral 

 kingdom, saltj etiv, sulphur, native cinnabar, &c. Opium 

 is more frequently administered as a cordial to raise the 

 spirits, than as a remedy against disease. 



Their surgery, it may easily be conceived, is equally Surj<n 

 defective ; and consists chiefly in setting a simple frac- 

 ture, reducing a dislocation, drawing blood by scarifying 

 or cupping, and sometimes burning the skin with hot 

 pointed irons, or puncturing it with silver needles, and 

 then setting fire to the leaves of certain plants, especially 

 of mugwort, laid upon the place. Various other chirtir- 

 gical operations, cleansing the ears, cutting corns, pull- 

 ing the joints to make them crack, twitching the nose, 

 and beating on the back, are performed by the barbers. 



