APPENDIX. 495 



are covered with a thin, dark brown, roughened cuticle, are 

 often worm eaten, and are lighter than Pachyma cocos^ which 

 they somewhat resemble. The interior is of a yellowish-brown 

 color, and very much resembles cork. They have no taste or 

 smell, and do not contain starch. They are produced mostly 

 in Hunan and Szechuan, and are considered counter-poisonous, 

 antimalarial, diuretic, and constructive, and are administered 

 in typhoid fever, epidemics, gravel, gonorrhcea, leucorrhoea, 

 and incontinence of urine during pregnancy. 



REMARKABLE DRUGS.— The Chinese use a number 

 of peculiar substances, "not so nice by half" as those already 

 mentioned. Most of these are derived from the animal king- 

 dom ; but some come from the vegetable kingdom, among 

 which may be mentioned the following : 



^ P jS ^ (Ching-k'ou-pien-ts'ao). This is the grass 

 growing in the mouth of an old well. Dried and placed under 

 a baby's sleeping mat, the mother will not hear the latter cry 

 during the night. 



^ ?L 4* ^ (Shu-k'ung-chung-ts'ao) is the grass growing 

 in a hole in a tree. It is placed over the bed room door, to 

 relieve colic in an infant and to stop its crying in the night. 



M 9E if A ;^ J: ]^ (Ch'an-ssu-fu-j8n-chung-shang-ts'ao). 

 This is the grass from the grave of a woman who has died in 

 child-birth. It is decocted and used as a mouth wash in 

 aphthous sore mouth in infants. 



P^ ^ ^ (Yen-ju-ts'ao) is the grass growing in a swallow's 

 nest. It is dried brown, powdered, and swallowed for noctur- 

 nal incontinence of urine. 



il ^ [^ (Chi-k'o-ts'ao), or grass from a chicken's nest, is 

 placed under an infant's mat to prevent night crying. 



%%.'M- (Chu-k'o-ts'ao), grass from a pig's wallow, is -used 

 for a similar purpose. 



^%'a% (Niu-ch'ih-t'ai-ts'ao) is a cow's cud, and is. 

 recommended in vomiting and choleraic diflficulties. 



M ^ ^ /t^ (Ch'eng-tuug-fu-mu), rotten wood from east 

 of the city is considered to be astringent and carminative, and 

 a decoction in spirits is applied in centipede bites and in 

 numbness and prickling of the extremities. 



