216 



NOTES ON CHINESE MATEBIA MEDICA. 



186062. 



Kiempfer's 

 Amcenitates. 



Mineral 

 Drugs. 



Sulphur. 



China are , briefly noticed. The Amcenitates of the German 

 botanist Ksempfer, published in 1712, contains an important 

 section of 145 pages upon Japanese plants, for many of which 

 the Chinese characters with their Japanese sounds are given. 

 Nor should I omit to mention an Index of Plants of Japan and 

 China, published in 1852 by MM. Hoffmann and Schultes, 1 in 

 which the Latin names of about 600 species are enumerated, 

 together with their equivalents in Japanese and Chinese, the 

 Chinese characters being given. 



With regard to inorganic Materia Medica, some information as 

 to the Chinese designations of various mineral substances may 

 be gathered from Keferstein's Mineralogia Polyglotta (Halle 

 1849, 8vo, pp. 248) ; the Chinese words, however, are expressed 

 only in Eoman characters. 



The mineral Materia Medica of the Chinese is such as one 

 may expect to find among a people having no scientific acquaint- 

 ance with chemistry. Numerous substances are employed which 

 are devoid of all active medicinal properties, while others of great 

 power are so administered that the dose must be extremely un- 

 certain. Although most of their mineral drugs are used in the 

 crude state, there are a few, such as the mercurials, which are 

 the results of chemical operations that are evidently conducted 

 with considerable skill. 



In the following list I have thought it best to group the sub- 

 stances described under the simple headings of Calcareous, Mag- 

 nesian, Arsenical, &c., instead of attempting any more scientific 

 arrangement. 



SULPHUR. 



H? m JH Wei-lew-hwang ; Native Sulphur. Ksempfer 

 states that it is found abundantly in Japan. 



^jfc W Lew-hwang ; Sulphur. Cleyer, Med. SimpL, No. 

 157; Pun-tsaou, Fig. 85. The specimen has been fused and 

 partially crystallized ; it has a greyish-yellow colour. 



1 Journal Asiatiyue, Oct., Nov., 1852. 



