Chinese investigations show that there are four different kinds of 

 dropsy: (1) Air Dropsy; (2) Blood Dropsy; (3) Water Dropsy; (4) 

 Dropsy caused by poisonous congestion. If the case is one of Water 

 Dropsy, pressure on the flesh leaves a depression; if Air Dropsy, the 

 flesh rebounds quickly. The Chinese do not draw water in case of 

 dropsy, for every time a sufferer is tapped, he gets weaker. Because 

 all kinds of dropsy are accompanied by more or less air and water, 

 each compound of herbs for dropsy of any sort contains herbs to 

 expel the air and water. 



According to the old Chinese theories, certain symptoms indicate 

 that dropsy is incurable. Among these are: The swelling of the 

 palms to such an extent that the lines can no longer be traced; Diar- 

 rhoea that does not reduce the swelling, but is accompanied by the 

 swelling of the lips, the darkening of the teeth, the protruding of the 

 navel, the swelling of both legs, and the formation over both knees of 

 a substance hard like wood. If, after Diarrhoea has set in, the stom- 

 ach is still swollen and blue veins become prominent in the stomach, the 

 case is incurable. In difficult and incurable cases, a man swells from 

 the legs up, while the swelling in a woman begins in the upper part of 

 the body and extends down to the lower limbs. 



The Fong Wan Herbalist has, however, succeeded in some cases 

 where many of these symptoms were present. 



The most notable case was that of Mr. M. G. Souza, in which sev- 

 eral of the symptoms mentioned above were present. Mr. Sousa was in 

 a dying condition. Five doctors had been called to attend him, but all 

 had pronounced his case incurable. Mr. Souza had a wife and six young 

 children, all of whom wept piteously at the thought of losing him. His 

 cousin, Mr. John Souza, came to Fong Wan's office and begged that he 

 go with him to see the dying man. Moved by sympathy, Fong Wan 

 went. Although he saw what a terrible condition Mr. M. G. Souza was 

 in, he gave him a cup of his herb tea. That same evening he went to see 

 one of his old herbalist friends and asked what he thought about the 

 case. The old man expressed the same opinion as had the doctors, and 

 enumerated the symptoms of incurability. But Mr. Souza did not die. 

 He drank the Fong Wan Herbs for several weeks. About three months 

 later he went back to his work and was able to continue with it. His 

 testimonial, which was handed to Fong Wan by Miss Souza, his 

 daughter, appears in these pages. 



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