302 



NATURE 



[July 24, 1890 



Writing on the subject of medicine in China, ihe North 

 China Herald of Shanghai observes that medicine in China is 

 very old. In the year 579 B.C. the moxa and acupunture were 

 already practised by Chinese physicians, for it is in that year 

 that this treatmeat is first mentioned in any book, Chinese or 

 foreign. In addition to this there was the celebrated Pien-tsio, 

 who some time during the period from the eighth century before 

 Christ to the sixth performed remarkable cures by feeling the 

 pulse first and basing his treatment upon the indications. On 

 one occasion he was in attendance upon a prince who was in a 

 state of unconsciousness for five days, and he depended on pulse- 

 feeling for his knowledge of the patient's condition. The great 

 books of Chinese medicine belonged to the age of the sages. 

 They are the classics of Chinese medicine, and in them its 

 theories and principles are enshrined. In these books we find 

 such statements as that metal and water combine, in accord 

 with the influence of Venus and Mars. The soul is spoken of 

 as something distinct from though included in the body. Mad- 

 ness, fever, apoplexy, paralysis, cholera, are all described. The 

 five elements are represented as revolving powers, and they cor- 

 respond to the five planets in the heavens. The earth moves 

 westward through space which surrounds it below as well as 

 above and around. Ignorance of astrology is stated to be a 

 cause of disease and death. Interlaced with the doctrine of the 

 five elements is found the doctrine of the dual principles of 

 darkness and light, each divided into greater and lesser. The 

 veins and arteries are here described as canals originating in 

 the skin, which, consequently, is that part at which all disease 

 commences its invasion of the human frame. The possibility 

 of the human subject securing immortality by Taoist methods is 

 discussed, and the affirmative is believed. The "Soo wen," having 

 in it these and other curious things, such as the rotundity of the 

 earth and the doctrine of a universal and primaeval vapour, and 

 having a distinct tincture of the Mesopotamian astrology, con- 

 stitutes in itself a convincing proof that China was receptive of 

 Western knowledge to a large extent in the fifth, fourth, and 

 third centuries before Christ. From that time during more 

 than two thousand years China has been under the dominion of 

 the philosophy of this book. The writer predicts that a history 

 of Chinese medicine, being the result of the uninterrupted ex- 

 perience of two thousand five hundred years, in spite of its 

 Babylonian theory, now exploded by modern discoveries, would 

 prove deserving of high respect for its practical utility in many 

 important ways. 



The Cambridge Local Lectures Syndicate held a Conference 

 of Local Lecturers and Committees in the Senate House on 

 July 9 and 10, the Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Butler, Master of 

 Trinity College, presiding. The subjects discussed were: (i) 

 the affiliation of lecture centres to the University ; (2) the rela- 

 tions with the Education Department ; (3) State aid for local 

 lectures, a subject started at Oxford last year, and introduced on 

 this occasion by the request of some of the centres, not as part 

 of the programme of the Syndicate ; (4) local finance ; (5) 

 work in rural districts ; (6) district associations. The subjects 

 were all of them actively discussed, " State aid " being referred 

 back to the Committee which is working in the matter. The 

 whole party, numbering about 180, lunched in the Hall of 

 King's and dined in the Hall of Trinity, as guests of the Syndi- 

 cate, and visited the Library, the Museums of Science, and the 

 Fitzwilliam Museum, at each of which an expository address 

 was delivered. 



The Syndicate have invited a limited number of their students 

 in various parts of the Kingdom to spend the month of August 

 in Cambridge, for the purpose of quiet and serious study. For 

 some years, individual invitations of this kind have been given 

 by persons interested in the work. The Syndicate have received 

 NO. 1082, VOL. 42] 



favourable accounts of the work done and of the effisct pro- 

 duced, and they are now making it part of their official business. 

 They had contemplated from 30 to 40 students, but the number 

 of those desirous of coming considerably exceeds that. The 

 principle of the Syndicate is to give to the students opportuni- 

 ties which they could not have in the lecture centres, and on this 

 account the ordinary subjects of local lectures are not included 

 in the curriculum. The work is to last from August 5 to 30 

 inclusive. Newnham College will give a collegiate home to the 

 women students, and Selwyn to the men, on very moderate 

 terms. The mornings will be given to the science students, 

 whose work will consist of courses of experimental demonstra- 

 tions in the laboratories of chemistry, physics, geology, &c. The 

 afternoons will be given to the art students, whose work will 

 consist of series of lectures on Greek art, early English sculpture 

 and inscriptions, early engraving, and architecture, all illus- 

 trated from the art collections and the buildings in Cambridge. 

 Single lectures will be given, by leading residents in Cambridge, 

 on subjects of which they have special knowledge, and this, no 

 doubt, will be a feature of unusual interest and profit. The 

 University Library, the Philosophical Library, and the Library 

 of Art and Archaeology, will all be open to the students by 

 special arrangement for reading and study. Special lectures 

 will be given on King's Chapel and Ely Cathedral, and the 

 manuscript and other treasures of some of the College libraries 

 will be shown and described in detail. Visits will be paid to 

 the Observatory by day, for the inspection of the astronomical 

 instruments, and Prof. Adams or his representative will receive 

 small parties of the students at night. It is proposed to give 

 to those who go satisfactorily through the regular course of 

 study some record of what they have done. Several of the 

 lecture centres have given scholarships of ^10 to their best 

 students to enable them to go to Cambridge, and the Syndicate 

 are meeting all prizes of this kind by a remission of the small 

 lecture fee. The advantage of working in small parties of 10 or 

 12 at such subjects as those indicated, and under such circum- 

 stances, can scarcely be exaggerated. The determination of the 

 Syndicate is that the whole course of study shall be serious and 

 quiet, but social amenities will not be disregarded. 



The Report of the Cambridge Local Lectures Syndicate, 

 recently issued, is unusually encouraging. The number of 

 students and of courses of lectures is larger than ever, and the 

 proportion of serious students to the whole number attending 

 the lectures shows a remarkable increase. It is easy to get a 

 large number of people to come to popular lectures, but to 

 make people who come to lectures into serious students is a 

 diffisrent matter. Nearly half of the whole number of 11,500 

 students have attended not the lecture only, but also the "class" 

 for more detailed work by question and answer which always 

 precedes or follows the lecture in the Cambridge system. More 

 than a fifth part of the whole have written papers weekly for the 

 lecturer, and the examinations at the end of the respective courses 

 have been attended by nearly one in six. This is an interesting 

 record of solid work done. A specially satisfactory feature of 

 the year's work has been the manner in which the centres have 

 supported the Syndicate in keeping up the lectures in each course 

 to the full number of twelve, which is an integral part of the 

 Cambridge system. Of 125 courses only five have been "half- 

 courses " of six lectures, given under special circumstances and 

 without the privilege of an examination. Thus the total number 

 of lectures given has been about 1470, and the number of 

 attendances at lectures not far off 140,000. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include two Macaque Monkeys {Macacus cynoniolgus 

 ? 9 ) from India, presented by Captain C. Taylor ; a liawfinch 

 {Coccothraustes vulgaris), British, presented by Mr. L. C. 



