254 



NA TURE 



[Januar 



1900 



grand canal, pointing out the cause of its falling into 

 utter disrepair. 



The city has a chequered history like that other 

 favoured city Soochow. It is a centre of sereculture 

 and resort of opulent and leisure-loving literates and 

 merchants. The illustrations of this part of the work, 

 in common with others scattered through the book, are 

 remarkable for their artistic excellence and fine technical 

 quality, reflecting great credit on the author, who is a 

 lady successful in many pursuits. 



There is an interesting account of Medical Missions in 

 China, throwing light on the valuable work done by this 

 important branch of Christian Missions. "I believe in 

 Medical Missions, because they are the nearest approach 

 now possible of the method pursued by the founder of 

 the Christian faith." The Medical Mission has proved 

 one of the most successful branches of mission work in 

 China. 



The division of missionaries into sects is unfortunate, 

 and militates against success. Chinese are apt to inquire 

 why such differences exist in the one faith, and within 

 one's own experience to say that " when you have all 

 made up your minds what to believe, come and teach 

 us." But there remains the potent influence at work, 



Tibetan rope bridge. 



noted by the author, of the unselfish, helpful lives of the 

 missionaries and their families. 



Several chapters follow devoted to experiences of the 

 voyage up the Yangtze, specially attractive to those 

 interested in this quarter of Further Asia. 



The gorges of the upper river have been frequently 

 described, but any addition to one's knowledge of this 

 section of the great waterway is always welcome, owing 

 to the difficulty of navigation and danger caused by old 

 and new rapids to native craft in the carrying trade. 

 Mr. Little succeeded in taking a small steamer up the 

 rapids to Chungkeng, but navigation of the gorges by 

 steam must yet be more fully tested before it can be 

 proved that the loss entailed by wreckage will not out- 

 weigh the advantages derived from the enterprise. 



There are several mistakes in place names. One 

 rather confusing error occurs in describmg the Mi-tsang 

 Gorge. It is set down in the index as Mitan Gorge, and 

 the photograph showing the entrance to this gorge is 

 labelled Ping-shan Gorge. It is at the entrance to this 

 gorge that the great Ch'-ing-tan rapid bars the way to 

 steam traffic on these upper turbulent waters. Blackuton, 

 NO. 1576, VOL. 61] 



Thomson, Baber, Gill and others have passed this way^ 

 but Mrs. Bishop has been the first woman to give us 

 the benefit of her keen observation, sense of humour, and 

 literary talent in throwing some new light on native 

 characteristics, and on weighty matters concerning this 

 part of China. 



The book must be read, and the reader will not be 

 without his reward when he has finished the volume. 



The most important part of the journey was the 

 daring attempt to penetrate the mountain lands of the 

 aboriginal Mantze, which nearly cost the author her 

 life, and in which she succeeded so far as to be able to 

 give a most interesting and graphic account of this 

 obscure race. One would like to know something of 

 their language, which is wholly difTerent from Chinese, 

 and written in Tibetan. It is also to be regretted that the 

 camera of the intrepid explorer so scared the natives as 

 to render portraiture impossible. The reader is pur- 

 posely left to his own resources, and must read for 

 himself the author's account of her adventures among 

 the Mantze. 



The work concludes with one or two brief essays : — 

 "On the Poppy and its Use," "Christian Churches in 

 China,'' " Secret Societies," " Questions of the Future,"' 

 &c., subjects which have occupied the attention of other 

 writers, disclosing a singular lack of unanimity of 

 opinions on the part of the writers. 



THE RELATION BETWEEN SCIENCE AND 

 MEDICINE. 



A N address upon the relation of science to experience 

 -^^ in medicine, delivered to the Middlesex Hospital 

 Medical Society by Sir J. Burdon-Sanderson, Bart., at the 

 first meeting of the present session, is printed in full in 

 the Middlesex Hospital Journal for December. The 

 concluding part of the address is here reprinted, and the 

 principles stated in it deserve careful consideration both 

 from the point of view of science and of education. 

 What Sir J. Burdon-Sanderson insisted upon throughout 

 his address was that though the physician regards 

 disease as a thing to be cured or prevented, while the 

 investigator aims at discovering the causal relations 

 between certain morbid changes and the conditions 

 which give rise to them, both depend for their success 

 upon the extent to which their faculties of observation 

 have been developed. He held that medicine has 

 hitherto advanced chiefly by the perfecting of its clinical 

 method, using the expression in its modern and most 

 comprehensive sense, but that future progress will be 

 obtained by the scientific study of disease as a natural 

 process. Some suggestions as to the best means to 

 promote this advance are contained in the following 

 extract from the address : — 



We may, I think, rightly regard the Metropolitan schools 

 collectively as constituting in themselves a great medical 

 university. We do so in llie hope that at no distant period 

 they may be united for university purposes. Now, the two 

 great functions of a university are education and the extension 

 of knowledge by research. As regards the first I shall have 

 nothing to say this evening. We may confidently anticipate 

 that the clinical instruction given and the opportunity for 

 clinical study afforded to students will improve year after year, 

 and that practitioners will twenty years hence be even better 

 informed, and their practice more sound than it is at present. 

 But it is the other function of a university to which I would 

 call your attention. Admitting, as I think must be admitted, 

 that the Metropolitan schools have been hitherto, and will 

 continue to be, admirable institutions for the training of men 

 competent to exercise the healing art to the public advantage, 

 it may still be asked whether our hospitals are, as they ought to 

 be, observatories in which the scientific method is employed, 

 not with a view to immediate utility, but for the eventual 



