106 



METHOD OF TAKING 



Chap. VI. 



titioner in Hongkong, now no more, gravely in- 

 formed me tlie Chinese doctors gathered all sorts 

 of herbs indiscriminately, and used them en masse, 

 upon the principle that if one thing did not 

 answer the purpose another would. Nothing can 

 be further from the truth. That they are not 

 surgeons I am fully prepared to admit ; that they 

 are ignorant of many of our most valued vege- 

 table and mineral medicines is also true ; but, 

 being a very ancient nation and comparatively 

 civilised for many ages, many discoveries have 

 been made and carefully handed down from 

 father to son which are not to be despised, and 

 which one ought not to laugh at without under- 

 standing. Dr. Kirk, of Shanghae, whose opinion 

 is entitled to the highest respect, informed me 

 he had discovered a most valuable tonic in com- 

 mon use [probably a species of gentian], equal, if 

 not superior, to any of the kind in our pharma- 

 copoeias, and there are, no doubt, many other 

 things of equal value unknown to Europeans and 

 well worth investigation. 



During my sojourn in this place I had an 

 opportunity of witnessing a novel mode of taking 

 honey from beehives. The Chinese hive is a 

 very rude affair, and a very different looking 

 thing from that we are accustomed to use in 

 England, and yet I suspect, were the bees con- 

 sulted in the matter, they would prefer the Chi- 

 nese one to ours. It consists of a rough box, 

 sometimes square and sometimes cylindrical, with 



