MEDICINE. 
217 
viscera as the heart, lungs, liver, spleen, and kidneys, but had no 
notion of their real situation, and through some strange perversity 
placed them all on the wrong side of the body. This man was not, 
however, ignorant through choice, for he viewed with much eager- 
ness and with an evident anxiety for information, some of the 
anatomical plates of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, which I procured 
from the library of the Factory; and he with much apparent sin- 
cerity told Mr. Manning, that good anatomical plates on a large scale 
would be the most valuable present that could be conferred on his 
country. Although ignorant of all rational principles of practice, 
he had arrived through his own experience, or that of others, at some 
rules of high utility ; making a very clear distinction between 
those local diseases which can be cured by mere topical applica- 
tions, and those which can only be acted upon through the medium 
of the constitution. He had some vague notions of a humoral 
pathology, which he seemed to have perpetually in his mind whilst 
answering my different questions ; talked of ulcers being outlets to 
noxious matter ; and divided both his diseases and remedies into 
two classes, the hot and cold. The difficulty of our intercourse, 
arising from the impossibility of finding adequate terms in the Chi- 
nese language for medical phrases, prevented my obtaining much 
accurate information respecting the details of his practice. The 
only general fact at which I could arrive respecting it, was, that he 
depended greatly on purgatives for driving out the “ heat of the 
body,” and for producing a favourable change on local disorders. 
I endeavoured to obtain some facts from my informer respecting 
the use of the moxa or actual cautery amongst the Chinese ; and 
found that he considered its application as one of the most effectual 
remedies for local pain. The moxa is prepared by bruising the stems 
of a species of Artemesia in a mortar, and selecting the finest and 
most downy fibres. In this state it is applied in small conical masses 
upon the part affected ; the number being proportioned to the extent 
or severity of the disease. These being set on fire, instantly con- 
sume, without, as the physician assured me, producing any severe 
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