460 
VOYAGE TO THE 
CHAP, who had sent off a Loo Choo physician to administer to the health of 
our invalids, and in fact who would see whether our statement concern- 
May, ing them was correct or not. A consequential little man, with a huge 
pair of Chinese spectacles, being introduced as the Esculapius in ques- 
tion, begged to be permitted to visit the sick and to feel their pulse. 
The surgeon says — “ he gravely placed his finger upon the radial 
artery first of one wrist and then of the other, and returned to the first 
again, making considerable pressure for upwards of a minute upon each. 
To one patient affected with a chronic liver complaint, and in whom 
the pulsations are very different in the two arms, in consequence of an 
irregular distribution of the arteries, he recommended medicine: of 
another person affected with dyspepsia whose pulse was natural, he said 
nothing ; no other part of the animal economy attracted his notice. He 
appeared to be acquainted with quicksilver and moxa, but not with the 
odour of cinnamon.” 
After this careful examination he returned to the cabin and wrote 
in clumsy Chinese characters that one of the patients had an affection 
of the stomach and required medicine; and inquired of another if he 
w'ere costive. This report, which we did not understand at the time, 
was satisfactory to An-yah, who immediately gave us permission to land 
at Potsoong and Abbey Point, but with an understanding that we were 
not to go into the town. He then produced a list of inquiries, which 
he had been ordered to make, such as the dimensions of the ship, the 
time we had been from England, Canton, &c., and lastly, what weather 
we had experienced, as he said Loo Choo had been visited by a violent 
tyfoong in April, which unroofed the houses and did much other mischief. 
The permission to land was immediately taken advantage of by 
several of the officers, who went to Potsoong, and were received in a 
very polite manner by a great concourse of spectators, w'ho conducted 
them to the house in which Sir Murray Maxwell and his officers had 
been entertained; and regaled them with (tsha) tea, and (amasa) 
sweet cakes. Some of the party, instead of entering the house, 
strolled inland to botanize, and to look at the country ; but they had 
not proceeded far before two or three persons ran towards them, and 
intimated that their company was expected at the house where the 
