98 
REMARKS    ON    CHINESE  PHARMACY. 
posed  ;  gold  and  bright  vermillion  appeared  in  abundance  ;  and  a 
rich  silk  drapery,  arranged  in  a  tasteful  manner,  hid  the  edges  from 
view. 
The  inscription  when  translated  read  :  "  Tung  Fuk  Tung"  and 
was  the  name  of  the  "  Teacher  "  with  whom  the  proprietor  of  the 
shop  had  studied  for  a  term  of  years. 
On  entering  we  were  struck  with  the  absence  of  fluid  prepara- 
tions, and  throughout  our  examination  we  discovered  but  one  article 
of  this  kind,  and  not  a  single  mineral  preparation. 
A  narrow  but  very  high  counter,  a  range  of  gaudily  painted 
drawers,  wide  shelving,  and  sundry  Chinese  stools,  constituted  the 
shop  furniture.  The  shelves  were  mainly  occupied  with  bundles, 
containing  roots,  herbs,  &c. ;  and  it  will  astonish  many  when  they 
learn  that  we  counted  over  eleven  hundred  bundles,  each  marked 
with  a  different  character,  and  all  brought  from  the  Celestial  Em- 
pire,thus  proving  that  the  "Materia  Medica"  of  the  Chinese  is 
in  nowise  deficient  in  the  number  of  remedies.  The  drawers  were 
divided  into  six  compartments  ;  unique  porcelain  "  galley  pots  " 
occupied  the  shelving  immediately  over  them ;  and  above,  ranged 
in  regular  order,  were  fancy  packages,  containing  very  diminutive 
bottles  of  strong  ol.  mentha  piperita,  and  a  peculiar  kind  of  musk 
artificially  manufactured.  We  also  saw  various  compounds  with 
long  written  papers  attached,  the  true  nature  of  which  we  were 
unable  to  determine,  but  from  the  remarks  of  our  companion,  we 
strongly  suspected  that  even  the  "  Celestials  "  were  not  free  from 
the  "  cure  alls  "  and  "patent  nostrums  "  which  flourish  so  greatly 
in  the  United  States.  The  mortars  used  in  compounding,  are  com- 
posed of  porcelain  and  iron,  the  shape  being  somewhat  different 
from  those  manufactured  by  the  English. 
For  powdering,  an  exceedingly  uncouth  instrument  is  used.  It 
is  made  of  iron,  about  four  feet  long,  and  the  inside  resembling  a 
whale  boat  with  a  depressed  center  and  elevated  ends.  A  heavy 
iron  wheel  hung  on  a  wooden  axis  is  made  to  revolve  in  (he  chan- 
nel, the  motive  power  being  the  feet  of  the  operator.  This  quickly 
and  easily  reduces  most  substances  to  a  powder. 
Various  sizes  of  knife  blades  arranged  on  the  end  of  an  elevated 
trough,  in  a  similar  manner  to  the  old  style  of  straw  cutters  are  in 
use  for  cutting  up  roots  and  barks  ;  also  large  shallow  baskets  for 
drying  purposes. 
