564 
VARIETIES. 
Eastern  literature,  but  very  little  known  hitherto  in  Europe  ;  but  by  the 
knowledge  of  which  alone  a  clue  to  the  usage  of  unknown  Chinese  drugs 
could  be  obtained.  In  the  meantime  the  members  of  the  Medical  and 
Surgical  Academy  had  examined  them  chemically  and  physiologically. 
Finally,  forty  Chinese  drugs  (unknown  in  Europe),  were  tried  on  thirty- 
seven  hospital  patients  with  the  most  satisfactory  results. 
While  these  researches  were  going  on  in  St.  Petersburg,  Dr.  Tatarinow, 
who  had  remained  ten  years  in  China,  returned  home  in  1851,  The  doctor 
had  studied  and  translated  Chinese  medical  works  while  in  China  ;  he  had 
made  collections  in  Pekin,  and  in  a  radius  of  300  kilometres  around  that 
capital,  so  far  as  Mongolia,  the  results  of  which  were  800  species  of  plants 
in  a  number  of  dried  specimens  for  the  herbarium,  and  a  vast  collection  of 
500  sorts  of  drugs,  some  in  such  quantities  as  to  allow  a  large  scope  for 
experiments  and  exchange  with  other  medical  establishments  in  Europe. 
At  the  same  time  most  of  these  plants  had  been  drawn  in  a  superior  way, 
in  folio,  by  a  Chinese  artist,  but  as  Dr.  Tatarinow  superintended  the 
painting,  most  detailed  analyses  of  the  plants  are  added,  which  greatly 
enhance  the  value  of  the  collection.  Very  interesting  in  these  portfolios 
are  the  many  varieties  of  the  genus  prunus,  pyrus,  malus,  (plums,  pears, 
and  apples),  exhibiting  most  curious  and  monstrous  forms  of  these  trees 
and  their  fruit,  originally  brought  herefrom  other  parts  of  Asia.  If  the 
accuracy  of  Chinese  chronology,  with  its  vast  series  of  years,  could  obtain 
any  additional  evidence,  it  might  obtain  it  from  these  forms  of  cultivated 
fruit.  Ages  must  have  passed  by,  until  the  very  nature  of  organisms  could 
have  become  thus  changed,  and,  as  it  were,  transmuted.  This  portion  of 
Dr.  Horaninoff's  intended  work  will  not  be  the  least  interesting  for  phyto- 
logy  and  horticulture,  as  it  is  known  that  the  Chinese,  who  can  rear  an 
oak-tree  with  acorns  only  a  span  high,  are  very  expert  in  the  latter  branch 
of  science. 
From  the  collections  of  Drs.  KorilofF  and  Tatarinow,  it  would  appear  that 
the  Chinese  possess  drugs  and  medicines  innumerable.  Some  of  them,  as 
derived  from  Dr.  Horaninoff's  note-book,  are  radix  Sophorae  flaviscentis 
radix  ginseng,  caules  Ephedrse,  radix  Rupalise,  Ptlolycodonis,  Epimedii, 
Ari  tryphilli,  &c.  These  and  the  other  remedies  were  found  very  effica- 
cious in  chronic  diseases,  which  yielded  in  the  usual  proportion  of  cure  and 
failure,  and  only  in  a  few  cases  the  additional  aid  of  European  remedies 
was  to  be  called  in.  As,  however,  the  Chinese  therapeutics  prescribe  larger 
doses,  taken  several  times  a  day,  the  Commission  waved  this,  and  conformed 
more  to  the  rules  of  European  medicine.  Privy  Councillor  Horaninoff, 
known  as  a  deserving  author  on  botany  and  materia  medica,  and  whose 
Russian  works  have  much  advanced  medicine  in  his  native  country,  has 
been  commissioned  to  compile  the  volumes  on  Chinese  botany  and  pharma- 
cology, which,  as  they  will  be  printed  in  the  Offices  of  the  Academy  of 
Sciences  of  St.  Petersburg,  will  probably  be  as  splendid  as  the  "  Antiqui- 
ties du  Bosphore  Cimmerien," — one  of  the  finest  productions  issued  from 
