The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-09-18
CANNIB ALIsM IN CHINA.
human Blood and Flesh Prescribed
by Native Phys clans
From the Shangha. Daily News.


From the shanghai Daily NetUs.
Foreigners in China are amazed by the
nature Of the charges made against them by
organizers of riots-of employing stupefy-
Ing, bewitching drugs which compel their
victims to follow them, whose eyes they
scoop out and whose hearts they extract for
medical purposes. | propose to abate that
amazsment by showing that, from a Chi
nese medical vieN point, the foul accusa-
lion Is IN no wise preposterous
1t Is well known that in the
west medical superstitiOns of an abi, ct
character have greatly retarded civilization
China has experienced aud still suffers from
that abnormal phase in evolutionary his
tory, the most striking feature of which is
Vnat various portions of the human frame
and all its secretions possess therapeutic
properties. 1t is not to cater to unwhole-
some curiosity that discuss this disagree.
able subject, tut take it in hand because.
until II Is understood, nothing can be done
to dlspel an illusion that is iaimical alike to
natl es and foreigners, that is indisputably
dehumanIzing aud declvilizing and because
remedy may possibly exist calculated
to mitigate and eventually to eradicate the
evil. My chief authority ia the well-knowh
Yolumtnous nldteriG 'nedfcd "Peuts' aon "A
compilation from semi-mvthic ages on
medlcampDts which received its latest adj
uAbAplls III Jig slAG66uLQ century by Or. i
Shlhohln. 1t may be considered the only
authoritative work of the kind in The ON.
nese language. Eight hundred earlier
! writers had supplied him vita maze ials 1t
was presented to Wanih in 1897. wuo or
dered it TO be printed. B ginning with
human hair in the NEUROLOGICAL period. HUI
man contributions to the pharmacopCaia no,y
amount TO thirty-seven-four Of which were
| added by the latest compiler. Nor does that
/ list exhaust all the anthropophaRous
remedies of Chinese medicine, for it is held
! that virtue is extracted from the human
| system by clothing bedding and utensils
| even the mating on which patient ma
| oreathed his last-an are endowe vita
| healing properties which our pain tnziny
author oonscientiously describes. Besides
| this great medical work, have consulted
| the Penal Code 1SS2 edition., wherein mans
| place in medicine may be studied in practice
! experimenting what Is taught theoretically
| in the "Pentsao"
Comparatively harmless is the medical
| aphOrism respecting the utility Of admins
| tering human blood in disease harmless in
| that the vital fluid is obtained, when the
directions Of the "Pents 40" are folio wed by
| merely puncturihg the skin aud sucking the
| oritice. The late revered Miss Aldersy. an
| English lady Of Ningpo, who devoted her
| fortune and life TO the education of girls in
| that city, was for many years supposed to
the blood Of her pupils. No life having
| been lost by the practice. no riot could
| be fomeuted by the evil-disposed. In the
section that treat of human muscle as a
mendicant it is described as useful in con-
sunpt on, but the humane author denounces
cannl0alIsm, and cites Tao Tsuux-i a
scholar and statesman, that in 1866 A D.
published a work in which he stigmatizes
northern brigands and soldiers for their
anthrOpophagous habits, that STYLED their
victims dipped sheep" and human muscle as
flesh to be longed for" OF these reDro-
bates the author says "Deheading is too good
| for them" Doubtless antecedent to written
| history in China, not less than elsew here
cannl balism was widespread, and a belief
founded on experience prevailed that
human more than other flesh was
nutritious In pllmonic consumption. It
did not find a place in the phar-
macop9ia until the fourth decade of
the seventh century, when it became
official, when DR.. Cher Ts'augchi in the
first half of the eighth century, a compiler
of "Pents'ao" to date, wrote that human
flesh Is useful in consumption. Instances
are on record of rich men, who found it so
savory that 1t became almost necessity of
existence. But before his time cutting flesh
from the arm and slices from the liver to
be administered TO patients was practiced:
these operations were, however, were less
for medical than religious object, and
what the "Pents'oa" has to say respecting
human muscle relates only to its use as
prompted by belief that the blessing of
heaven attended its employment when adj
minisJered by a child to a parent, after
other remedies had failed.
IL is impossible to indicate the period
when children began to administer their
own flesh to parents who are supposed to be
beyond the reach Of medicine. Our author
justly condemns the practice as anti-Con-
fucian, aud IL is not likely therefore that it
prevailed until long after the era of the
sages. Winlih directed the board Of rites to
report on the case that learned body held
that when the best medical attendance is se-
cured for parent and supplications made
20 heaven and the gods, the duty
Of utilization was fully performed. As
for such acts as that of the his
toric Wang Slang middle of third century
A. d., who lay on a frozen river until the
ice melted, and he was able Co draw out a
pair OF carp, which he presented to his
step-mother, who longed for them, and that
cutting OF an arm for flesh TO administer to
an ailing parent, are deeds OF the ignorant
and stupid of modern times, some acting
impulsively, others with reconciliation,
having reference to the fcme that it brings
and on favors and rewards expected from
the emperor. II not interdicted, these
practices will extend to liver-cuSting, and
from that to killing of sons