The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-05-24
A CHINESE PHYSICIAN.

Enforced Attendance on the Emperor
 at Pekin-Hard Case to Treat-Madame
 the Dowager Empress Did All the
 Talking for the Patient and the Doe
 tor Too.
 Chen Lien Fang, the most celebrated
 native physician in China, returning to
 his home in this province from attend- | ance on the emperor at Pekin, did me
 the honor of calling on me some days
 ago. A brief account of his experiences
 at the capital may not be without in-
 terest to readers in England.
 When the edict was issued calling up-
 on the provincial viceroys and gover- l nors to send native doctors of distinc- tion to PelSin to advise in regard to the
 emperors illness, Chen Lien Fang re-
 ceived orders from the governor at Su- | Chau to leave for the north without de- | lay. This in itself, apart from the un- | congenial and unremunerative nature of l the duty (of which Chen was well
 aware), was no light undertaking for a
 man of delicate physique, whose age is | over threescore years and ten; but there was no possibility of evading the task | He accordingly left his large practice | in the charge of two confidential assist | ants, or pupils, and, having received | from the governor a sum of 5000 taeis 1 for travelling expenses and remunera-
 tion in advance, made his way to Pekin
 and reported for duty to the grand < council.
 ] When he arrived there he found three | other native physicians of considera ble | repute already in attendance summon gI ok to ha ,tnl mands. Dr. Dtheve of the French lega- | toin had already paid his historical vis- | it to the emperor, and his remarkable diagnosis of the son of heavens symp- toms was still affordng amusement to the legations. The aged native physi- elan broke in terms of undisguised con- tempt both of the French doctors com ments on the case and of his sugEes- tions for it's treatment His own de- scription of the emperor's malady was couched in language not unlike that
 which writers of historical novels at
 tribute to the physicians of Europe in
 the Middle Ages; he spoke reverently of influences and vapors at work in the august person of hisJ sovereign, learn edly of heat-fiushings and their occult causes, and plainly of things which are more suited to Chinese readers than to those of the Times.
 Nevertheless, his description pointed clearly to disease of the respiratory or gans-whch he said has existed for over twelve years-to general debility and to feverish condition which he ascribed to mental anxiety combined with physical weakness. Before he left Pekin (about the middle of November) the fever had abated, and the patients symptoms had decidedly improved; the case was, however in his opinion, of so serious a nature that he decided to leave it, if possible in the hands of his younger confreres-an object which by dint of bribing certain court officials he eventually achieved Asked if he considered the emperors condition crit ical, he replied, oracularly, that if he lived to see the Chinese New Year his strength would thereafter return grad ually with the spring, and the complete restoration of his health might be ex- pected.
 Some few days after his arrival in Pekin Chen was summoned to audi l ence by orders conveyed through a | member of the grand council; the em- peror and the dowager empress were awaiting his visit in hall on the south | side of the palace. The consultation | was curiously indicative of the divinity which hedges about the ruler of the middle kingdom; suggestive, too, of | the solidity of that conservatism which dictates the inner policy of China Chen entered the presence of his sover- eign on his knees, crossing the apart
 @lo+ ,ft tho ary kowtows. The emperor and the dowager empress were seated at oppo- site sides of low table on the dais Cor stove- bed) and faced each other in that position during the greater part of the interview.
 The emperor appeared pale and list less, had a troublesome irritation of the and was evidently feverish, the thin oval of his face, clearly -defined features and aquiline nose gave him, in the physicians eyes (to use his own the appearance of a foreigner The empress who struck him as an ox- tremely well-preserved and intelligent looking woman, seemed to be extreme ly solcitous as to the patients health, | and careful for his comfort As it would have been serious breach or etiquette for the physician to ask any questions of his majesty, the empress proceeded to describe his symptoms, the invalid occasionally signifyng confirm ation of what was said by a word or a nod. During this monologue the phySi- elan, following the customary proced- lre at imperial audiences, kept his gaze upon the floor until, at