Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1902-06-13
CHINESE PHYSICIANS.
Any Man Can Practice Medicine, But Not
With Safety.

|
With Safety.
| Chinese medical men are not compel
ed to pursue partic ular courses OF study
and are not able to obtain any univer-
sity degree. Consequently doctors
have no great social standing. Medi-
cine may be practiced by any one. 1t
is only necessary to hang out ones
name as "Dr. Wang" or "Dr. LIP to
become physician. This seems easy
enough but doctors are liable to heavy
penalties in the event of the death of a
patient.
| Chinese materia medica is extensive
and nonsensical in the extreme. The
native doctors have acquired an en-
pirical knowledge of the action of GER
tain remedies, notably of several pur-
gatives and anodynes; but with no GER
tain methods of diagnosis, their use of
these remedies is often fallacious.
A Chinese doctor feels the pulse in
both wrists. He places three fingers
of his right hand over the radial artery
of first one arm and then the other. In
the first arm he says be can tell by bis
first finger the condition of the spleen
which is very important. The second
finger tells him the condition of the
lungs and the third the state of the
liver. On the other arm he detects in
like manner the diseases of the heart,
kidneys and stomach. He leaves the
brain, the arteries, venous and nerv-
GUS system entirely out of considera-
tiOn, as his books do not tell him any
thing about such systems. The pulse
and the pulse alone, to his mind, is an
indication of the locality of the disease.
1t is not at all uncommon for women
patients to thrust an arm out from the
curtained bed that the physician may
feel the pulse and make his diagnosis
on that basis alone. If the patient re-
covers, the doctor is credited with the
cure; if the patient dies, he is accused
of murder. Remedies must produce
immediate favorable results or the doc
tor is dismissed and a new one employ
ed. have known of eleven doctors
being sent for in one day. The pa
tient in this case pulled through after
taking eleven doses, the last doctor. of
course, getting the credit of the cure.
Several years ago was called to see
the little six-months. old grandson of
the Governor of Pekin. The child was
in conyulsions from having eaten
quantity of indigestlble material, when
it had only two or three teeth. Each
one of number of Chinese doctors had
poured down the infants throat, with
out effect, some decotion of nastiness.
the last dose of which was powdered
scorpions tails. By means of chloro-
form, hot bath, Ice to the head and
other remedies managed to bring the
infant around, much to the joy of his
grandfather. If the child had died
would have been blamed with killing
him, especially as I had dared to use
ice, a remedy that the Chinese doctor
not only does not use, but condemns as
the cause of many fatal illnesses.
The native physicians are great be-
levers in the efficacy of counter-irrit-
alton, which they use in the form an
antimonial and arsenical plasters, often
creating intractable ulcers, generally
both painful and useless. Their fees
are exceedingly small, the usual rate
in Pekin being about thirty Mexican
cents Us cents), but they frequently
make up for this by providing the
medicine, for which they charge IN pro-
portion to the wealth and creduiity of
the patient. One patient of mine paid
his native doctor 80 cents for his visit
and $3.50 for the velvety fur from
young deer's horns, which was pre-
scribed as medicine.-Chicago Daily
News.