Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-05-12
CHINESE PHYSICIANS.
Any Man Can Practice Medicine, but
Not With Safety.

From the Chicago Daily News.
Chinese medical men are not compelled
TO pursue any particular course Of study
and not able to obtain any university
degree. Consequently doctors have no
great social standing. Medicine may be
practiced by any one 1t is only necessary
to hang out ones name as Or Wang or
Or LIZ 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 empirical knowl-
edge of the action Of certain remedies nota-
bly, of several purgatives and anodynes;
but with no certain methods of diagnosis
their use of these remedies is often fall
lacious.
A Chinese doctor feels the pluse 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 he can tell by his first finger the
condition of the Spleen which Is very i'm
pOrtant. 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 systems entirely out of consideration,
as his books do not tell him anything 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 un-
common 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 pa
tient RECEIVERS, the doctor is credited with
the cure; II the patient dies. he Is accused
of murder. Remedies must produce imme-
date favorable results or the doctor is
dismissed and q new one employed have
known of eleven hair
one day. The patient 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 sixmonths-old grandson of the gov
ernor of Pekin The child was in convul-
sons from having eaten quantity Of In
digestible material, when 1t had only two
or three teeth. Each one Of a number Of
Chinese doctors had poured down the in
fants throat. without effect. some decoc-
tlon OF nastiness, the last dose Of which
was powdered scorpions talsi BY means
of chloroform a hot bath. ice to the head
and other remedies 1 managed to bring
the infant around. much to the Joy of his
grandfather. If the child had died. 1 would
have been blamed with killing him es-
pecfally as l had dared to use ice, a rem
edy that the Chinese doctor not only does
not use, but condemns as the cause of
many fatal illnesses.
The native physicians are great believers
in the efficacy Of counter-irritation, which
they use in the form of antimonial and
arsenical plasters. often creating intract-
able ulcers. generally both painful and use
less Their fees are exceedingly small, the
usual rate in Pekin being about 80 Mexican
cents % cents), but they frequently make
up for this by providing the medicine, for
which they charge in proportion to the
wealth and credulity of the patient One
patient of mine paid his native doctor 20
cents for his visit and $50 for the veIyety
fur from a young deers horns, which was
prescribed as medicine. :"