The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1902-05-23
CHINESE PHYSICIANS.
Any Man Can Practice Medicine, But
Not With Safety.
.Chicago Daily Newsl

Chicago Daily News)
Chinese medical men are not com
PEELED to pursue any particular course
of study and are not liable 20 obtain
any university degree. Consequently,
doctors have no great social standing.
Medicine may be practiced by any one.
1t is only necessary 70 hang out ones
name as "Dr Wang" or DIR. liz TO
become a 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 em-
pirical knowledge Of the action Of GER
tain remedies, notably Of several pur-
gatives and anodyues; but with no
certain 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
I the first arm he says he can tell by his
4 first finger the condition of the spleen.
which is very important. The second
! finger tells him the condition of the
I lungs and the third the state Of the
/ AAFNAa VII AAlC UAAAEA al III AAE NEAcAA1 AAA
/ like manner the diseases Of the heart,
/ kidneys and stomach. He leaves the
4 brain, the arteries, venous and nervous
/ 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 indica-
/ ton Of the locality Of the disease. It
| Is not at all uncommon for women pa
! tients 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 en-
/ ployed. I have known of eleven doc
tors being sent for in 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 6-mouths-old grandson Of the
| governor Of Pekin. The child was In
commissions from having eaten guam
tity Of indigestible material, when il
had only two or three teeth. Each one
of q number of Chinese doctors had
poured down the infants throat. with
out effect. some decocti0n 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 / 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-irri-
tatiOn, which they use in the form OF
/ antimonial and arsenical plasters. otter
creating intractable ulcers, generally
both painful and useless. Their fees
are exceedingly small. the usual rate IL
Pekin being about 80 Mexican cents Qi
cents), but they frequently make up FOL
this by providing the medicine, fol
which they charge in proportion to thu
wealth and credulity of the patient
One patient Of mine paid his native
doctor 80 cents for his visit and SIS
for the velvety fur from a young deer.
horns, which was prescribed as. medi
/ cine.