The Savannah morning news., 1902-09-14
QUEER DRUGS OF THE ORIENT.
Spotted RhinOcerOs Horn Excellent
for Many DisOrders-Tiger Eyeban
is n Little More EmcaciOus.

At any Chinese drug store you can
buy for twenty-five cents an assert
ment of dried herbs, insects and other
weird things composing a prescription
that, it is stated. will cure the ailments
of ordinary people; but when it comes
to the sickness of wealthy Chnaman,
then there are drugs which are as high
in prices as their reputed medicinal
virtues.
First in the list of these sovereign
remedies is the powder made from a
| spotted rhinoceros. horn. An ordinary
rhinoceros horn is said to be less eff
caciouSi the spotted variety is a won
| derful cure, for intestinal disorders
/ These horns, which, It is. satisfactory to
learn, come chiefly: from some of the
rivers of the Philippines, bring as high
as $50 each in the Singapore Chinese
| drug market. In the old Japanese
| 'pharmacopea they were catalogued as
| unicorn horn at least that is what
| their uniforms" horn is supposed to
have been.
Next to spotted rhinocerous come
the three tiger remedies-the eyeball
the liver and the blood AS may be
imagined. tiger eyeball can only be
prescribed for the exceedingly wealthy
the Chinese Astors, Morgans and VAN
derbilts; but it is firmly believed there
is no disease 1t will not cure. The tiger
liver, when dried and reduced to a pow
der, is worth its weight in gold all
over the Orient. Tiger blood, when
evaporated to sediment at a tempera-
ture of ITO degrees, and taken in the
form of powder, is believed by all
Asiatics to be the best tonic known.
and will, make a fine warrior out of the.
most chicken hearted.
In desperate cases, when neither
spotted rhinoceros horn nor tiger eye
ball affords relief, the Chinese physi-
clans prescribe what is known as
majoon.4 This Is a compound of ground
pearls and other precious stones, which
1t is held that nothing but the malign
influence OF some powerful devil can
overcome. A majoon, of course, is high
priced medicine, but it has fallen a
good deal in the popular estimation,
because the Chinese doctors are sus-
peeted of taking advantage of the pa
tents critical state and craftily sub
stitute fraudulent powder of glass
and mother f-pearl. In this way they
pocket handsome difference. attribut-
ing the death of the patient to a devil
ever more powerful than the majoon.
1t would seem that the Chinese medi-
cal profession is not above some ques-
tionable practices, and is much in need
of system to guarantee the purity of
ma joons.
Next in price and virtue to the fore
going remedies are the various oils
and fats obtained from serpents. The
more deadly the serpent, the more po-
tent apparently are its medicinal quail
ties. The fat from the tail of a cobra.
applied externally, is highly priced in
Eastern Asia as a cure for chronic
rheumatism.
In connection with Chinese medicine,
it may occur to many people in the
United States that they have rarely, If
ever, seen one-armed aor one-legged
Chinaman. The reason for this is that
all Orientals have a profound objection
to surgical operations. Indeed, they
prefer to die rather than lose mem
Der, because they believe that as they
came into the world with two arms,
two legs, etc, they must of necessity
go out of it with the same number
Otherwise something horribly unlucky