The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1904-11-03
CHINAMAN USES
MANY MEDICINES
Celestial Takes More Than
Seven Thousand Remedies
HOW TYPHOID IS CURED
Treatment Is Heroic, But Very Effect
ive-Huge Doses Are Forced
Down the Unhappy Patients
BY Their Doctors.

BY Their Doctors.
st. Louis, November .-(special)-"Let
me see your tongue, feel your pulse and
tell me what's the matter" says the Chi
nese doctor to his patient. He will then
prescribe one or more of the seven thou
sand and odd medicines of his country,
as can be seen from the magnificent col
lection of samples of remedies used in
China, and exhibited in the elaborate and |
very interesting display made by that |
In the Liberal Arts palace at the |
Worlds Fair
While the Chinese practitioner does not |
believe in the surgical art still his country
is In the vanguard with it's immense and
almost countless number of medicines for
the cure of the ILLS that the flesh is heir
to-" One of the most interesting sights
to be seen at the Worlds Fair is the
great quantity of medicines exhibited by
the Chinese government in the Chinese
section of the Palace of Liberal Arts.
No less than between seven and eight
thousand specimens of medicines of all
classe and descriptions are shown to the
visitors, either In bottles or In other APP
propriate packages.
China first maue known to the world
through an international exposition its
great success in medical nostrums at the
Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia in
1916 something more than two thousand
different medicines known in China hav-
ing been carefully collected for EXPOSE
ton purposes by the late DIR. David Man
son of Annoy, China. The same collection
with several important auaitions was sent
to the Paris exposition of 1878, while still
another collection embracing far great
er number of indictments was sent to
Paris In 1000. The present collection at
the Worlds Fair In ut. Louis is. how
ever, the largest that has ever been sent
from China.
How Diagnoses Is Made.
1t may be well to state that the Chi
nese medical practitioner diagnoses case
by the three simple requisites of the
pulse, the tongue and a statement from
the patient of the symptoms of disease
experienced. 1t Is then, after these inves-
legations that the Chinese doctor pre-
scribes' and In many parts of the celes-
tial empire It Is case with the Chinese
doctor who has under steady care of a
patient OF mo cure no pay" In some
parts OF China the doctor who has made
the assertion to the family Of his patient
that he will effect a cure for a certain
sum OF money, and does not do so, but,
on the other hand, has his patient die
while In his care, has to pay the funeral
expenses of the deceased. besides being
obliged to forfeit to the family a sum
Of money equal to five times the amount
of the fee he would have received had
he succeeded in effecting a cure.
1t would Ne an almost endless task to
attempt to describe the multitudlnous
medicines used In China. OF course, all |
he medicines displayed in the exhibit
lere In st. Louis are those which are
Mostly indigenous to China itself. while
he minor portion are those medicines
hat have been brought from other coun-
ries and play an important part in the
Chinese doctor practice Chinese medi- |
zines emanate frcm the animal, vegetable
Ind mineral kingdom the principal and
most important ones emanating from the
vegetable kingdom.
With the Chinese doctor it is not alone
he potency of the medicines that prevails
N his prescriptions, but 1t is rather the
quantity that is to be employed. In the
line of medicinal teas there Is an almost
Infinite variety, nearly all of which are
taken in quantities varying
from pint to two quarts at time.
There Is no doubt that the Chinese have
a line of wonderful febrifuge teas that
have marvellous effect in allaying and
dispelling all traces of even some of the
most malignant kinds of fevers. One
alone, known as "Lok- Po- Chaa"
or deerleaf tea, is used by the Chinese
as an infallble cure for the most ma
lignant forms of typhoid fever. This
haa Is the leaf of a tree of size
like peach tree, and grows in a small
section of the avian Tung or Canton
province The dried leaves are stepped
In boiling water and boiled down from
three quarts to about a pint and a half
1t then becomes very thick and muddy
and of a dark, earth-liKe color The tea
thus made is allowed to become partially
cooled and the patient is compelled to
drink the entire bowl full of nearly a
quart. The action on the system Is pecu-
liar. The patient, who is covered up
well with blankets, experiences a cold
sweat and nausea, which caues him to
pomit at the expiration of about an hour,
after which he is again covered up and
begins to perspire with corresponding
leat for an hour longer. The patient is
carefully watched during that time and
upon the first signs of the arrest of per-
spiration he is raised in bed, his body
dried, a complete change of
is furnished, and he is removed
10 another bed that has been prepared
Tor him.
Cure Is Speedy.
Prior to that the medicine has acted |
iirectly on his bowels. Upon being re- |
moved to his dry bed. the other having |
become saturated from profuse perspira- |
ion, the patient experiences a drowsl- |
less and falls off into a natural slumber |
hat usually lasts from three. to four |
hours. Upon awakening the first sensa- |
ion experienced by the patient is one of |
hunger, and all traces of feverish symp-
oms have disappeared. Warm "Congee,"
r rice Cruel, is furnished the invalid
Who afterward lapses again into a sleep
or two or three hours longer, and upon
Weakening all traces of the dreaded ty-
hold have left the body. The perma-
ent action of the Lok-Po- Chaa is the
omplete humiliation of the germs of the
icease and the entire healing of the per-
orations in or ravages made by the dis
ase upon the intestines. This latter, of
curse. is only ie result when peritonitis
as not set in. The patient becomes con-
alescent and In three or four days is
nabled to walk about, completely cured
There are chinese medicine teas that
re used for stomach troubles, headaches
lood purifiers and countless ills; there
re medicines made from roots and herbs
s we'll as from banks of trees. Many of
hese Just named are very expensive,