The Bourbon news. [volume] (Paris, Ky.) 1895-19??, 1907-01-11
THE CHINESE DOCTOR
HIS REMEDIES ARE OFTEN WORSE
THAN THE DISEASE.

Powdered Spiders, Roast SnakesI<in
and Stcwed Goose QuiGIs Are Conn
EiOn PreScriptions-super a
Large Factor Ia Medicine.
\ friend of mine related to me the
following dialogue which she recently
overheard between a Chinese doctor
and an old woman:
Old Woman-My daughter-in-lawh has
had lump coming in her throat for
four months, and it has now grown so
that she can swallow only with great
difficulty. We are distressed. BY and
by she will not be able to swallow
Then she must die Do tell me if my
darghter-in-law can be cured.
Docl 3r-Yes; she can be cured very
clsiiy. and the medicine you have to
90 i; not costly, but rather difficult to
OBTAIN.
Ola Woman-Oh, do please tell me
what ii is. However difficult. will do
ny best 80 get it. d. please, doctor,
tel me what it is.
Doctor First, get the slobbers Of a
COW This can be done by washing the
meuth of cow Then you take these
slobberS and boil them down, after
which you must stir in little rice
-four with a feather from the tail Of u
duck. Then take the paste and roll it
into pills. When all these pills are tax
~, {hn l-,D,D I'm 1,O11,. IN N . We
throat will Immediately disappear.
Old Woman-Oh, doctor, l thank you.
How can thank you enough for Civ
ing me of your wisdom?
DoctOr-I assure you, madam. il is
nothing at all Please, | beg you. do
ioi thank me-
ca Woman-Oh, doctor, shall never
f0"@ct you for your kindness to NE.
10 not deserve it. I do not deserve it.
Is it any wonder that sickness pre-
walls among all classes of the Chinese,
Gild that the living of their race is only
''...1Yival of the fittest," or, rather,
the unfit?
The remedies given by Chinese doe
tors are seldom other than ridiculous
and are often worse than the COM
plant. Many of the most common pre-
ScriptiOnS consist of powdered spiders,
roasted snakeskinS, fossils. rhinOccros
horn shavingS, aSbeStus, moths. steWed
goose quilts, etc. 1t is declared that the
more disgusting the medicine the more
efficaciOuS it is, which assertion, if it
is true, would mean that China is full
Of Methuselahs.
Much superstition exists in regard TO
nearly every complaint Foreign ply
Sicians in China are often approached
by natives who, upon being asked what
the matter is, reply in low voice,
I've got that" When pressed as to
what they mean by that they seem
unable to answer otherwise than I've
got that" In such cases it is usually
discovered that the patient has maIa-
ria, and the unwillingness TO name the
disease is due to Il belief that malaria
is caused by an inward devil and the
chills are due to his Satanic ma ieSty's
natural gymnastic proclivities.
During the night in the cities moth
erS are frequently met who. while
wandering slowly UP and down Inc
streets. cry out mournfully: Come
back! Come backw In the rear, at
little distance, follows Il child, who an
swers: I'm coming! I'm coming!"
These wanderlngs and cries are some.
times continued FOR hours and are ex.
planned by the fact that at the moth
er's home there lies q sick child in am
unconscious or cOmatose condition, and
the mother, i'll the belief that its spirit
has fed, is searching the streets for il.
The child following represents the de-
parted spirit, whose return is supposed
to be fastened by the cry. I'm COM
ingr' In the absence of child TO fol-
low, the mother often waves a child's
jacket in her hand willie in monot-
onous voice she croOns beseechingly
to the spirit to return.
Smallpox is disease from which
few, if any, escape in China. and so
prevalent is it that it has it's own
special devil. This devil can be APP
peased only by the patient always re-
ferring to his eruptions as 'heavcGiy
flowers and by wearing red cloth
tied around his head. In some prov
inces. however, considerable progress
has been made in the amcliCrssfion of
this disease by incubation This is
done in childhood by snuffing Up the
nose the powdered scabs from q dis
eased persons Inflammation. Whether
this was discovered by accident by
some idea of medical science by f9;-
lowing the theory that the hair Of q.
dog is good for the bite" g. ~ adhor7
ing to the general belief tAat The worse
the remedy the quicker the recovery is.
difficult to determine.
The manner in which the Chinese
treat their physicians is, to say the
least, most inconsiderate. Should a
speedy cure not result from the doc
tors treatment the patient calls in an
other and, if no better. yet another,
and so on in rapid succession until, all
human aid falling. he, il miraculously
he has so far survived, goes to consult