The Bourbon news. [volume] (Paris, Ky.) 1895-19??, 1907-01-11

ion, Which Che patient gets filed at an
rpothecary's shop.
The fitness of a Chinese physician
for his profession is determined accord
Ing to no special method. He neither
has to study nor pass any examina-
tiOns-in fact, no particular quality is
necessary. Frequently a man who has
failed in business sets up as a physi-
elan, to do which he needs only to
"hang UP his Single" as it were, and.
il truth. this is about all the stock in
trade he possesses, with the exception
Of the needle he may at times employ
in acIpuncture. Sometimes he gets an
old book Of prescriptions from some
retiring practitioner and at once con-
s;ders himself as perfectly and en-
pirically qualified to kill 1t has been
said that the doctor most entitled to
confidence in the sight of his country
men is the man whose father has been
one before him, and the confidence in
crcases should his grandfather have
followed the same profession. This.
it might be supposed, is due to an ig-
no-ant belief in the influence of hered-
ity: but. according to the Chinese. the
value in their eyes consists in the son
or grandson possessing all the pre-
scliEtiOn books of his sires.
This important, self esteemed person
age enters the sickroom in the most
Ostentatious manner and talks of parch-
ed grasshoppers, boiled tigers blood
and snail and worm infusions with as
much gravity as a priest expounding
the Scriptures, AS he peers out of the
senidarkness of a Chinese bedroom
through his great, uncOuth bone or cop
per trimmed goggles he looks as terror
inspiring as the most hideous chauffeur,
and, unfortunately, leaves death as Of
ten i'll his wake. His diagnosis of a
case is rather singular This is done
by feeling the different pulses of the
human system, of which. according to
him. there are many The pulse at
each wrist is divided into three and
these three again into two each. ac-
ccrding as the pressure is light or
heavy, thus making twelve. AS each
of these indicates a different organ of
the body, the states of q dozen real or
imaginary organs are determined.
Acupuncture has been in use among
the Chinese from time immemorial
Many directions are given as to it's ap-
plicatiOn. The operator has a manikfn
full of holes, and by close study of this
he learns where to drive his needle, the
latter being inserted in the parts of the
body which may be pierced without IA
tai results. Sometimes heat is applied
to the outer end of the needle, but ncv-
er before insertion. The needle has
been described as follows: cit is very
much like sewing machine needle, but
longer and coarSer. Some of the Chi
neSe doctors have needles two feet
long and are supposed by ardent adj
mirerS to lie able to drive these instru-
mentS entirely through the patients
body, but the great size Of the needles
is in reality intended to represent the
greatness of the owners skill and repu-
tatiOn. The needles used are of nine
fOrmS-the arrow headed, blunt, pune
turing, spear pointed. ensiform, round,
capillary. long and great. The point Of
insertion. the depth and the direction
are Al important, and the method is
usually to drive them through the dis
, tended skin by blow from a light
mallet They are frequently made red
hot and occasionally left. in the flesh
for days together"
a friend tells me tliat-not long since,
hearing fearful cries issuing from
Chinese home, she entered and found
mother .stabbing her son twol or
three inches in the back with a needle
Upon inquiry she learned that, this was
being done TO cure a severe toothache.
Certainly this was a remedy worse
han the complaint and d stretching or
the counter irritant theory to its break.
ing pOint.-COr. New York Tribune.