Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1892-09-17 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

THE ANTI-FOREIGN FEELING IN CHINA.  EXTRAORDINARY SUPERSTITIONS.  Some of the anti-foreign literature of China is of an extraordinary character. That which has figured on what is known as the Chou Hou case is notably so. The Time., says that the character of the accusations made in the publications in question against Europeans has created as much astonishment amongst the foreign residents in China as it has in the West. Missionaries especially were charged—and tho charges have been made frequently during the past 30 years—with bewitching women and children by means of drugs, enticing them to some secret place, and there killing them for the purpose of taking out their hearts and eyes. Dr. Macgowan, a gentleman who has lived for many years in China, has published a statement shewing that from the point of view of Chinese medicine these accusations are far from preposterous. It is one of the medical superstitions of China that various portions of the human frame and all its secretions possess therapeutic properties. He refers to a popular voluminous Materia Medica—the only authoritative work of the kind in the Chinese language—which gives 37 anthropophagous remedies of native medicine. Human blood taken into the system from another is believed to strengthen it, and Dr. Macgowan mentions the case of an English lady, now de ad, who devoted her fortune and life to the education of girls in Ningpo, who was supposed by the natives to extract the blood of her pupils for this purpose. Human muscles are supposed to be a good medicament in consumption, and cases are constantly recorded of children who mutilate themselves to adminster their flesh to sick parents. Never, says Dr. Macgowan, has filial piety exhibited its zeal in this manner more than at the present time. Imperial decrees published in the Pekin Gazette, often authorising honorary portals to be erected in honour of men, and particularly women, for these flesh offerings, afford no indication of the extent to which it is carried, for only people of wealth and influence can obtain such a recognition of the merit of filial devotion. It is very common among the comparatively lowly, but more frequent among the literati. A literary graduate now in his own service, finding the operation of snipping a piece of integument from his arm too painful, seized a hatchet and cut off a joint of one of his fingers,which he made into broth mixed with medicine and gave to his mother. It is essential in all such cases that the recipient should be kept in profound ignorance of the nature of the potion thus prepared, and in no case is the operation to be per formed for an inferior, as by a husband for a wife, or a parent for a child. This belief in the medical virtues of part of the human body (of which a large number of instances which cannot be repeated here are given) has led to a demand from native practitioners which can sometimes only be supplied by murder. Of this, too, examples are given from official records and other publications,some of them of quite recent date.  The knotty question as to Mr. Spurgeon's permanent successor at the Metropolitan Tabcknacle is now finally settled. Dr. Pierson, who is fulfilling a three months' engagement in New York, has just tabled accepting the post at the Tabernacle. The message to the Rev. James Spurgeon states that the Doctor has despatched a letter with fuller particulars, and it is thought that the new pastor will commence his duties at the beginning of the new year.  Great consternation was caused in Blackburn at a late hour on Friday night apparently by a report of an explosion. Hundreds of people left their beds and ran into the streets half dressed, while the policestation was besieged by crowds clamouring for information. After some delay it was discovered that the time gun in Corporation-yard had accidentally been discharged. County Councillor Cann, one of the leading members of the Durham Miners' Association, was on Saturday morning released from Durham Gaol, where he had been doing two months' hard labour for intimidating workmen during the recent strike. He was met at the gaol gates by the local leaders and a large number of people, who had driven to Durham in brakes. On reaching his home at Castle Eden, he was accorded a public welzeme.