This singular people possess works on medical science which they trace as
far back as three thousand years, and chiefly written by two of their
emperors, _Chin-nong_ and _Hoang-ti_. It has been asserted that they
received the early elements of the science from the Egyptians, but it is
more probable that they derived their information from their constant
intercourse with the Bactrians, whose arts and sciences were flourishing
at the period of Alexander's conquests, and the Chinese historians in
support of this probability, state that several learned physicians came
from Samarcand to establish themselves amongst them. Moreover, the
doctrines of Erasistratus bear much resemblance to those of the Chinese.
The superstitious regard shown to the bodies of the departed, must
naturally have materially retarded the progress of anatomical pursuits,
although this people assure us that 2706 years before our era they
possessed a work on this subject, entitled _Nim Kin_. Howbeit it seems
probable, from their extreme ignorance of the structure of the human body,
that this important branch of the science of medicine has remained
stationary ever since the publication of the aforesaid treatise.
The Chinese physicians divide the body into a right and left portion, and
three regions. The upper one, comprising the head and the chest, a middle
one, extending from the lower part of the thorax to the umbilicus, and an
inferior region, comprising the hypogaster and lower extremities. They
admit twelve viscera as the sources of life, but they do not appear to
have any distinct notion of the division, uses and conformation of the
muscles, nerves, vessels, and the various tissues of the human economy.
Their ignorance equally extends to the construction of animals.
They consider that man is influenced by two principles, heat and humidity,
the harmony of which constitutes life, which ceases when their
equilibrious state is destroyed. Vital moisture resides in the heart,
lungs, liver, spleen, and kidneys, while vital heat pervades the
intestines, the stomach, the pericardium, the gall-bladder and the
ureters. These two principles are transmitted through the medium of the
vital spirits and the blood by twelve canals, one of which carries a
fecundating moisture from the head to the hands; another from the liver to
the feet; a third from the kidneys to the left side of the body; and a
fourth from the lungs to the right division.
In addition to these channels of vital transmission, they imagine that the
state of our internal organs can be ascertained by the appearance of
various parts of the head, which they consider as indicative sympathies of
the action of the internal viscera. For instance, the head corresponds
with the tongue, the lungs with the nostrils, the spleen with the mouth,
the kidneys influence the ear, the liver acts upon the eyes, and thus they
consider that they can form a correct idea of the nature of internal
maladies by the complexion, the state of the eyes, the sound of the voice,
the taste, and the smell of the patient.
The Chinese physiologists also consider the human body as a harmonic
instrument, of which the muscles, tendons, nerves, arteries, &c. are
vibrating chords, producing various sounds and modulations, and the pulse
their chief guide in ascertaining the nature of disease, is but the result
of a modification of these sounds as the chords are more or less extended
or relaxed.
In addition to these singular views of the human economy, they imagine
that the body is influenced by five elementary agents, earth, minerals,
water, air, and fire.
Fire prevails in the heart and the thoracic viscera, which bear an
astronomic relation with the south.
The liver and the gall-bladder are under the influence of air, which is in
relation with the east, whence the winds arise, and it is towards spring
that these organs are generally affected.
The kidneys and ureters are ruled by water, astronomically associated with
the north--hence winter is the usual season of the maladies in these
parts.
The stomach and spleen are regulated by earth, and are placed in connexion
with the centre of the firmament, between the five cardinal points, and
affections of these parts are observed in the third month of each quarter.
Diseases are distinguished by their vicinity to or their distance from the
central part of the body, the heart and lungs, and are usually occasioned
by vicissitudes in the atmospheric constitution--varying with cold, heat,
and moisture.
The minuteness of their division of maladies is as great as the mechanical
precision which all their labours exhibit: for instance, they admit no
less than forty-two varieties of the smallpox; according to the shape,
colour, situation of the pustules, which they compare to the cocoons of
the silkworm--to strings of beads--chaplets of pearls--and lay equal
stress on their being flat or round--black, red, or violet. This disease
has, indeed, been described by them with much accuracy and judgment, as
regards its benign or its confluent character; and there is no doubt that
inoculation was practised among them from time immemorial, as I have
already shown in the article on that head. Equally accurate have they been
in detailing the various symptoms of gout, scurvy, elephantiasis, and
syphilis, which also scourges the "Celestial empire."
The chief guide, however, in their diagnosis and prognosis, is the state
of the pulse, and a very curious work, called "The Secrets of the Pulse,"
and said to have been written two centuries before our era, by
_Ouang-chou-ho_ or _Vam-xo-ho_. The pulse is divided into the external,
the middle, and the deep--producing _nine_ different pulsations called
_Heon_, and the arterial beats were formerly sought for in the joint of
the big toe; this custom is now abandoned, but they still follow the
strange practice of taking up the right wrist in women and the left in
men.
The external pulse, called _Piao_, is subdivided into several varieties.