Luxuriating in the "mental oasis" of Chinese literature in general,
and the "New Collection of Tried Prescriptions" in particular, we
have been tempted to carry our researches still further in that
last-mentioned valuable work. It would have been sufficient to establish
the reputation of any European treatise on medical science had it
contained one such simple and efficacious method for extracting teeth
as we gave in our chapter on Dentistry; but Chinese readers are not so
easily satisfied, and it takes something more than mere remedies for
coughs, colds, lumbago, or the gout, to ensure a man a foremost place
among the Galens of China. Even a chapter on "Extraordinary Diseases,"
marvellous indeed in the eyes of the sceptical barbarian, is not
enough for the hungry native mind; and nothing less than a whole
section of the most miraculous remedies and antidotes, for and against
all kinds of unheard-of diseases and poisons, would suffice to stamp
the author as a man of genius, and his work as the offspring of
successful toil in the fields of therapeutic science. Thus it comes
about that the author of the "New Collection of Tried Prescriptions"
gathers together at the close of his last volume such items of
experience in his professional career as he has not been able to
introduce into the body of his book, and from this chapter we purpose
to glean a few of the most striking passages.
To begin with: Mr Darwin will be delighted to hear, if this should
ever meet his eye, that the growth of tails among mankind in China is
not limited to the appendage of hair which reposes gracefully on the
back, and saturates with grease the outer garment of every high or low
born Celestial. Elongation of the spine is, at any rate, common enough
for Dr Wang to treat it as a disease and specify the remedy, which
consists in tying a piece of medicated thread tightly round it, and
tightening the thread from time to time until the tail drops off. In
order, however, to guard against its growing again, a course of
medicine has to be taken, whereby any little irregularities of the
_yin_ or female principle[*] may be corrected, and the unpleasant
tendency at once and for ever checked.
[*] The symbol of the _yin_ and the _yang_, or male and female
principles, has been used in the beading of the cover to this
volume. The dark half is the _yin_, the other the _yang_.
We then come to elaborate directions for the extirpation of all kinds
of parasites, white ants, mosquitoes, &c.; but judging from the
plentiful supply of such pests in every part of China, we can only
conclude that the natives are apathetic as regards these trifles, and
do not suffer the same inconvenience therefrom as the more
delicately-nurtured barbarian. The next heading would somewhat
astonish us, accustomed as we are to the vagaries of Chinese
book-makers, were it not that the section upon which we are engaged is
supposed to contain "miscellaneous" prescriptions, which may include
anything, though it is a somewhat abrupt transition for a grave
medical work to pass from the destruction of insects to a remedy
against _fires_!
"Take three fowl's-eggs, and write at the big end of each the word
_warm_, at the small end the word _beautiful_. Then throw them singly
to the spot where the fire is burning brightest, uttering all the time
'fooshefahrun, fooshefahrun.' The fire will then go out." There are
several other methods, but perhaps this one will be found to answer
the purpose.
Further on we find a most practicable way for pedestrians of
discovering the right direction to pursue at a cross road. "Carry with
you a live tortoise, and when you come to a cross road and do not know
which one to choose, put down the tortoise and follow it. Thus you
will not go wrong." For people who are afraid of seeing bogies at
night, the following is recommended:--"With the middle finger of the
right hand trace on the palm of the left hand the words _I am a
devil_, and close your hand up tight. You will then be able to travel
without fear." Sea-sickness may be prevented by drinking the drippings
from a bamboo punt-pole mixed with boiling water, or by inserting a
lump of burnt mortar from a stove into the hair, without letting
anybody know it is there; also by writing the character _earth_ on the
palm of the hand previous to going on board ship. Ivory may be cleaned
to look like new by using the whey of bean-curd, and rice may be
protected from weevils and maggots by inserting the shell of a crab in
the place where it is kept. The presence of bad air in wells may be
detected by letting a fowl's feather drop down; if it falls straight,
the air is pure; if it circles round and round, poisonous. Danger may
be averted by throwing in a quantity of hot vinegar before descending.
A fire may be kept alight from three to five days without additional
fuel by merely putting a walnut among the live ashes; and a method is
also given to make a candle burn many hours with hardly any
perceptible decrease in size.
We close Dr Wang's "New Collection of Tried Prescriptions" with
mingled feelings of admiration and regret: admiration, not indeed for
the genius of its author, or any new light which may have been let in
upon us during our study of this section of the "mental oasis" of
Chinese literature, but for the indomitable energy and skill of those
who have helped to emancipate us from similar trammels of ignorance
and folly; regret, that a nation which carries within its core the
germs of a transcendent greatness should still remain sunk in the
lowest depths of superstitious gloom.