on Wenchow has, to use an American expression, spread himself out over the whole subject of the health, pestilence, famines, and topography of the place. Thirty-six closely printed pages have not sufficed to relieve him of his whole burden of knowledge, for at the beginning of his paper be says thut he reserves the medical topography for another occasion; but so varied are the matters of which he has treated, and so successfully have they been jumbled together, that we should scarcely have missed such a trifle as that from his paper, Ho begins with a description of the district in which Wenchow is situated, and passing on to the climate he draws a picture of it which ought to induce invalids to give it a trial, It possesses, he says, the climate of Nice without a mistral. It offers tiger-hunting to the vigorous, as it appears that those creatures are as troublesome to the people there, as they are under the Equator or on the banks of the Amoor. But unfortunately neither patients vor sportsmen are attracted to the port, as there is no suitable accommodation for them. In propitious seasons the Wenchow district seems to be a happy and smiling laud, but it has its times of trial, when it is subject to floods from the mountains, cyclones from the ocean, and storms that cause famine and pestilence. A record is given of the storms, floods, droughts, which have occurred in the the maritime portions of Chekiang and part of Fohkien, from the year 291 down giving a record of epidemics in the province of Chekiang from the year 95 down to 1864; which is followed by an account of some of them. But instructive as these doubtless are, we prefer Dr. Mucgowan on epidemic frenzies to the same learned gentleman on leprosy or Asiatic cholera. The story of the delusions to which all classes of Chinese have yielded themselves up from time to time, is more entertaining to the general reader than a treatise on infection, or fevers, or smallpox. Not that there are not little passages in the midst of the Doctor's learned disquisitions which are entertaining enough. For instance there is the account of Pion Ch'ino, the earliest Mediciue Prince to whom a temple was erected. This physician lived BO 468 to 440 and he had the good fortune to meet a spirit who advised him to take a certain medicine daily for a month. this he did, and became so spiritualized and sharp sighted that ho was able "to see through a stone wall," and consequently by his vision to penetrate the human system and observe the viscera, Modern ph; sicians can see no further through a stone wall than can other men, and can get no nearer observation of the viscera than an inspection of the condition of the patient's tongue. This highly gifted practitioner received 20,000 mow of laud as a feo on one occasion, and remembering this, and the di tinction which his talents avd skill had won for bim, we are scarcely surprised to learn that the Court physician procured his assassination soon afterwards. Quoting from a work published in 1876, by @ benovolout gentleman of Chang-chou, Kiangsi, Dr. Macgowan states that periods of frenzy occurred in the writer's part of the country in 1464, 1529, 1596, 1657, and 1753, und this leads to an amusing account of the various sorcerers from which the Chinese have suffered, and of the remedies which they have eu-ployed, down to the famous quenocutting craze of 1876. We are then introduced to the Supreme Pontiff of Yavism, who is applied to by the people for relief from the demons whenever these torment the people. Dr. Macgowan sass that the word demon Chinese is tu be understood, nub in ube medicoval, but, in the classical reuse but we cannot recall at the moment any classical writer who attributed to demons, familiars, or guardians the malicious or evil propensities which distinguish the demons of this land in an especial degree. The doings of the Taoist Pope are thus described This hereditary potentate who supposed to exercise authority over demons appears on occasions like the present in at official capacity: he met the current emery by the reissue of a charm or amulet he had used against a cholera epidemic in 1862. There was scarcely a house door that was not protected by the charm, hardly an individual who did not wear the amulet under cap or in sleeve. In times of excitement, particularly when disease is rife, every house door will be found to have charm, and foreigners may thereby know that the public mind is in a state of ferment either from bodily or mental suffering. Plates of the above charms are given, and Dr. Macgowan describes their nature, and translates tbeceutral characters on one of them, which is les than if he had rendere English the charm which is supposed to be in the six demon characters on the sides, and of which he morely says that they are said to mean urgent and imperative commands. Dr. Macgowan says he made the acquaintance of his Holiness when be was on a visit to the faithful at the coast frou his seat on Dragon Tiger mountain, where be lives a retired life surrounded by innumerable sealed jars in which he keeps his demons and the imps he bus captured, Dr. Macgowan found him to be a simple-minded, unpretentious character. The whole subject of these delusions is treated at great length, and the Doctor, either warmed by righteous wrath, or by the theme, indulges himself occasionally in language that is not strictly professional. We can understand, and almost honour, his indignation at a literary graduate who threw the inhabitants of Wenchow into a panic, by saying he had discovered that the oily was to be invaded by a fleet of vessels filled with foreign womon, of hideous mien avd with long carrotty beards. The Doctor did well to be angry at this, and some may think be has not gone too far in calling the libeller of foreign women a wily scoundrel and a scalawag. Still the use of such epithets is u departure from the calm philosophical spirit which characterizes the rest of his discourse. There is room for regret in this; and if ho should again wish to release himself for a moment or two from the restraints of formalism, we do not know that we can do better than ree cummeud Lim to read the Medical Report which follows his own, There he will find both the death rate last year and the proportion of deaths among females in this Settlement airily ascribe ed to chance. We cannot attempt to criticise the medical part of Dr. Mace gowan's report; that will be done no doubt. with frankness by his professional friends, Bat we may mention that his conclusions as lo the uonexistence of colour: blinduess among the Chinese are not shared by some, at least, of he doctors here.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.