A TELEGRAM of recent date from Tokio informs us that an Association has been formed for the purpose of founding hospitals in China, inasmuch as such a course is considered the best means of securing Chinese sympathy with occidental science. The Japanese, who have originated this movement, display their usual keen insight into the Chinese mind and character, and show that they understand what is necessary in order to gain from them an appreciative hearing and consideration of what is brought before them. The value of medical science in overcoming the prejudices and racial hatred of the Chinese is incalculable. This has been shown to be the case over and over again in widely-separated parts of the Empire, and among all ranks and conditions of men. The highest officials, in their extremity, equally with those in the lowest strata of society, have sought on innumerable occasions from foreign physi that skilled help which their own ignorant and superstitious practitioners were utterly incompetent to give them.
We have been led to make the foregoing remarks by the perusal of two medical Reports that have just come to hand from such widely-atated places as Chungking in the vest. and Hangchow in the south. And these are bt samples of those whicheome to us with ever-increasing frequency, affording indisputable evidence that this benevolent propa-gona is spreading on every side, and ing more and more the innumerable ills that flesh is heir to in China. Of the utter incapacity of Chinese practitioners to grapple with any but the simplest diseases and ailments everyone who has penetrated into the interior of China must have had ample and conclusive evidence, and the loss of life from erable diseases must be enormous. It is certain that the remedies suggested, and the mode of ppr-cedure advocated, by the best-qualified doctors of China would only provoke a smile of pity or amused contempt from the merest tyro in the healing art from Western lands. In saying this we do not, of course, refer to those native practitioners, an ever-increasing number, who have gone through a course of medical study under foreign instructors. Many of these men have shown themselves to be apt scholars, and are now rendering valuable services in different parts of the country.
One hopeful feature of the case is that the Chinese themselves are commencing to realise, more and more, the inferiority and superficial nature of their own knowledge of the healing art as compared with the skill and knowledge possessed by those who have come to give them the benefit of their attainments. They refes to believe that their forefathers knew more about these matters than do their degenerate success sors, and that China in this, as in' many other respects, has mad retrograde movement. Hwa the renowned physician of the third century, who might be styled the Aisculapius of China, was according to the most reliable accounts wondrously skilled in the practice of acupuncture. His marvellous skill and attainments are widely celebrated at the present time, but as, among his other wonderful cures, it is confidently asserted that he was able to restore life to the dead, we are compelled to take all such assertions as to his ability cum grano salis, Enlightened Chinese, it is certain, will no longer be content to entrust their lives and health to the quacks whose stock in trade is composed very largely of ignorance, superstition, jugglery, and fraud, and who have had things their owa way for so many centuries. The invineible repugnance of the Chinese to post mortem examinations and to the practice of dissection in general, has probably done more than anything else to hinder them from acquiring anatomical knowledge. As is well-known, death is sometimes preferred to the dismemberment of the body, and it is not unlikely that the Pythagorean doctrine of the metempsychosis which has such a hold on the people is to some extent responsible for their ignorance of all that has to do with that master-piece of creative skill—man. [tis worthy of notice, however, that in spite of their strong objections to post mortem examinations, they yet seem to realise that this is the way in which a better knowledge of the anatomical construction of the human body is gained. In the notorious "Death Bow to Corrupt Doctrines published by the gentry and people, one of the charges brought against missionaries is that, if a patient does not recover, the body and head are cut open in order to investigate the cause of the disease, thus adding to the medical knowledge of those who come after. In the " Hankow Picture Gallery" also, which reproduces some of the obscene and_blas-phemius cartoons issued from Changsha, the capital of Hunan, some of the most hideouscaricatures represent the mutilation of the human body by the Western barbarians in order to increase their owa knowledge and gain.
It is open to question whether the Chinese, apart from foreign instruction, have made any appreciable advance in the acquisition of medical and surgical skill since the Ssu Wen, their chief Classic on medicine, was issued over 2,000 years ago. This work treats of the diseases of the human body, and contains statements and opinions ludicrous enough to make any modern disciple of Zsculapius smile. According to this "authority" the body is minutely subdivided in accordance with the doctrine of the five elements. The phenomena of fever are caused by the fire element, and of dropsy by the water element. The heart is the king among the viscera and the home of the soul, The lungs are the two chief ministers, he liver is the general of the army, the seat of counsel and stratagems, The gall bladder is the home of righteous decision and of promptitude in action, and the stomach is the royal granary. There is more of this sort of sturt, but enough has been said to show the dire need that exists for the introduction of a rational system of medical and surgical knowledge and practice in China.
was an auspicious day for the Central Kingdom when, nearly 70 years ago, Dr. Peter Parker, who must be considered the founder of medical missions in China, opened his opthalmic hospital in Canton, which may therefore be looked upon as the parent of all that have since been established. The object of these early pioneers in medical work was stated at the first meeting of the Medical Missionary Society at Canton in 1838, to be "'To encourage the practice of medicine among the Chinese, to extend to them some of those benefits which science, patient investigation, and the ever-kirdiing light of discovery, have cuuterred upon ourselves." Much has already been accomplished on these liaes and there are not wanting indications that, in the near future, this benevolent work will make greater progress than ever before, "The health and vigour of an individual depend upon the quantity and quality of the blood. When the tissues have been at work, there are thrown into the blood waste, products, and if these be not elimin {nated but through any cause detained in tion and Goally produce organic disease," the blood, they influence nutrition and func-—The Humanitarian. In cases of Sero-tala, Scurvy, Eczema, Bad Legs, Skin and Blood Diseases, Pimples and Sores of all kinds, the effects of Clarke's Blood Mix. ture are marvellous. Thousands of wonderful cures have been effected by it Carke's Blood Mixture is sold everywhere at 2s, 9d. per bottle. Beware of worthless imitations and substitutions,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.