Traced Back to 1100 B.C.
Contributions by Taoism Ancient China was credited with contributing much of value to the} 000 world and, in fact, with cradling the night, science of chemistry, by Prof. Ber- broke out nard E. Read, on Thursday night, in a lecture before the Royal. Asiatic Society. "In a fascinating exposition ancient medical history, the speaker traced the development of remedies in comparison with the development of mining and Ismelting facilities, describing the evolution of each in relation to medical research on the part of Jancient alchemists.
In Lao-Tse, he declared, China 1100 BE. gave to the world the founder of alchemy, or, in modern parlance, chemistry.' Throughout his Jaddress, Prof. Read drew parallels between customary remedies of the Jpast and those still in use through ithe modern discoveries of their chemical constituents and properties. Kaolin, used not so many years ago jin the experimental treatment of Jcholera in Tsinanfu, was in all probability first discovered medicine by earth-ealing tribes, chalk, first used centuries ago [whilst China, Assyria, and Babylonia, jas an internal and external septic, still is employed in that capacity. to-day.
Prof. Read sketched the ideology jupon which ancient physicians based [their cures, observing that first tron, then gold, silver, and mercury, with its various compounds, all were in use fairly early in Chinese medical, Ihistory. To Taoism he ascribed the addition of numerous sublimates in {the field of mineral medicaments, jand outlined the plausible basis for these discoveries by Taoists who, emphasized the principle of internal and external purification.
The ancient alchemist was bound strict dietary laws, breathing Jexercises, and ethics. He believed the life principle was more inherent {in certain drugs than in others, residing particularly in cinnabar, gold, silver, and jade in the mineral king Jdom, mushrooms, pines, and peaches jin the vegetable kingdom, and in the chicken, tortoise, and crane in the animal kingdom. The "special elixir of eight" or the immortal Jelixir, according to the alchemist, was to be found in cinnabar, orpiment, realgar, sulphur, saltpetre, ammonia, Jcobalt ore, and mica. In reference to several common ancient medicines,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.