Tachienlu, June 15.
Gordon Agnew has left the frontier for the plains below.
Th being his third visit to the border he was no stranger to Tachienlu. He spent the summer of 1934 in an excusion round the Gongga in company with Dr. Jolliffe and Dr. Sparling.
This was his first i troduction to nomadic life and Tibetan teeth and on that visit 1 is young Canadian doctor saw tremendous possibilities for dental research among the wild and woolly nomads. In 1937 he made an extended visit to Kanze and the north Lhasa Road. His object on that visit was, if possible, to get in among the famous Horba, direct descendants of the Mongol Jenghis Khan, Were their teeth in any way aif-{ferent from the wild romantic woollies who inhabit the plains round the large Litang Iamasery was a ques lon Dr. Agnew set himself to solve, And was there any relation whatever between altitude and teeth? Had a. man living at sea level different dentition from a nomad living at 14,000 feet? Dr. Agnew on tha occasion struck some rich veins of dental re-Search and he was quite prepared 10 "sing his way home" if thereby he could just get a look inside a nomad's mouth, WRO a bag full of data Dr. Agnew returned to Tachienlt to dis-fever that trouble had broken out in the Republic. Much had been accomplished, however, and with this hho returned to the plains with the firm determination to make, if pos sible, Litang on his next journey. nomads, in order to make some blood tests?" Nomadic blood or failing that Jama blood; but it must be Tibetan blood. The kindly general was prepared to do lots of things to help Forward the cause of research; but this surely was something extra ordinary. "The governor, however, tried to do his best so made the demand that each of the seven lamaseries furnish a certain. quota.. Dr. Agnew was informed that on the next morning 60 lamas would present [themselves at the Provincial Hospital Jat the Lower Bridge, With great gusto the young dentist lined up his assistants with all the necessary para-Jphernalia and excitedly awaited deve-Hopments;" but. nothing whatever matured," The inomad's. blood, "Nothing doing." said the lomt He had his mind very definitely set on Litang, reported to be the highest city in the world, and the centre of Jamasery with 3,000 lamas. For a dentist here surely was a lama concentration unparallelled on the Root Jof the World." And the Litang Jamas are notorious beet caters, the envions of the town and lamasery being enormous bone heaps. Hundreds of wild Tibetan dogs inhabit these yale bone heaps making the darkness hideous with their barking.
We once spent several nights on the confines of these enormous bone heaps and have no knowledge of Litang teem, buy Dr. Agnew made tone remarkable discovery about them, An absence of vitamin C. apparently is the cause of cavities abd an exd-[mination of Litang teeth showed very few cavities ow could this be explained Garden of Lamaland nfortunately Dr. Agnew left the frontier without making this further discovery regarding dentition,—Be- he tween Kanze and Derge lies' Rom-bats, the garden of Lamaland, and in this garden grows a tree which produces' a substance something ike chewing gun, and which the Tibetans chow in very much the same way as persons do with chewing gum, We have no idea whatever what the vitamin content of Tibetan chewing Kum and whether it is negative o posltive. Dr. Agnew is making Sikany Held all his own so some day. one may hear more about this Rombatsa um and its relation to nomadic den-
This young Canadian dentist has studied monkey dentition for a number of years. The monkey may or may noi object to a dental examina. tion but certainty the nomad has very se-ious objections to the gentle request—please open your mouth, The Tipetans..amake no bones whatever about their arboreal ancestry and make the proud boast that" their mother was a rock monkey, their father being a tha or god. Dr. Agnew's Tong association with monkeys in Chengiu and his inter nseious prejudice towards woolly nomad. There ix doubting the fact, he is very fond Jot the Tibstans and I fect sure from What T have seen that the Tibetans fare very fond of him.
Search for Vitamin however, seemed to be ferent from his two pre in Tibetan dentition.
On this 0¢- casion he was after blood and vitamin s0 found his work much mare difficult and intricate. Dr. Hedin's search for the Jong-lost-take seemed child's play to Dr. Agnew's search for vitamin C among the nomads of the Lamas. This young Canadian has fived Tong enough in China to be a firm believer in the prinefpl> that one Jeood turn deserves another. The governor of Sikang had suffered at the hands of a native dentist and was stil suffering when Dr. Agnew ar-Fived on the border. A little dental operation and the general felt ike Mary Magdalene afier the seven demons had been cast out of her. He eave the doctor a sumptuous Chinese feast and the doctor made a very gentle request, "Can you help me." asked Dr. JAgnew "lo ket some Tibetan blood from a nomads vein, if possible 100
Dimmeult "Guinea Pigs Dr. Agnew went about Ins research a highly selentiie manner. wanted a blood specimen, a urine speflmen, a denial examination, and. a prolonged history and careful account of what the nomad ate many years tige and what. he drank. Now the [nomad Is nothing if not superstitious fand the lama is not far behind, when the question was politely asked how much raw beet do you eat in tone day? the nomad saw danger head and was strongly inclined to prevaricate, What can this ment ba want with my blood and my Urine? There is no doubt, whatever has some serious designs not my present but on my future, When one remembers that Lamaism Aifferent woys of getting rid of enemies, the chief ona being some Important part of the enemy's person. it wonder that strong and strenuous ob-Jeetions were made to sch wrd-of thing 98 a blood extraction, And that this foreign doctor wanted, Some. of the draba'e urine was all that was necessary to convince him that the rear objective was his death andi dastruetion, Dr. Agnew waited patiently for a whole forenoon and ho Jama appeared willing to part with even one drop of his precious, blood help advance the cause of science, The young Canadian is a man of
foraging campaign throughout ferric energy' 30 he commenced, city working through the serv: {the mission. compounds: the gatekeeper brought, his Tibet and the wife brought her sister and the mother Drought her child and the Jehitd brought her friend. In this way ome good. specimens were obtained, Dut not enough. At last the good services of the governor began to function ud some 20 drabas came forward for. the four-<imensio mination, Some more TToctans appeared and. the number of those examined slavily reached the 50 mark. Then the mark was passed fand the young dentist began to feel that something was being accomplish nslaious Superstition Evil rumours follow every good work and they were not slow in fol-Towing the young doctor. Tu taking blood from the vein the dentist wed strong hi of red rubber {0 Brin, pressure on the arm: and this some-tone sing gested was a bit of human festine. Superstition bejan its inst" ious work and again an evil tremor {went through those waiting t0 be exa~ mined: human intestine; what next Milarcba was a great lama saint who: had the unfortunate habit of extracting at will any and every part of his enemies' internal organs." We also could from any distance attack any part of a person's anatomy." He could moreover walla through a. solid and sometimes took delight in 1 the bottom of Takes, Dr. Agnew could offer vei explanation to the superstfions lama {why the fourdimension performance was necessary. and probely an planation would simply have "been courting disaster. "A simple litre gift, however, worked wonders and one abled the draba to submit himrelé the doctor's examination, 'The question ie now being seriously discussed ff the relation between race and teeth and dentists may' yet be called upon.
decide many diifeult-anhrepolo
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.