A Chinese apothecary carrying medicines in a basket. Coloured stipple print by J. Dadley after Pu-Quà, 1799.

"An apothecary. Itinerant apothecaries, and venders of drugs, are very numerous in China, who are occasionally either surgeons or physicians, and whose ignorance of prime causes is attended with the fame mischievous effects as that of similar practitioners in Europe. The Chinese pretend to discover every disorder by the beat of the pulse, which their physicians feel in various parts of the body. They have much faith in the use of simples, which they recommend as specifics in most disorders. Their druggists have great shops furnished with medicines, and there are fairs where nothing but smples and remedies are sold. In China every body is allowed to practise physic: this privilege, whether granted or connived at by the government, multiplies quacks, of whom the vulgar entertain a very high opinion, and suffer accordingly. It is related, that great sagacity is displayed by the Chinese in discovering whether a person has died a natural death, or in consequence of some violence, and this even after the body has begun to corrupt. The corpse is taken out of the grave, and washed in vinegar. After this, a large fire is kindled in a pit dug on purpose, six feet long, three wide, and the same in depth ; this fire is continually augmented, until the surrounding earth becomes as hot as an oven. The remaining fire is then taken from the pit, a large quantity of twigs, upon which the body is stretched out at full length. A cloth is thrown over all, in the form of an arch, in order that the steam may act upon it in every direction. At the expiration of two hours this cloth is taken off; and it is asserted, that if any blows have been given, they will appear upon the body, in whatever state it may be. The same experiment is extended even to bones sripped of their flesh; the Chinese assuring us, that if the blows have been so severe as to occasion death, this process causes the marks to appear upon the bones, although none of them may be broken, or vifibly injured."—Mason, loc. cit.