China from a medical point of view in 1860 and 1861 : to which is added a chapter on Nagasaki as a sanitarium / by Charles Alexander Gordon.

  • Gordon, C. A. (Charles Alexander), Sir, 1821-1899.
Date:
1863
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: China from a medical point of view in 1860 and 1861 : to which is added a chapter on Nagasaki as a sanitarium / by Charles Alexander Gordon. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    reign^ a.d. 1004, they were established. This mart still sup- plies all the fine poreelain used in the country, and the small amount of fancy-ware now exported to Europe and America. Upwards of a million persons are said to be employed in this branch of manufacture.” What has been stated in regard to printing is applicable to two other arts, which are believed to have been discovered in China about a.d. 1112, namely, the manufacture of gunpowder and the use of the mariner’s compass. Both these are still in use in China, but, as has been well remarked by a recent writer, the one discovery has led to no result there beyond the explosion of crackers; the other, merely to the miserable junks we are accustomed to see on the coast; whereas the adoption of the one by western nations has been the means of carrying their arts, sciences, and civilization to almost all corners of the world; by the latter, commerce has united all nations in bonds of mutual self-interest. But these are not the only discoveries in China belonging to this period; we find that in the twelfth century two other dis- coveries took place there that are not usually attributed to that country; namely, the invention of playing-cards in a.d. 1120, and the circulation of bank-notes by the Mongols in 1154. As regards the state of the science of medicine in China, comparatively little seems to be known with certainty. Dr. Pereira states that the medical code of that country was the production of Hoang-ti, b.c. 2000; according to the same author, all books on medicine in China prior to b.c. 1105 treated of medicine without giving prescriptions, but at this time Chang-ka described this portion of the art. Such as medical science now is in China, Ave may safely infer that it is practised at the present day much as it was at these early times, for in no country, not excepting India, have ancient customs continued to be more rigidly observed than they have in China. There are in circulation numbers of native Chinese Avorks, not only upon medicine, but upon all branches of natural science. Much good is also being effected by the publication by missionaries of European AVorks of this nature, transited into the native language, some of these having the additional'