Curiosities of Medical Experience Part 49

MEDICINE OF THE CHINESE.

This singular people possess works on medical science which they trace as far back as three thousand years, and chiefly written by two of their emperors, _Chin-nong_ and _Hoang-ti_. It has been a.s.serted that they received the early elements of the science from the Egyptians, but it is more probable that they derived their information from their constant intercourse with the Bactrians, whose arts and sciences were flourishing at the period of Alexander's conquests, and the Chinese historians in support of this probability, state that several learned physicians came from Samarcand to establish themselves amongst them. Moreover, the doctrines of Erasistratus bear much resemblance to those of the Chinese.

The superst.i.tious regard shown to the bodies of the departed, must naturally have materially r.e.t.a.r.ded the progress of anatomical pursuits, although this people a.s.sure us that 2706 years before our era they possessed a work on this subject, ent.i.tled _Nim Kin_. Howbeit it seems probable, from their extreme ignorance of the structure of the human body, that this important branch of the science of medicine has remained stationary ever since the publication of the aforesaid treatise.

The Chinese physicians divide the body into a right and left portion, and three regions. The upper one, comprising the head and the chest, a middle one, extending from the lower part of the thorax to the umbilicus, and an inferior region, comprising the hypogaster and lower extremities. They admit twelve viscera as the sources of life, but they do not appear to have any distinct notion of the division, uses and conformation of the muscles, nerves, vessels, and the various tissues of the human economy.

Their ignorance equally extends to the construction of animals.

They consider that man is influenced by two principles, heat and humidity, the harmony of which const.i.tutes life, which ceases when their equilibrious state is destroyed. Vital moisture resides in the heart, lungs, liver, spleen, and kidneys, while vital heat pervades the intestines, the stomach, the pericardium, the gall-bladder and the ureters. These two principles are transmitted through the medium of the vital spirits and the blood by twelve ca.n.a.ls, one of which carries a fecundating moisture from the head to the hands; another from the liver to the feet; a third from the kidneys to the left side of the body; and a fourth from the lungs to the right division.

In addition to these channels of vital transmission, they imagine that the state of our internal organs can be ascertained by the appearance of various parts of the head, which they consider as indicative sympathies of the action of the internal viscera. For instance, the head corresponds with the tongue, the lungs with the nostrils, the spleen with the mouth, the kidneys influence the ear, the liver acts upon the eyes, and thus they consider that they can form a correct idea of the nature of internal maladies by the complexion, the state of the eyes, the sound of the voice, the taste, and the smell of the patient.

The Chinese physiologists also consider the human body as a harmonic instrument, of which the muscles, tendons, nerves, arteries, &c. are vibrating chords, producing various sounds and modulations, and the pulse their chief guide in ascertaining the nature of disease, is but the result of a modification of these sounds as the chords are more or less extended or relaxed.

In addition to these singular views of the human economy, they imagine that the body is influenced by five elementary agents, earth, minerals, water, air, and fire.

Fire prevails in the heart and the thoracic viscera, which bear an astronomic relation with the south.

The liver and the gall-bladder are under the influence of air, which is in relation with the east, whence the winds arise, and it is towards spring that these organs are generally affected.

The kidneys and ureters are ruled by water, astronomically a.s.sociated with the north--hence winter is the usual season of the maladies in these parts.

The stomach and spleen are regulated by earth, and are placed in connexion with the centre of the firmament, between the five cardinal points, and affections of these parts are observed in the third month of each quarter.

Diseases are distinguished by their vicinity to or their distance from the central part of the body, the heart and lungs, and are usually occasioned by vicissitudes in the atmospheric const.i.tution--varying with cold, heat, and moisture.

The minuteness of their division of maladies is as great as the mechanical precision which all their labours exhibit: for instance, they admit no less than forty-two varieties of the smallpox; according to the shape, colour, situation of the pustules, which they compare to the coc.o.o.ns of the silkworm--to strings of beads--chaplets of pearls--and lay equal stress on their being flat or round--black, red, or violet. This disease has, indeed, been described by them with much accuracy and judgment, as regards its benign or its confluent character; and there is no doubt that inoculation was practised among them from time immemorial, as I have already shown in the article on that head. Equally accurate have they been in detailing the various symptoms of gout, scurvy, elephantiasis, and syphilis, which also scourges the "Celestial empire."

The chief guide, however, in their diagnosis and prognosis, is the state of the pulse, and a very curious work, called "The Secrets of the Pulse,"

and said to have been written two centuries before our era, by _Ouang-chou-ho_ or _Vam-xo-ho_. The pulse is divided into the external, the middle, and the deep--producing _nine_ different pulsations called _Heon_, and the arterial beats were formerly sought for in the joint of the big toe; this custom is now abandoned, but they still follow the strange practice of taking up the right wrist in women and the left in men.

The external pulse, called _Piao_, is subdivided into several varieties.

1. The superficial P. in _Feou_, which yields to the slightest pressure.

2. The hollow P. _Kong_, which announces that the artery is empty when pressed upon.

3. The slippery P. _Hang_, which slides under the fingers, like the beads of a necklace.

4. The full P. _Che_, striking against the fingers with a full caliber of blood.

5. The tremulous P. _Hien_, vibrating like the chord of a musical instrument.

6. The intermittent P. _Kin_, vibrating by starts, like the instrument called _Kin_.

7. The regurgitating P. _Hong_, the strong pulsation of a full and distended vessel.

These seven characters are considered much more favourable than the eight which follow, and which, arising from a deeper action, require a more forcible pressure.

1. The deep P. _Tehin_, only discovered by a firm pressure.

2. The filiform P. _Ouei_, a threadlike pulsation.

3. The moderate P. _Ouan_, slow and languid.

4. The sharp P. _Soe_, producing the sensation of a cutting or sawing instrument.

5. The slow P. _Tehis_, when the pulsations follow each other with languid intervals.

6. The sinking P. _Fou_, when the pulse, although pressed hard, sinks under the finger.

7. The soft P. _Sin_, which feels like a drop of water one might press upon.

8. The weak P. _Yo_, which yields the sensation of feeling like a worn-out texture, and ceases to be observed when pressed upon for any time.

To these are added nine other varieties, called _Tao_.

1. The long P. _Tehang_, full, smooth--feeling like a full tube.

2. The short P. _Toan_, presenting a pointed surface, that seems indivisible.

3. The empty P. _Hin_, insensible under moderate pressure.

4. The tight P. _Tsou_, which the finger feels with difficulty.

5. The embarra.s.sed P. _Kie_, languid and occasionally stopping.

6. The intermittent P. _Tai_, when several pulsations appear to be missing.

7. The slender P. _Sie_, so slow and weak, that it feels like a hair.

8. The moving P. _Tong_, that one might compare to stones under water.

9. The tense P. _Ke_, feeling like a distended drum-head.

But as many Chinese doctors were not satisfied with this confusion in the cla.s.sification of pulses, and, like pract.i.tioners in other countries, sought to render darkness still more visible--they sought to strike out a new career by increasing the multiplication, and introduced the following _addenda_:

1. The strong pulse, _Ta_, filling the vessel, yet yielding to pressure.

2. The precipitate P. _Son_, in which the pulsation was rapid in succession.

3. The scattered P. _San_, soft, slow, and non-resisting.

4. The stray P. _Li-king_, strong--not pulsating three times in each inspiration.

5. The firm P. _Tun_, consistent and resisting.