Page:Leaves from my Chinese Scrapbook - Balfour, 1887.djvu/81

 raised upon the surface; and though the process is not agreeable, the result certainly goes far to justify the principle of counter-irritation on which the treatment is based. Many of the medicines in use, however, are exceedingly coarse and disgusting, and, we should hope, are never resorted to except in extreme cases. A very curious method of procedure is adopted by the doctor who is called in to see a patient. The sick man does not open the interview by detailing his symptoms, as with us. That would involve an insult to the perspicacity of his adviser. It is the doctor who, by feeling the patient's pulse, is expected to detail the various ailments of his patron, which can be correctly diagnosed by a clever practitioner from the slow or hurried beats. He then writes out his prescription, pockets his horse-money or chair-money, as the fee is called, and takes his departure for the time. In most instances the medicine prescribed is of a very cheap and often very nasty description; there are, however, drugs highly prized among the faculty in China which are extremely precious. Diamond-dust is looked upon as a dangerous poison in India and the West; yet there are other precious stones, rare indeed in China, which are said to have a wonderful efficacy in curing certain disorders. A detailed description of one of these peculiar and certainly very expensive remedies lies before us. It consists of white and red coral, rubies or jacinth, pearls, emeralds, musk, and one or two earths in various quantities, crushed into powder, rolled into pills with gum and rose-water, and coated with gold-leaf. As a poison, one would think this composition must be quite invaluable; or as a tit-bit for an ostrich, did such birds exist in China; but as a medicine