Page:Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and other Treaty Ports of China.djvu/321

Rh respectively his second, third, or fourth handmaids. When a handmaid gives birth to a child, male or female, she is recognised as a secondary mother to the family; but if she have no issue she is regarded merely as a servant-maid all her life. These handmaids are generally girls of the lower classes, acquired by purchase from poor families. They become virtually the property of their employers, the purchase-money ranging from a few scores to thousands of dollars. In the absence, therefore, of a son by the wife, the eldest son of one of the handmaids is regarded as the heir. If the heir lives to have a family of his own, but predeceases his father, his eldest son becomes the heir to the sacrificial property; if he predeceases his father, and leaves no family, the son next in order of age inherits; but if a man has no son, either by his wife or his handmaids, it is competent for him to adopt one of his brother's sons as his heir.

If a man die without leaving any one to represent his line of descent he is considered to be under a curse. Consequently an heir is always found for him whether he leaves any estate or not. If he has no one to succeed him so nearly related to him as a brother's son, then one of a remoter degree in kinship or one of the same clan or even one bearing the same surname may be adopted. But it is a  that the heir be of the same surname and of the proper generation, that is, of the same generation as the man's own heir would be if he had one, otherwise the adoption would be illegal.

In disposing of landed property  certain formality has to be observed. When once a man acquires a piece of land his near relatives seem to have in it a right of pre-emption. In all purchase deeds, therefore, there is always a recital stating that the vendor first offered the property to his near relatives, but no one was willing to buy, and that through a middleman (the broker), a purchaser was then found who was willing to buy, &amp;c. In actual practice no such offer is really made, but a notice posted for a certain time at a public place to the effect that it has been made is considered sufficient for the purpose; and the sale may, after the expiration of the time mentioned in the notice, be completed without being liable to be upset at a future date.

The lower classes of Chinese make some provision for the future by subscribing to societies which undertake to bear their funeral expenses, and to provide something for their widows and children. Almost every village has one of these friendly societies. 

 MEDICINE. The medical profession in China is one for which neither law nor custom demands that a man shall be specially trained. Any one who chooses to do so can practise as a doctor without registration of any kind. He reads one or two standard Chinese works on medicine, and gains a knowledge of certain drugs, which he combines in so-called prescriptions, charging his patients from ten cents to one dollar. The patient holds a consultation with some of his friends and relatives, who discuss the prescription and not infrequently decide to eliminate certain of the drugs specified and to add others. They may also come to the conclusion that the dose suggested by the doctor is too large or too small, and alter it accordingly. When they have settled these matters to their own satisfaction, the approved drugs are boiled together until the decoction is reduced to from six to ten ounces, and the patient swallows the bowlful at one draught. This is one of the most curious features of the Chinese medical system. Every man who can read regards himself as a doctor in embryo. Even in the native hospital at Hongkong it is a common practice still for the director and certain members of the committee to assemble the native doctors round a table and discuss the various prescriptions which they have given during the day.

In the Chinese pharmacopea there are numbers of useful and powerful drugs, practically unknown in Europe, only waiting for some one with time, means, and the necessary training to demonstrate their value and impress them into the service of man. Jen-tsin, for example, is a powerful tonic and cardiac stimulant, but its uses are commonly known only to the Chinese.

Major surgery is practised only to a very limited extent in China, but minor operations, such as acupuncture and dry cupping, are frequently performed. Bonesetting, the reduction of dislocations, lancing of abscesses, and dental surgery may also be mentioned as having their place in Chinese surgery.

Altogether the Chinese make a considerable