But the Chinese believe leprosy not alone hereditary, but also infectious through the very slightest contact. Hence the father abandons his own child; the children flee from their parents: they will not eat and drink with them, will not sit in their company, will not use the chairs which have been sat upon by the leper, until at least the surrounding atmosphere has been fumigated with a torch. Even the law declares leprosy to be a contagious disease. A wealthy leper durst not venture to leave his own room, where he is excluded from all communication with the outer world, without exposing himself to the danger of being arrested by the police, and mulcted in a heavy fine, or else sent to what is called the Leper village near Canton, an abode of human woe and misery, which even the leprous regard with horror.[144]
As the Chinese physicians regard leprosy as a taint of the blood, and in their treatment adopt Hahnemann's principle of similia similibus curantur, they prescribe by way of
remedies the most repulsive and disgusting substances which they can select from their Materia Medica, such as the saliva of the toad, beetles, snakes, worms, scorpions, centipedes, &c. &c.
Dr. Hobson considers leprosy, when once fully developed, to be incurable. Such remedies as arsenic, salts, acids, in short alteratives, occasionally prove efficacious at an early stage of the malady, as also Iodine baths, and mercurial friction. External remedies however are usually found to be unavailing in reaching the root of the disorder, its seat lying deeper than an ordinary affection of the skin.
Of late years the seeds of the Tschaul or Tscharul Mugra (one of the order of Flacourtiaceæ), have been administered for leprosy by several English physicians in India, and certainly, in some instances, with such results that the most sanguine hopes were entertained of its efficacy in all cases of leprosy. Dr. Hobson informed us that Dr. Mouatt, of the Medical College, Calcutta, who was the first to discover the remarkable properties of this plant, sent him, when he was at Canton, a considerable quantity of these seeds for the purpose of experimenting with them.[145] They were ground into a coarse powder,
and in that state administered twice a day at considerable intervals in doses of about 60 grains, the external sores being at the same time rubbed with the oil pressed out of the seeds. The cure must be persevered in without interruption for six months, and must be from time to time aided by saline purgatives. The first symptom of improvement shows itself in an abatement of the prominence and redness of the eruption, and the appearance of white scales all round it. This remedy has long been known to the Chinese, but those who are acquainted with the active curative principle contained in the seeds of the Tscharul Mugra, keep the secret to themselves in their own interest.[146] Dr. Hobson assured us that he had cured two cases of leprosy taken early, and in a very mild form, by the administration of these seeds, and had seen several greatly improved by their use; but this experienced physician is, like others, distrustful of the efficacy of the seeds of Tscharul Mugra in cases of fully developed leprosy, which, according to his view, is pre-eminently a taint of the blood,—a poison which can never again be eradicated from the system. In cases of scrofula, these seeds have been found serviceable.
Like their brethren of the London Missionary Association, the various missions of the United States of North America
display the most praiseworthy zeal and activity of co-operation upon every question.
That eminent philanthropist, Dr. Bridgman, who had, for more than a quarter of a century, been an active and highly esteemed missionary, was in 1858 at the head of the American Episcopal Mission, and was one of the oldest, as also among the most highly respected, denizens of the little foreign settlement. This meritorious citizen died at Shanghai, on the 29th of November, 1861, after having spent upwards of thirty years in China in the promotion of the Christian faith and the advancement of knowledge, deeply lamented by foreigners, as well as by the Chinese, who always found him their true and confident friend. This gentleman had the kindness to assemble under his simple but kindly roof the various members of his mission, who are no less useful in increasing our acquaintance with the Chinese language and literature than in diffusing the blessings of the gospel, thus furnishing the members of the Novara Expedition with an opportunity of personal intercourse with these gentlemen. We here became acquainted with Mr. Wells Williams, so highly esteemed and so widely known for his profound historical and philological works[147] respecting China, as also with Messrs. Syle, Aichison, Macy, Jones, and Blodgett, missionaries distinguished for their extensive acquirements in Chinese; and in the course of this