[143] We saw this huge work in the private library of the chief of the medical staff at Hong-kong, Dr. W. A. Harland, who had conceived the idea of publishing a more important work upon Chinese drugs, when death struck down this distinguished and most industrious gentleman while in the active discharge of his duties.
[144] In the Leper village near Canton, which is under the superintendence of a Chinese physician, there are about 100 lepers of both sexes, each of whom receives about 20 cash (not quite one penny) daily for his support. The superintendents stated to Dr. Hobson, who repeatedly visited the village, as the result of their many years' experience and observations, that leprosy is not in every case transmitted from parents to children; that several wives of leprous persons have no trace whatever of the disease, but that these women in all probability belong to those of the third and fourth generation, who wholly escape. The Chinese overseers and attendants, however, can have had as little opportunity for remarking upon the breaking out of leprosy among the children of those whose parents were entirely exempt from it as they had of informing themselves with accuracy as to the various forms and rapid diffusion of the disease in the case of the one, or its mild type and gradual disappearance in the other. Perspiration or suppuration in the diseased parts are never remarked in these patients.
[145] At the Refuge for the Destitute (Monegu choultry) at Madras, where Dr. Mudge was at the same time instituting experiments lasting over two years, exhibiting these same remedies in every form and shape of elephantiasis, to which cases a special ward had been set apart, rarely entertaining fewer than 100 patients, that gentleman found it to be perfectly inoperative, and he accordingly entirely ceased prescribing it. In lieu of the Tscharul Mugra, the Hindoos in cases of leprosy make use of what are known as the "Asiatic pills," consisting of arsenic, pepper, and the root of the Asclepia gigantea.
[146] In an old Chinese medical work occurs the following remarks upon the plant: "Tae-fung-tzi. Taste, acrid and burning: imported from the South (this obviously alludes to the Straits of Malacca). Acts as an alterative on the blood, and is accordingly useful in cases of leprosy, when the blood is corrupted. The oil pressed from the seeds is also used as a remedy in ulcers, eruptions, and psoriasis, and for killing worms. This drug must be exhibited in the form of pills."
[147] Geography, Statistics, and Natural History of the Chinese Empire—New York, 1847; Tonic Dictionary of the Chinese language—Canton, 1856; Chinese Commercial Guide. Fourth edition—Canton, 1856.
[148] In the figures of the Chinese original, which represents the Lo-háu-miáu or Buddhist aboriginal, Buddha is represented in a cavity of a rock. Two burning lamps are standing beside him, one on each side, and in front are two worshippers in devotional attitudes, while at a short distance one perceives a woman with a little child, who is approaching the divinity. The men wear fox-tails as ornaments to the head, and their long locks hang loose and dishevelled, far below the shoulders. Every year on the third day of the third moon, our Chinese traveller goes on to state, old and young, man, woman, and child, bring offerings of fruit to Buddha, and for that and the three next succeeding days, they sing and dance, and at the same time make offerings of all manner of cooked food. From their custom of wearing a fox-tail on their heads, which was also common among the ancestors of the present Mantchoos, and that these wild tribes reverence the image of Buddha, Dr. Bridgman is disposed to class them amongst foreign nations.
[149] Among these there were, besides a small quantity of Sorghum, several species of vegetables, which are suited for cultivation in temperate climates, such, for example, as Poussén, Pa-tsé, Pon-ta-tsé, with which since our return experiments have been instituted in various parts of the Austrian Empire. M. de Montigny has also since our return sent, quite lately, a large quantity of Chinese seeds by way of souvenir, and despite illness, is so much interested in forwarding the objects of the Imperial Expedition, that he was a short time ago decorated with an Austrian order.
[150] We are however in a position to furnish an extract from the note-book of an English sailor, left in charge of the yacht of an English merchant at Shanghai, who accompanied the expedition of Lord Elgin to the Pei-ho as coxswain. Notwithstanding the occasional naïve expressions made use of, it is a valuable narrative, such as may call up many strange reflections in the mind of the reader:—
"1858. May 30th.—The river Pei-ho is about 150 yards wide at its mouth, and at dead low water varies from 1 1⁄2 to 4 1⁄2 fathoms in depth. On the bar, which is two miles wide, the difference between the ebb and the flood is from 9 to 10 feet. Easterly winds cause the highest tides. In the interior, near Tien-Tsin, the river is from 3 to 6 fathoms deep, and from 50 to 100 fathoms wide. Countless villages stud the banks. The houses are built of clay or straw. The boys run about naked to an age of eight years. It is a very wretched population. The coolies plunge into the water after the empty bottles which are swimming about. They seem exceedingly willing to be serviceable to foreigners. At Tien-Tsin, ten and a half hours from the mouth of the river, the thermometer marks 89° Fahr. in the shade. Lord Elgin is living in a private house on shore. The interpreters live in a passenger-junk. Provisions are on the whole cheaper than at Shanghai. An immense number of natives keep crowding open-mouthed round the "barbarians" and their ship during the entire day, hundreds following us at every step. Almost all the shops are shut, through dread of the barbarians."
"4th June.—Thermometer 95°. The people very willing to supply the strangers with water, tea, &c. The natives are on the average from five to five feet three and well-proportioned. Some of them are "tremendously" fat, with huge heads. Among the entire lot I could not see one single woman. The streets are narrow, filthy, and uneven. Saw several hand-carts, which were used to convey water from the river to the village. On each barrow there could be from six to eight buckets of water. There were also plenty of mules and donkeys, but very few horses."