[271] The examiner for the bachelor’s, or lowest, degree.
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[272] The Chinese never cut the tails of their horses or mules.
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[273] One of the feudal Governors of by-gone days.
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[274] A Chinese Landseer.
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[275] Advertisements of these professors of physiognomy are to be seen in every Chinese city.
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[276] In order to make some show for the public eye.
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[277] See No. LXIV., [note 18].
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[278] A doctor of any repute generally has large numbers of such certificates, generally engraved on wood, hanging before and about his front door. When I was stationed at Swatow, the writer at Her Majesty’s Consulate presented one to Dr. E. J. Scott, the resident medical practitioner, who had cured him of opium smoking. It bore two principal characters, “Miraculous Indeed!” accompanied by a few remarks, in a smaller sized character, laudatory of Dr. Scott’s professional skill. Banners, with graceful inscriptions written upon them, are frequently presented by Chinese passengers to the captains of coasting steamers who may have brought them safely through bad weather.
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[279] The story is intended as a satire upon Chinese doctors generally, whose ranks are recruited from the swarms of half-educated candidates who have been rejected at the great competitive examinations, medical diplomas being quite unknown in China. Doctors’ fees are, by a pleasant fiction, called “horse-money;” and all prescriptions are made up by the local apothecary, never by the physician himself.
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[280] This would be exactly at the hottest season.
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