14
DR. F. I. TSEUNG
However, scientific medicine has made such rapid progress that the art of feeling the pulse as a diagnostic method has lost much of its practical value. At the present time, it can only be regarded as an interesting fact in medical history, one of China's contributions to medicine in the past.
In his handbook Prescriptions for Emergencies, Ko Hung described small-pox in the following words:
Recently there are persons suffering from epidemic sores which attack the head, face and trunk. In a short time they spread all over the body. The sores have the appearance of hot boils containing some white matter. While some of these pustules are drying up, a fresh crop appears. Patients who recover are disfigured with purplish scars which do not fade until after a year. The people say that it was introduced in the reign of Chien Wu (£) when the king was fighting the Huns () at Nan-yang ($). The name 'Hunpox' (✓) was given to it.
Before the Han dynasty, the Chinese healing art was entirely indigenous. In the Tang dynasty, following close on the heels of the introduction of Buddhism into China, came Indian ideas and therapeutic measures. The Taoists also exercised influence by inventing a system of charms for curing diseases. In this dynasty there were two very outstanding medical men, namely Sun Szu-mo (EL) and Wong Tao (£) who published two important works called Thousand Gold Remedies (Chien Chin Fang ✓✓) and the Medical Secrets of an Official (Wei Tai Pi Yao ✓✓✓✓). These two famous medical works sum up the advances and medical thought of all the previous dynasties.
Thus, in the Thousand Gold Remedies, it was pointed out that cholera was caused by eating food which was contaminated and was not due to the evil influences of demons as generally believed by the public at that time. In the same book is mentioned the use of catheterisation for retention of urine. It is significant to note that the Medical Secrets of an Official as well as the Thousand Gold Remedies recommend the use of thyroid gland for the treatment of goitre.
Organotherapy, formerly much ridiculed by foreigners, but now hailed as a valuable modern discovery, has been known to every Chinese house-wife. The common practice of administering kidney for backache, lungs for consumption and cough, brain for nervous
14
DR. F. I. TSEUNG
However, scientific medicine has made such rapid progress that the art of feeling the pulse as a diagnostic method has lost much of its practical value. At the present time, it can only be regarded as an interesting fact in medical history, one of China's contributions to medicine in the past.
In his handbook Prescriptions for Emergencies, Ko Hung des- cibed small-pox in the following words:
Recently there are persons suffering from epidemic sores which attack the head, face and trunk. In a short time they spread all over the body. The sores have the appearance of hot boils containing some white matter. While some of these pustules are drying up, a fresh crop appears. Patients who recover are disfigured with purplish scars which do not fade until after a year. The people say that it was introduced in the reign of Chien Wu (£) when the king was fighting the Huns ( 4 ) at Nan- yang ($). The name 'Hunpox' ( ✩ ) was given to it.
Before the Han dynasty, the Chinese healing art was entirely indigenous. In the Tang dynasty, following close on the heels of the introduction of Buddhism into China, came Indian ideas and thera- peutic measures. The Taoists also exercised influence by inventing a system of charms for curing diseases. In this dynasty there were two very outstanding medical men, namely Sun Szu-mo (EL) and Wong Tao ( £) who published two important works called Thousand Gold Remedies (Chien Chin Fang †✯✯) and the Medical Secrets of an Official (Wei Tai Pi Yao ✯✯✯✯). These two famous medical works sum up the advances and medical thought of all the previous dynasties.
Thus, in the Thousand Gold Remedies, it was pointed out that cholera was caused by eating food which was contaminated and was not due to the evil influences of demons as generally believed by the public at that time. In the same book is mentioned the use of catheterisation for retention of urine. It is significant to note that the Medical Secrets of an Official as well as the Thousand Gold Remedies recommend the use of thyroid gland for the treatment of goitre.
Organotherapy, formerly much ridiculed by foreigners, but now hailed as a valuable modern discovery, has been known to every Chinese house-wife. The common practice of administering kidney for backache, lungs for consumption and cough, brain for nervous
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