lanced by a foreign surgeon, and sent him a flowery letter of thanks
with a couple of Chinese hams after the operation. The Chinese as a
people laugh at our medical science, and, we are bound to say, with
some show of justice on their side. They have a medical literature of
considerable extent, and though we may condemn it wholesale as a
farrago of utter nonsense, it is not so to the Chinese, who fondly
regard their knowledge in this branch of science as one among many
precious heirlooms which has come down to them from times of the
remotest antiquity.

We alluded in the last Sketch to a work in eight small volumes called
"New Collection of Tried Prescriptions," a book which answers to our
"Domestic Medicine," and professes to supply well-authenticated
remedies for some of the most common ills that flesh is heir to. This
book gives a fair idea of the principles and practice of medical
science in China. It is divided into sections and subdivided into
chapters under such headings as the _eye_, the _teeth_, the _hand_,
the _leg_, &c. &c. We gave a specimen of the prescriptions herein
brought together in our late remarks upon the methods of extracting
teeth, but it would be doing an injustice to the learning of its
author if we omitted to point out that in this book remedies are
provided, not only for such simple complaints as chilblains or the
stomach-ache, but for all kinds of serious complications arising from
the evil influence of demons or devils. One whole chapter is devoted
to "Extraordinary Diseases," and teaches anxious relatives to give
instant relief in cases of "the face swelling as big as a peck
measure, and little men three feet long appearing in the eyes."
"Seeing one thing as if it were two," would hardly be classed by
London doctors as an extraordinary disease, and is not altogether
unknown even amongst foreigners in China. "Seeing things upside down