Page:The growth of medicine from the earliest times to about 1800.djvu/63

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to rejoin his ancestors. About the year 1700 A. D. the Emperor Kang-Hi made the attempt to incorporate anatomy as a part of the regular study of medicine in the Chinese Empire; his first step being the authorization of P. Perennin, a Jesuit Father, to translate Dionis' work on anatomy into the Chinese. His efforts were, however, unsuccessful, owing to the strong opposition offered by the native physicians. And the attempts made during more recent times to accomplish the desired reform by introducing copies of European anatomical illustrations do not appear, as yet, to have produced any appreciable impression. In very recent years, however, the medical missionaries, sent out, if I am rightly informed, from the United States, are giving excellent instruction in anatomy.

Physiology, as taught by the Chinese, is something beyond the comprehension of modern Europeans. Neuburger explains their views in the following manner: "The cosmos is the product of the combined action of two dissimilar forces—the male (Yâng) and the female (Yin). When these forces work in harmony a state of equilibrium results. . . . Matter consists of five elements, viz., wood, fire, earth, metal, and water; and all things are composed of these elements. In sympathetic relationship with these five elements stand the five planets (Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, Venus, Mercury), the five different kinds of air (wind, heat, moisture, dryness, cold), the five quarters of the globe (east, south, west, north and the equator), the five periods of the year (in addition to the four which we recognize, the Chinese make a fifth period out of the last eighteen days of spring, summer, autumn and winter), the five times of day, the five colors (green or blue, red, yellow, white and black), the five musical tones, etc. . . . As in the cosmos, so in man the two primeval forces—Yâng and Yin—underlie all his vital processes. Thus, his body is made up of the five elements of which all matter is composed, and health depends upon the maintenance of a state of equilibrium between the male and the female forces, etc." After this brief exposition it seems unneces-