Chinese Medical Practise by A. C. Selmon

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 4, 1907

Chinese Medical Practise

By A. C. Selmon

There is hardly a disease in the whole category that the Chinese doctor will not treat by sticking a needle in some part of the body. For example, a needle is stuck in the back of the hand to cure the toothache, in the wrist to cure malaria, in the elbow to cure a pain in the shoulder, in the temple to control inflammation in the eye, and, in fact, there is hardly a spot in the body that is not mentioned in thier medical books as a place to stick a needle in case of sickness of any kind.

It is needless to say that many lives are sacrificed as a result of this barbarous practise. Several cases have come to our notice in which new-born infants have had needles stuck in the tongue repeatedly to cure digestive disturbance, and death almost always results.

The needles used are of iron or silver, and vary in length according to the place they are to be used. For example, in sticking the leg a needle three or four inches long is used, and it is stuck in the leg at a depth of two inches, and in sticking the wrist a shorter needle is used, and it is penetrated to a depth of three fourths of an inch.

The native doctor is not troubled about germs, for he has never even heard that any such things exist, so before plunging in the needle he will rub it on his dirty hair, to oil it and make the needle penetrate easier. We have had many cases of blindness come to the dispensary that have resulted from sticking the needle into the eye. The needle is stuck into the eye either to remove a scar on the eye or in case of cataract.

In surgery the native doctor is a veritable butcher. This is due to the fact that the ordinary Chinese doctor is afraid to do any cutting, and those who are bold enough to do it are always of the reckless kind. One of this kind lives near our mission station, and some of his work has come to my attention. A patient who had a slight growth on the eyeball came to him. The native doctor had just been out in his poppy patch, cutting gashes in the poppy pods to cause the opium juice to exude. With the knife he had been using to gash the poppy pods, he at once proceeded to cut the growth from the man's eye. The knife being only a blunt piece of iron, he soon tore a large hole that allowed the whole contents of the eyeball to run out. Another of his cases was a woman with a large abscess in her breast. To open this he used a broken piece of the blade of a hoe that he had sharpened for the purpose.

A common method used in vaccinating is to take the scab from one child's arm to vaccinate another child. As they never take the trouble to wash the arm, and in addition tear the scab off with their long finger-nail, it is needless to say that the vaccination rather succeeds in making a large disagreeable sore.

A. C. SELMON, M. D.

Siang Cheng, via Hankow, China.