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the evolution of modern medicine-第11章

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 him auspicious days and hours。

Two or three special points may be referred to。  The doctrine of the pulse reached such extraordinary development that the whole practice of the art centred round its different characters。 There were scores of varieties; which in complication and detail put to confusion the complicated system of some of the old Graeco…Roman writers。  The basic idea seems to have been that each part and organ had its own proper pulse; and just as in a stringed instrument each chord has its own tone; so in the human body; if the pulses were in harmony; it meant health; if there was discord; it meant disease。  These Chinese views reached Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; and there is a very elaborate description of them in Floyer's well…known book。'27' And the idea of harmony in the pulse is met with into the eighteenth century。

'27' Sir John Floyer:  The Physician's Pulse Watch; etc。; London; 1707。


Organotherapy was as extensively practiced in China as in Egypt。 Parts of organs; various secretions and excretions are very commonly used。  One useful method of practice reached a remarkable development; viz。; the art of acupuncturethe thrusting of fine needles more or less deeply into the affected part。 There are some 388 spots on the body in which acupuncture could be performed; and so well had long experience taught them as to the points of danger; that the course of the arteries may be traced by the tracts that are avoided。 The Chinese practiced inoculation for smallpox as early as the eleventh century。

Even the briefest sketch of the condition of Chinese medicine leaves the impression of the appalling stagnation and sterility that may afflict a really intelligent people for thousands of years。 It is doubtful if they are today in a very much more advanced condition than were the Egyptians at the time when the Ebers Papyrus was written。 From one point of view it is an interesting experiment; as illustrating the state in which a people may remain who have no knowledge of anatomy; physiology or pathology。

Early Japanese medicine has not much to distinguish it from the Chinese。  At first purely theurgic; the practice was later characterized by acupuncture and a refined study of the pulse。 It has an extensive literature; largely based upon the Chinese; and extending as far back as the beginning of the Christian era。 European medicine was introduced by the Portuguese and the Dutch; whose 〃factory〃 or 〃company〃 physicians were not without influence upon practice。  An extraordinary stimulus was given to the belief in European medicine by a dissection made by Mayeno in 1771 demonstrating the position of the organs as shown in the European anatomical tables; and proving the Chinese figures to be incorrect。 The next day a translation into Japanese of the anatomical work of Kulmus was begun; and from its appearance in 1773 may be dated the commencement of reforms in medicine。 In 1793; the work of de Gorter on internal medicine was translated; and it is interesting to know that before the so…called 〃opening of Japan〃 many European works on medicine had been published。 In 1857; a Dutch medical school was started in Yedo。  Since the political upheaval in 1868; Japan has made rapid progress in scientific medicine; and its institutions and teachers are now among the best known in the world。'28'

'28' See Y。 Fujikawa; Geschichte der Medizin in Japan; Tokyo; 1911。



CHAPTER II

GREEK MEDICINE

OGRAIAE gentis decus! let us sing with Lucretius; one of the great interpreters of Greek thought。  How grand and how true is his paean!

 Out of the night; out of the blinding night Thy beacon flashes;hail; beloved light Of Greece and Grecian; hail; for in the mirk Thou cost reveal each valley and each height。

Thou art my leader; and the footprints shine; Wherein I plant my own。。。。

 * * * * *

The world was shine to read; and having read; Before thy children's eyes thou didst outspread The fruitful page of knowledge; all the wealth Of wisdom; all her plenty for their bread。

'Bk。 III。Translated by D。 A。 Slater。'


Let us come out of the murky night of the East; heavy with phantoms; into the bright daylight of the West; into the company of men whose thoughts made our thoughts; and whose ways made our waysthe men who first dared to look on nature with the clear eyes of the mind。

Browning's famous poem; 〃Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came;〃 is an allegory of the pilgrimage of man through the dark places of the earth; on a dismal path beset with demons; and strewn with the wreckage of generations of failures。 In his ear tolled the knell of all the lost adventurers; his peers; all lost; lost within sight of the dark Tower itself

The round squat turret; blind as the fool's heart; Built of brown stone; without a counterpart In the whole world。

lost in despair at an all…encircling mystery。  Not so the Greek Childe Roland who set the slug…horn to his lips and blew a challenge。  Neither Shakespeare nor Browning tells us what happened; and the old legend; Childe Roland; is the incarnation of the Greek spirit; the young; light…hearted master of the modern world; at whose trumpet blast the dark towers of ignorance; superstition and deceit have vanished into thin air; as the baseless fabric of a dream。  Not that the jeering phantoms have flown! They still beset; in varied form; the path of each generation; but the Achaian Childe Roland gave to man self…confidence; and taught him the lesson that nature's mysteries; to be solved; must be challenged。 On a portal of one of the temples of Isis in Egypt was carved: 〃I am whatever hath been; is; or ever will be; and my veil no man has yet lifted。〃

The veil of nature the Greek lifted and herein lies his value to us。 What of this Genius?  How did it arise among the peoples of the AEgean Sea?  Those who wish to know the rock whence science was hewn may read the story told in vivid language by Professor Gomperz in his 〃Greek Thinkers;〃 the fourth volume of which has recently been published (Murray; 1912; Scribner; 1912)。 In 1912; there was published a book by one of the younger Oxford teachers; 〃The Greek Genius and Its Meaning to Us;〃'1' from which those who shrink from the serious study of Gomperz' four volumes may learn something of the spirit of Greece。  Let me quote a few lines from his introduction:

'1' By R。 W。 Livingstone; Clarendon Press; Oxford; 1912 '2d ed。; revised; 1915'。


〃Europe has nearly four million square miles; Lancashire has 1;700; Attica has 700。  Yet this tiny country has given us an art which we; with it and all that the world has done since it for our models; have equalled perhaps; but not surpassed。  It has given us the staple of our vocabulary in every domain of thought and knowledge。  Politics; tyranny; democracy; anarchism; philosophy; physiology; geology; historythese are all Greek words。  It has seized and up to the present day kept hold of our higher education。  It has exercised an unfailing fascination; even on minds alien or hostile。  Rome took her culture thence。 Young Romans completed their education in the Greek schools。。。。 And so it was with natures less akin to Greece than the Roman。 St。 Paul; a Hebrew o
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