ne for sickness but none for fate." "Medicine," says the
Chinese proverb, "cures the man who is fated not to die." "When Yenwang
(the King of Hell) has decreed a man to die at the third watch, no power
will detain him till the fifth."

The professional knowledge of a Chinese doctor largely consists in
ability to feel the pulse, or rather the innumerable pulses of his
Chinese patient. This is the real criterion of his skill. The pulses of
a Chinaman vary in a manner that no English doctor can conceive of. For
instance, among the seven kinds of pulse which presage approaching
death, occur the five following:--

"1. When the pulse is perceived under the fingers to bubble irregularly
like water over a great fire, if it be in the morning, the patient will
die in the evening.

"2. Death is no farther off if the pulse seems like a fish whose head is
stopped in such a manner that he cannot move, but has a frisking tail
without any regularity; the cause of this distemper lies in the kidneys.

"3. If the pulse seems like drops of water that fall into a room through
some crack, and when in its return it is scattered and disordered much
like the twine of a cord which is unravelled, the bones are dried up
even to the very marrow.

"4. Likewise if the motion of the pulse resembles the pace of a frog
when he is embarrassed in the weeds, death is certain.

"5. If the motion of the pulse resembles the hasty pecking of the beak
of a bird, there is a defect of spirits in the stomach."

Heredity is the most important factor in the evolution of a doctor in
China, success in his career as an "hereditary physician" being
specially assured to him who has the good fortune to make his first
appearance in the world feet foremost. Doctors dispense their own
medicines. In their shops you see an amazing variety of drugs; you will
occasionally also see tethered a live stag, which on a certain day, to
be decided by the priests, will be pounded whole in a pestle and mortar.
"Pills manufactured out of a whole stag slaughtered with purity of
purpose on a propitious day," is a common announcement in dispensaries
in China. The wall of a doctor's shop is usually stuck all over with
disused plasters returned by grateful patients with complimentary
testimonies to their efficiency; they have done what England is alleged
to expect of all her sons--their duty.

Medicines, it is known to all Chinamen, operate variously according to
their taste, thus:--"A