It will readily be inferred, from the fhort view which has
been taken o f the ftate o f fociety, that the difeafe occafioned by
an unreftrained and protnifcuous intercourfe o f the fexes cannot
be very common in China. In fad , it is fcarcely known,
and the treatment o f it is fo little underftood, in the few cafes
which do occur, that it is allowed to work its way into the
fyftem, and is then confidered by them as an incurable leprofy.
On arriving at the northern extremity o f the province o f Canton,
one o f our condudorshad imprudently paffed the night in
one o f thofe houfes where, by the licenfe o f government, females
are allowed to proftitute their, perfons in order to gain a
livelihood. Here, it feems, he had caught the infedion, and
after fuffering a conliderable degree o f pain, and not lefs alarm,
he communicated to our phyfician the fymptoms o f his
complaint, o f the nature and caufe o f which he was entirely
ignorant. He was a man o f forty years, o f a vigorous donfti-
tution and a gay cheerful temper, and had ferved as an officer
in feveral campaigns from the different provinces o f northern
Tartary to the frontiers o f India, yet fuch a difeafe did not
eonfift with his knowledge. From this circumftance, and
many others o f a fimilar kind, I conclude that, although it may
fometimes make its appearance in the capital, and even here
but very rarely, it has originally, and no long time ago, found
its way thither through the ports o f Chu-fan, Canton, and
Macao, where numbers o f abandoned woman obtain their fub-
fiftence by felling their favours to fuch o f every nation as may
be difpofed to purchafe them. It is, in fad:, fometimes called
by the Chinefe the Canton-ulcer.
No
No male phyfician is ever allowed to prefcribe for pregnant
women; and they confider it fo great a breach o f delicacy for
a man to be in the fame room with a woman when in labour
that, whatever difficulties may occur, the cafe is left entirely to
the woman who attends her. There is not a man-midwife in
all China, and yet the want o f them does not appear to be injurious
to population. T h e y could fcarcely believe it poffible
that, in Europe, men fhould be allowed to pradife a profefiion
which, in their minds, belonged exclufively to the other fex.
As a due knowledge o f the organization o f the human body, o f
the powers and fundions o f the feveral parts, is attainable only
by the ftudy o f p radical anatomy, a ftudy that would fhock the
weak nerves o f a timid Chinefe, it will not be expeded that
their furgical operations fhould either be numerous or neatly
performed. The law indeed which I have had occafion to notice,
and the effeds produced by it in two or three inftances
that occurred to our knowledge, will fufficiently explain the
very low ebb o f chirurgical fkill. No one will readily undertake
to perform the mod fimple operation, where not only all
the dired confequences, but the contingencies for forty days
mult lie at his door. The y fometimes fucceed in reducing a
diflocation, and in fetting a fimple frad u re ; but in difficult
and complicate cafes, the patient is generally abandoned to
chance. Amputation is never pradifed. In the courfe o f our
whole journey, wherein we paffed through millions o f people,
I do not recoiled to have feen a fingle individual that had fuf-
tained the lofs o f a limb, and but very few in any way maimed;
from whence I conclude, that accidents are uncommon, or that
z z ferious