Japan and the Japanese

410 JAPAN. A. 1). 1773 177C.
of the Japanese doctors could speak Dutch one of them tolerably
well. They also had some knowledge of natural history, collected
partly from Chinese and Dutch hooks, and partly from the Dutch
physicians who had visited Jedo, but who frequently had not been
very well able to instruct them, as they were often, to use Tliiin-
berg's expression, " little better than horse-doctors." One of the
two Japanese, quite a young man, was the emperor's body-physi-
cian; the other, somewhat older and better informed, was physician
to one of the chief princes. Both were good-natured, acute and lively.
They attached themselves to Thunberg with great zeal, coming to
see him every day, and often staying late at night. Though weari-
some with their questions, yet so insinuating were they in their man-
ners and anxious to learn, that our traveller found much pleasure
in their society. They had a number of Dutch works on botany,
medicine and surgery, and Thunberg sold them some others. They
were particularly struck with the tine set of surgical instruments
which he had brought from Amsterdam and Paris. These medical
friends were of great use to him in his studies in natural history.
Among the botanical specimens which they brought him were the
pine of Kurope (Pim/s abics), of which, as well as of the Pinus
SJlcestris, he had seen several on his journey to court, the chestnut,
which he saw afterwards at Miuko, on his return, and the walnut
(Juyidans niyra}. They also brought him a variety of ores and
minerals, and specimens of fishes and insects.
The Japanese, he found, knew nothing of anatomy or physiology.
They were ignorant of the circulation of the blood, feeling the
pulse for a quarter of an hour, first in one arm and then in the
other, not knowing that both beat alike. Bleeding they very seldom
practised ; of the use of mercury they knew nothing ; and,
notwithstanding what Thunberg
relates of the cures effected under
his direction, by the use of corrosive sublimate, it may
be doubted
now much benefit he conferred by the introduction of that remedy,
or by the present which he made to his " beloved pupils" of "his
diver-spring lancet," with instructions how to use it.
The two great remedies of the Japanese are acupuncture and
burning with the moxa, the former chiefly practised in a violent
colic endemic to the country. According to the Japanese Mieory,
t is caused by wind, and to let out this wind several sina 1 holes