The Health Exhibition literature. Vol. XIX : Return of number of visitors and statistical tables. Official guide. Guide to the sanitary and insanitary houses. Handbook to the aquarium and fish culture department. Anthropometric laboratory. Public health in China. National education in China. Diet, dress, and dwellings of the Chinese in relation to health.

  • International Health Exhibition (1884 : London, England)
Date:
1884
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Health Exhibition literature. Vol. XIX : Return of number of visitors and statistical tables. Official guide. Guide to the sanitary and insanitary houses. Handbook to the aquarium and fish culture department. Anthropometric laboratory. Public health in China. National education in China. Diet, dress, and dwellings of the Chinese in relation to health. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    to have peculiar strengthening, sustaining, and restorative, properties. Cows’ milk is not drunk, for much the same' reason that its flesh is not eaten, one of the additional] reasons adduced being its supposed phlogistic or heatingj character. In Peking alone, perhaps of all the great cities^ of Northern China, are cows to be seen, tied along wittf their calves, on the streets in large numbers. Veal cannot be had, as the young animals are considered necessary^ during the year in which the dams give milk, to enable the milker to deceive the cow, and so extract the lacteal! secretion in larger quantity for the preparation of the I article mentioned below. Indeed, when a calf dies, the mother is killed, no attempt being made to milk the cow i afterwards. Whatever may be said to the contrary as re^ gards foreign cows, the Chinese believe the practice to b^ necessary with regard to the Mongol breed, which is the^ only breed used in North China. It is said of the mother yak in Thibet that she is so fond of her young that when it is taken from her she will not give any more milk. A calf once died, and the cow (on hire in the family of the writer) was to be taken away to be sold. I undertook the respon- sibility of continuing to milk her as usual. A wet cloth was used to swab the teats to deceive the cow, with the fortunate result that as much, if not more, milk than previously was obtained ; but shortly afterwards, having occasion to remove from the country into Peking, the cow was changed, and the calfless cow killed. Proximity to Mongolia, the comparative cheapness of cows there, the rarity of and consequent demand for beef by foreigners in the capital, may render it less necessary to be careful about cows. The market is regularly supplied with new cows in the beginning of winter in view of the demand for lau in the following summer. The Thibetans are wiser with regard to their yaks than the Chinese with their Mongol cows. Could not the Chinese follow the example of the Thibetans, their tributary people, who lay a foot of the young yak before the mother, and while she licks it her thoughts are taken up, and she is content and gives her