Insects used in Chinese medicine / by Bernard E. Read.

  • B. E. Read
Date:
[1940]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Insects used in Chinese medicine / by Bernard E. Read. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    in the “Sheng Hui Fang” which orders, one atlas-beetle (classed by the Chinese with the scarab) mixed with two ozs of lard, one garlic1 bulb, a handful of onions and the tips of fifth moon dumplings. At dawn on the 5th day of the 5th moon in a quiet spot, bareheaded, barefooted, the tongue raised to the roof of the mouth and facing north, one pounds this mixture into 1,000 pills. Each pill is wrapped in new cotton cloth and tied on the upper arm, men on the left, women on the right, to cure malaria. In other uses one can see local origin, such as spiders for dry cholera which is based on the incident of a Sung official Tsai Mo who dreamt that his relative Chang Chia was sick with dry cholera and he dreamt that spiders were the only remedy. He immediately sent a messenger to inquire about his relative’s health and found that he had died before the dream took place, so he regarded this remedy as a supernatural revelation for the benefit of others. Some of the uses of the spider were so cosmopolitan that at present it is not possible to see where they originated. The webs applied to bleeding wounds as a styptic survives in the English slums today. The web of the garden spider collected on the 5th day of the 5th moon, tied to the body in a bag without the wearer knowing it was said to keep off malaria. Dioscorides by a similar procedure claimed to cure malaria. The treatment of scorpion stings is flavoured with the Chinese yin-yang theory. The sting of male scorpions is said to be localised and treated with mud from the bottom of a well. The female of the species is more virulent; the sting is said to spread over a large area and mud from under the roof tiles must be applied. The use of the cicada to remove films over the eye for difficult childbirth and expulsion of the placenta is said to depend on the fact that this insect casts its skin. The use of powdered dried horse flies snuffed into the nose to cure recurved eyelashes was introduced in the 16th century and undoubt¬ edly comes from Galen and even possibly Egypt, where there were so many remedies of this kind. Horse flies suck the blood of horses, so in medicine they are used to relieve congestion and remove extravasated blood, on the same principle, it says, as woodpeckers always pecking grubs out of tree trunks when administered in pills can pick out the worms from carious teeth which are said to cause toothache. Worms in the teeth as a cause of toothache goes back to the earliest Assyrian records. The longhorn beetle is known as ^ 41 (“heavenly cow”) because the horns are like a water buffalo’s. The poet Su Tung-po poked fun at such a name for he says they had two horns, but they are lazy creatures, not hard workers like the buffalo, and only bore into mul¬ berry trees and wither them. Their use for severe convulsions in infants and as a cosmetic appears to be of local origin. The uses of fireflies and glow-worms date back to the earliest records which appear to have been copied by old Europe. They were said to clarify the sight, because of their light at night. This same quality kept away demons and all diseases like infections attributed to devils such as plague. The Taoists extended the idea to protection from tigers and wolves, bees and scorpions, thieves and bandits.
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