On the early history of syphilis in China / by George Thin.

  • Thin, George.
Date:
1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the early history of syphilis in China / by George Thin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    lust There akeady existed a specific name for the disease in the time of the Sung dynasty, but from a sentiment of modesty, the authors call it by the general term of the'''^TSn. M^.n ^ In the first Tang dynasty, a medical writer, named bun bz Miao, wi-ote a book entitled, A Thousand Prescriptions Golden and Precious. In the same period, an author, named Wang iao, wrote An Authoritative Collection of Prescriptions. Both these authors speak of the chancre as the jealous semen nicer. Ihe Chinese name thus rendered is composed of three characters, whose sound is rendered tu, ohing, chwang; tu jealous, ching semen, and cJiwana ulcer. This name was given to it m accordance with the theory of its production at that time believed, namely, that when a woman had connexion with two men, the semen from the one was iealous of that from the other succeeding in producing impregnation, and thus rendering void its own chance of producing this result.^ In the dynasty of Sung, Tow Han K'ing, the court physician, during the eleventh century of our era, published a work m thirteen books, entitled, A Complete Encyclopedia of Cutaneous Diseases. (A new edition of this work was published in 1717.) He speaks of the chancre as the mould nicer. We find in the name he gives it the origin of the modern term for a bubo. The character he uses sounds mei, and means mould. The modern name for chancre is the i/ang mei ulcer. The mei here used is the same m sound as that translated mould, but is written differently, and is represented by a character which means a p^une. The word mei, being in common use in the spoken language, became confounded in its meaning with another word of the same sound, and in course of time was superseded in written language by another character which, though it has the same sound, presents to the eye another idea. This transposition of character, which is common in the Chinese language, and the want of sufficient erudition caused the medical writers of the Ming dynasty, A.D. 1368-1643, to confound secondary symptoms with common ulcers, and explains their being ignorant of the disease as described by the old authors above quoted. But we find that tradition had transmitted to them the use of the same remedies. Sun Sz Miao, in his Thousand Prescriptions, Golden and Precious, quoted above, gives, as a curative application to the jealous semen ulcer, broiled honey, mixed vnth. kan tsao (glycyrrhiza glabra) powder. We find the writers of the Ming dynasty recommending the same treatment for chancre. The vagueness of the ancient terms may have helped to mislead them. The earliest writers we have seen above include syphilis under the term fung. After the jealous semen ulcer had found its way into type, it was still more respectful to general taste to use tlie vaguer term. The name for leprosy is ma fung, and hence a confusion of the meanings of the three terms, jealous semen ulcer, fung, and ma fung. ' Sun Sz Miao died a.d. 682, upwards of 100 years old, eg that he was bom in the Suy dynasty, which preceded the Tang.