Democratic Sentinel, Volume 3, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 May 1879 — Chinese Medicines. [ARTICLE]

Chinese Medicines.

The larvte of beetles and other insects are used medicinally to give strength to feeble children; dried toads are taken to give tone to the system; caterpillar sirup is a specific for bronchitis ; and for small-pox the skins of snakes and scorpions, dried and powdered, are considered efficient remedies. The horns of the rhinoceros, the bones of tigers, the paws of bears, and the wings of bats all have a place in the Chinese pharmacopoeia. The body of the bat eaten is said to prolong life; to partake of the white bat is believed to be to protract one’s existence beyond that of the aged Methuselah. A simple remedy, containing well-known ingredients, is nothing thought of by a patient, and the doctors seem to be quite of the same mind.— New York Evening Poet.