Text B Pharmacology
导 读
中国是医药文化发祥最早的国家之一。中医（Traditional Chinese Medicine）指中国传统医学，是研究人体生理、病理，以及疾病的诊断和防治等的一门学科。它承载着中国古代人民同疾病作斗争的经验和理论知识，是在古代朴素的唯物论和自发的辩证法思想指导下，通过长期医疗实践逐步形成并发展成的医学理论体系。
China was one of the first countries to have a medical culture.In comparison with Western medicine,the Chinese method takes a far different approach.With a history of 5,000 years,it has formed a deep and immense knowledge of medical science,theory,diagnostic methods,prescriptions and cures.
Four Methods of Diagnosis
It is a wonder that Chinese doctors could cure countless patients without any apparatus but only through a physical examination.The four methods of diagnosis consist of observation,auscultation and olfaction,interrogation,pulse taking and palpation.
Observation indicates that doctors directly watch the outward appearance to know a patient’s condition.As the exterior and interior corresponds immediately,when the inner organs run wrongly,it will be reflected through skin pallor,tongue,the facial sensory organs and some excrement.
Auscultation and olfaction is a way for doctors to collect messages through hearing the sound and smelling the odor.This is another reference for diagnosis.
Interrogation suggests that doctors question the patient and his relatives,so as to know the symptoms,evolution of the disease and previous treatments.
The taking of the pulse and palpation refers that doctors note the pulse condition of patients on the radial artery,and then to know the inner change of symptom.Doctors believe that when the organic function is normal,the pulse,frequency,and intension of pulse will be relatively stable,and when not,variant.
When treating a disease,doctors of traditional Chinese medicine usually find the patient’s condition through these four diagnostic methods: observation,auscultation and olfaction,interrogation,pulse taking and palpation.Combining the collected facts and according to their internal relations,doctors will utilize the dialectics to analyze the source and virtue of the disease.Then make sure what prescription should be given.In traditional Chinese medical science,the drugs are also different from the West,because doctors have discovered the medicinal effects of thousand of herbs over a long period of time.Before taking the medicine,the patient will have to boil it.Then there is the distinctive method of preparation,associated with the acupuncture and massage,the treatment will take effect magically.
Such a complicated medical science had come down thanks to records like The Yellow Emperor’s Canon of Interior Medicine,Shennong’s Canon of Herbs,and the Compendium of Materia Medica,which are all comprehensive and profound works.There are also wide-spread stories praising the experienced and notable doctors in ancient China like Hua Tuo in the Three Kingdoms Period (220—280).Today,though western medicine has been adopted,traditional treatments are still playing an important role and have raised great attention and interest worldwide due to the amazing curative effects reported.
Acupuncture (Zhen Jiu)
Acupuncture is the experiential summary undergoing the long-term struggle by the Chinese people.Actually it consists of two parts: operations with needles and ones with fire,both of them are essential and correlative during curing.
Operations with Needles
This field features the pricks of needles on acupuncture point (acupoint for short) to adjust the organic functions and clear the energy channels of obstruction in our body.
It is said that as early as the Stone Age,an ancestor whose hands ached might touch a stone by chance during work,then he felt better.Over time they improved the shape of stone to be sharp enough to knead; their blood circulation became more smooth and hastened recovery.
In ancient China,it was called “Bian Shu”,a treat method with stone needles which then evolved into the bone,bamboo,and metal.Now it is popular to use stainless steel and silver needles among the doctors of Chinese medicine.
The indications to the acupuncture are quite wide,including the frequently-occurring diseases of internal medicine,surgical medicine,paediatrics,gynaecology,dermatology,etc.This kind of treatment does not do any harm to the body nor has any side effect.Doctors handling the needle freely,it is rather convenient and comfortable because it needs no special condition or facilities,except the small and thin needles.So it is easy for patients to accept.
Operations with Fire
In Chinese language from the linguistic angle,the character Jiu that represents this kind of operations—moxibustion,has a pictographic element of fire,that is to say,this method of treatment must have a close relation with fire.
Its origin can also be dated back to the Eolithic age.People have supposed that,it is possible when a cooking housewife approached fire and found lenitive at the ache.Gradually it developed and added the medical herbs to fume and reach the physical health.
The methods in common use are moxibustion with moxa cone and cupping.For people who want to have a try with moxibustion,they are really worthy of praise for their courage.The principle of cupping lies in that,when the fire in the jar is burnt,heating power ejects the air out,and the negative pressure makes the jar stick to the skin,which causes the stasis of blood to stimulate and adjust the organ functions,the moxa cone can also have this effect.
Besides these traditional methods of moxibustion,people have now improved them to be more convenient and efficient.Such as microwave needle moxibustion,electronic needle moxibustion,acupoint injection,acupoint magnetotherapy,and so on.
Chinese Herbal Medicine
Chinese people have found thousands of plants and herbs associated with the treatment of ailments,so herbal medicine is really a large system.Doctors would analyze their nature or property such as “cold and hot” or “yin and yang”,utilize all sorts of raw materials,mixing them to cure disease.Thus the medicine is also different from the western medicine.
About the classification of herbal medicine,in the Compendium of Materia Medica by Li Shizhen in the Ming Dynasty (1368—1644),there are 1,892 types recorded,with detailed information.Today we can briefly divide them in about ten:
Roots: that means some specific plants’ roots can be used as medicine such as ginseng,Chinese gromwell,etc.
Rhizome: it includes dried ginger with hot nature for asthma and cold,Lily bulb with cold nature for insomnia and weakness,etc.
Other sorts are varied like leaf,flower,seeds,grass,and vines,and so on.
Of course these crude herbs cannot be eaten when put before you,—it needs your own hand to prepare,what patient take is a decoction of the herbs:
The quality of medicine is concerned immediately with the decocting jar,quantity of water,and the frequency of decoction.The doctor-recommending way for decoction is that,with a casserole and water amount should be controlled according to the nature of absorbing.Because the medicine bought from the chemist’s are usually dry,most of them need to be immersed into the water for 1～3 hours before decocting.The effect after 2 or 3 times’ decoction is better than once.
Words & Expressions
1.pallor['pælə] n.苍白（尤指脸色）；青白；灰白
2.excrement['ekskrimənt] n.粪便；排泄物
3.auscultation[，ɔːskəl'teiʃən] n.［临床］听诊
4.olfaction[ɔl'fækʃən] n.嗅觉
5.palpation n.触诊；扪诊
6.radial artery［解剖］桡动脉；桡骨动脉
7.dialectics[daiə'lektiks] n.辩证法；辩证逻辑
8.curative effect 疗效
9.prick[prik] n.刺；扎；刺痛；刺伤
10.acupuncture point 穴位；穴道
11.knead[niːd] vt.糅合；揉捏；按摩；捏制
12.blood circulation 血液循环；血循环
13.paediatrics[，piːdi'ætriks] n.儿科学
14.gynaecology[，ɡaini'kɔlədʒi] n.妇科医学
15.dermatology[，dəːmə'tɔlədʒi] n.皮肤医学；［皮肤］皮肤病学
16.moxibustion[，mɔksi'bʌstʃən] n.艾灸
17.pictographic[，piktə'græfik] adj.象形文字的；绘画文字的
18.eolithic[，iːəu'liθik] adj.原始石器时代的
19.lenitive['lenitiv] n.缓和剂；润泽药
adj.缓和的；减轻痛苦的
20.fume[fjuːm] vi.冒烟；发怒
vt.熏；冒烟；愤怒地说
n.烟；愤怒；烦恼
21.moxa cone 艾炷
22.cupping['kʌpiŋ] n.拔火罐；杯吸法
23.acupoint magnetotherapy 磁穴疗法
24.ailments n.疾病；小病（ailment复数形式）
25.ginseng['dʒinseŋ] n.高丽参；人参
26.gromwell['ɡrɔmwəl] n.紫草属植物（尤指药用紫草）
27.rhizome['raizəum] n.根茎；［植］地下茎
28.dried ginger 干姜块
29.asthma['æsmə，'æz-] n.［内科］［中医］哮喘；气喘
30.decoct[di'kɔkt] vt.煎；熬
31.casserole['kæsərəul] n.勺皿；砂锅菜；餐桌上用有盖的焙盘
Notes
1.The Yellow Emperor’s Canon of Interior Medicine（黄帝内经）：It is an ancient Chinese medical text that has been treated as the fundamental doctrinal source for Chinese medicine for more than two millennia.It is comparable in importance to the Hippocratic Corpus in Greek medicine or the works of Galen in Islamic and medieval European medicine.The work is composed of two texts each of eighty-one chapters or treatises in a question-and-answer format between the mythical Huangdi （Yellow Emperor） and six of his equally legendary ministers.
2.Shennong’s Canon of Herbs （神农本草经）：The earliest Chinese manual of materia medica，was compiled in the first century A.D.during the Han dynasty，but it was attributed to the mythical Shennong.It lists some 365 medicines of which 252 are herbs.
3.Compendium of Materia Medica（本草纲目）：Also known as The Ben Cao Gang Mu，it is a Chinese materia medica work written by Li Shizhen in the Ming Dynasty.It is a work epitomizing materia medica in the Ming Dynasty.The Ben Cao Gang Mu is regarded as the most complete and comprehensive medical book ever written in the history of traditional Chinese medicine.It lists all the plants，animals，minerals，and other items that were believed to have medicinal properties.
Exercises
I.Match each of the words on the left with its meaning on the right.
1.pallor a.to press something,especially a mixture for making bread,firmly and repeatedly with the hands and fingers
2.prick b.an illness
3.knead c.to be very angry,sometimes without expressing it
4.ailment d.the state of being very pale
5.fume e.to make a very small hole or holes in the surface of something,sometimes in a way which causes pain
II.Translate the following phrases into Chinese.
1.acupuncture point
2.blood circulation
3.curative effects
4.Compendium of Materia Medica
5.dried ginger
III.Translate the following sentences into Chinese.
1.With a history of 5,000 years,it has formed a deep and immense knowledge of medical science,theory,diagnostic methods,prescriptions and cures.
2.The four methods of diagnosis consist of observation,auscultation and olfaction,interrogation,pulse taking and palpation.
3.Today,though western medicine has been adopted,traditional treatments are still playing an important role and have raised great attention and interest worldwide due to the amazing curative effects reported.
4.In Chinese language from the linguistic angle,the character Jiu that represents this kind of operations—moxibustion,has a pictographic element of fire,that is to say,this method of treatment must have a close relation with fire.
5.The quality of medicine is concerned immediately with the decocting jar,quantity of water,and the frequency of decoction.