Abstract
REMEDIES derived from the animal kingdom bulk large in the old Chinese literature, and three instalments dealing with this Chinese materia medica, compiled by Mr. Bernard E. Read, assisted by Chinese scholars, have been published by the Peking Natural History Bulletin. The first instalment, containing the ‘animal drugs', and the second the ‘avian drugs', were issued some time ago, and now the third dealing with ‘dragon and snake drugs' has been published (“Chinese Materia Medica”. 7: “Dragon and Snake Drugs”. By Bernard E. Read. Pp. 66 + 6 plates. Peiping: The French Bookstore, 1934. 1.50 dollars). Besides products derived from snakes, crocodiles, lizards and others, preparations from the fossilised bones of gigantic extinct saurians are included. Attempts are made to identify the creatures mentioned in the old works, and a Chinese index is appended. The whole forms a scholarly work of considerable interest and importance.
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Native Chinese Drugs of Animal Origin. Nature 135, 503 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1038/135503c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/135503c0