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0185 Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.2
Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.2 / Page 185 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000213
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to a sort of medical note-book (Fig. 119, 8). Some of
them contain 'case records' and prescriptions for particular
patients, others general recipes for men or ailing animals,
mostly with special mention of the physicians with whom
they originated. As a sample, I may mention the record
left by the medical attendant 'Mr. An-kuo' of his twentieth
consultation in the sad case of 'Mr. An Tien-hui,' who,
having been benumbed with cold and in consequence
tumbled out of his car, had injured himself internally,
and who even after thirty days of treatment still suffered
in his chest and extremities.

Of the great mass of records, which comprise chiefly
reports, orders, and miscellaneous memos of military
administration along the Limes, it is impossible to
mention here more than a few. Thus, in a 'circular to
the posts of the Yü-mên Barrier,' a sectional commander
regrets to acknowledge the absence of certain soldiers at
the time of the official inspection, and gives due warn-
ing of the punishments to be awarded in such cases.
The 'I-tsou Company' here specified appears to have
garrisoned this post right through the period covered by
the records. Elsewhere we hear of difficulties about
effective signalling, the distribution of duties among the
men at the actual watch-posts, and such like.

A very interesting find, the archaeological importance
of which has only been realized since M. Chavannes'
interpretation, was a narrow strip of strongly woven
cream-coloured silk bearing a line of Chinese characters
inked in. This states precisely the length, weight, and
price of a bale of silk, from the edge of which it had
been torn off. The name of the place of manufacture,
Yen-ch'êng, a locality in Shan-tung, serves to fix the date
of its production at the close of the first, or in the early
part of the second, century A.D. But what I greeted with
particular interest is the statement there made of the
width of the silk piece, viz. two feet and two inches. We
know that the Chinese foot, with its decimal division into
ten inches, has varied very considerably under succeeding
dynasties. But when at the British Museum I came to
measure up this very strip of silk with the bootmaker's