Neike Chanwei 內科闡微 [The Essentials of Internal Medicine in Chinese] 羊城博濟醫局藏板, 1873

Extremely scarce original Tongzhi edition

Orig wrappers, large 8vo (24x14.3cm) 羊城博濟醫局藏板, The Canton Hospital. 同治十二年, 1873. Extremely scarce original Tongzhi edition.

An early and significant synthesis of Western medical knowledge for Chinese readers, Neike Chanwei (內科闡微) stands among the first systematic treatises on internal medicine written in classical Chinese according to Western scientific principles. The work was orally dictated by Dr. John Glasgow Kerr (嘉約翰, 1824–1901), the American Presbyterian missionary and superintendent of the Canton Hospital (Boji Yiyuan 博濟醫院), and transcribed by his Chinese assistant Lin Xiangdong (林湘東).

The book opens with prefaces by Lin Xiangdong and John Glasgow Kerr, the texts beautifully handwritten by Lin and finely woodblock-printed.

Structured in concise, essay-style chapters, the work covers a wide range of internal diseases and diagnostic methods, including observation of the face and tongue, ear and eye disorders, respiratory symptoms such as cough, dyspnea, and asthma, digestive and urinary conditions, and circulatory and nervous system disorders. It also introduces the fundamental Western diagnostic techniques of inspection, auscultation, percussion, and pulse examination, with detailed discussions of heart sounds, lung resonance, and abdominal organs—concepts then entirely new to Chinese medicine.

Neike Chanwei reflects Kerr’s long experience treating patients in South China and his efforts to adapt Western medical teaching to Chinese linguistic and cultural contexts. Its terminology includes some of the earliest translations of Western anatomical and pathological concepts into Chinese, making the work a landmark in the transmission of modern medical science during the late Qing dynasty.

Front wrapper of two-layer paper; upper layer with minor loss and small tears. Back wrapper slightly repaired. Otherwise in very good condition.

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