In matters of medicine[54] he felt more at home, especially as two of the Japanese doctors could speak Dutch,—one of them tolerably well. They also had some knowledge of natural history, collected partly from Chinese and Dutch books, and partly from the Dutch physicians who had visited Yedo, but who frequently had not been very well able to instruct them, as they were often, to use Thunberg’s expression, “little better than horse-doctors.” One of the two Japanese, quite a young man, was the emperor’s body-physician; the other, somewhat older and better informed, was physician to one of the chief princes. Both were good-natured, acute, and lively. They attached themselves to Thunberg with great zeal, coming to see him every day, and often staying late at night. Though wearisome with their questions, yet so insinuating were they in their manners and anxious to learn, that our traveller found much pleasure in their society. They had a number of Dutch works on botany, medicine, and surgery, and Thunberg sold them some others. They were particularly struck with the fine set of surgical instruments which he had brought from Amsterdam and Paris. These medical friends were of great use to him in his studies in natural history. Among the botanical specimens which they brought him were the pine of Europe (_Pinus abies_), of which, as well as of the _Pinus silvestris_, he had seen several on his journey to court, the chestnut, which he saw afterwards at Miyako, on his return, and the walnut (_Jugulans nigra_). They also brought him a variety of ores and minerals, and specimens of fishes and insects. [Illustration: SCENES AMONG THE SILK WORKERS: REELING; THE CULTURE OF THE WORMS] The Japanese, he found, knew nothing of anatomy or physiology. They were ignorant of the circulation of the blood, feeling the pulse for a quarter of an hour, first in one arm and then in the other, not knowing that both beat alike. Bleeding they very seldom practised; of the use of mercury they knew nothing; and, notwithstanding what Thunberg relates of the cures effected under his direction, by the use of corrosive sublimate, it may be doubted how much benefit he conferred by the introduction of that remedy, or by the present which he made to his “beloved pupils” of “his silver-spring lancet,” with instructions how to use it.