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  A TREATISE

  ON

  ACUPUNCTURATION, &c.


  DEDICATED, BY PERMISSION,

  TO

  ASTLEY COOPER, ESQ. F. R. S.


  Plummer and Brewis, Printers, Love Lane, Eastcheap.


[Illustration: ACUPUNCTURATION NEEDLES.]




  A TREATISE

  ON

  ACUPUNCTURATION;


  BEING

  A DESCRIPTION OF A SURGICAL OPERATION ORIGINALLY PECULIAR
  TO THE JAPONESE AND CHINESE, AND BY THEM
  DENOMINATED

  ZIN-KING,

  _Now introduced into European Practice_,

  WITH

  DIRECTIONS FOR ITS PERFORMANCE,

  AND

  CASES ILLUSTRATING ITS SUCCESS.


  BY

  _JAMES MORSS CHURCHILL_,

  MEMBER OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS IN LONDON.


  _LONDON_:

  PUBLISHED BY SIMPKIN AND MARSHALL,

  STATIONER’S COURT;

  SOLD BY E. COX AND SON, ST. THOMAS’S STREET; J. CALLOW,
  PRINCE’S STREET, SOHO; MESSRS. UNDERWOOD, FLEET STREET;
  BURGESS AND HILL, WINDMILL STREET; AND J. COX, BERNERS STREET,
  OXFORD STREET.


  TO

  ASTLEY COOPER, ESQ.


  THE STEADY FRIEND AND PATRON OF HUMBLE MERIT,

  THE AUTHOR RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBES

  THIS LITTLE TREATISE;

  LESS FROM PRESUMPTION OF ITS DESERVING

  HIS APPROBATION,

  THAN

  AS A MARK OF RESPECT

  FOR SPLENDID ACQUIREMENTS,

  AND OF

  GRATITUDE,

  TOWARDS A GREAT MASTER.




TREATISE

ON

ACUPUNCTURATION.




_Preliminary Remarks._


If the medical profession merit the reproach, of being easily deluded
into an admiration of novelty, then I need use no apology for
introducing the following pages to notice, nor will my subject stand in
need of prefatory allurements to obtain attention; but if on the other
hand, a rational theory, built on sound logical reasoning, be the only
evidence to which any value can be attached, then will my efforts have
been unavailing and fruitless. Under the impression, however, that
there exists a desire for speculation and discovery on the one hand,
regulated and qualified by a moderate and proper degree of scepticism
on the other, I shall presume a medium of the two extremes, and
proceed without apology or preface to my subject, trusting, that the
interesting facts which I have to relate, will elicit such attention
and investigation, as will kindle a desire in some men, at least, to
become acquainted with a process, which appears to rival the most
successful operations for the relief of human sufferings.

I should not have taken the tales which are told of the wonderful cures
effected by this operation amongst the original founders of it, as
sufficient authority for recommending it, nor would I admit the fables
which are promulgated by these people, as evidence of its efficacy, had
not this efficacy been witnessed by European spectators on its native
soil, and at length experienced in our hemisphere; and even, latterly,
in our own country.

The operation of acupuncturation has been seen by so few Europeans,
that our books have made us acquainted with little more than its
name. It is of Asiatic origin, and China and Japan peculiarly claim
it as their own. A writer in the year 1802, mentions a discovery of
its having been practised by the natives of America, and refers to
Dampier’s voyages for an account of it; but I have in vain followed
Capt. Dampier’s relation of his adventures, in crossing from the
South to the North Sea, over the Isthmus of Darien, for any account
of the operation, for he does not so much as name it. He speaks of a
work intended to be published by his surgeon, Mr. Lionel Wafer, who
accompanied the expedition, and to which he refers his readers for an
account of the manners and customs of the interior of the country. Mr.
Wafer was detained, from an accident, a considerable time amongst
the Darien Indians, and did, on his return to England, publish this
book, which I have therefore been at the trouble of perusing, but do
not learn from it, that the operation of acupuncturation was practised
in that part of America: it is true, Mr. Wafer describes a method of
blood-letting employed by the natives, which is somewhat correspondent
to acupuncturation, but both the intention and the effect are widely
different. This operation is effected in the following manner: the
patient is taken to a river, and seated upon a stone in the middle of
it. A native, dexterous in the use of the bow, now shoots a number of
small arrows into various parts of the body. These arrows are prepared
purposely for this operation, and are so constructed, that they
cannot penetrate beyond the skin, the veins of which, opened by the
puncturation, furnish numerous streams of blood, which flow down the
body of the patient. If this be the operation which has given rise to
the idea, that acupuncturation is practised by the American natives,
the conclusion is evidently erroneous, as it is simply a method of
blood-letting, and is generally resorted to for the cure of fever.
Now, acupuncturation has no reference whatever to bleeding, and it
is rare, that even a drop of blood follows either the introduction
or withdrawing of the needle; nor does it appear, that the Chinese
and Japanese, with whom it originated, intended it as a method of
abstracting blood, which is proved, not only by the consequences of
the operation, but by the manner in which it is performed, and the
nature of the diseases to which it is applied. If it could have been
established, that the natives of the American Isthmus were acquainted
with it, it would have been a curious, as well as an interesting
enquiry, to ascertain whence they derived it.

It is a little strange, that the surprising efficacy, of which so
much has been boasted by its eastern professors, and the safety,
at least, with which acupuncturation may be performed, having been
so fully demonstrated; it is strange I repeat, that it has not met
with an earlier encouragement amongst us. It is probable, that the
hyperbole in which it has been related, has induced the sober minds
of our Northern soil, to treat these relations as the fictions of
Eastern imagination, and to reject them without examination, as
fables calculated only for amusement. There have not, however, been
wanting sensible minds, and men of talent and reputation, to recommend
this operation; and the names of Ten-Rhyne, Bidloo, Kœmpfer, and
Vicq-d’Azyr, stand conspicuous on the list of those who speak in its
favour; but still, neither of them had undertaken to put its merits
to the test, by actual experiment. Several practitioners in France,
however, have now taken up this neglected operation, and their
report verifies the praises which have been bestowed by others upon
it. My attention was lately directed to it by my friend Mr. Scott,
of Westminster, who, as far as my knowledge goes, was the first who
performed it in England, and some successful cases which I witnessed in
his practice, assured me of its efficacy, and led me to its adoption.
The success of my own subsequent practice, warrants a recommendation of
it, in almost any terms I could give it; but I shall content myself in
laying before my readers, the opinion and experience of some physicians
of eminence, accompanied by a relation of some cases of my own, where
the benefit of the operation has been decidedly successful; upon a
better foundation than which it cannot at present rest for public
examination; it remains for the medical profession to ascertain its
claims to attention by the test of experience, and having undergone
the ordeal of experimental enquiry, it will, I have no doubt, so
fully develope its merit, as to obtain a conspicuous rank in medical
estimation, as a valuable curative measure.




ACUPUNCTURATION.


The method of performing the operation of acupuncturation is simple
and easy, requiring neither practice to give dexterity, nor adroitness
that it may be done with propriety. Anatomical knowledge of the human
body is, however, necessary; as an imprudent application of it, by an
operator ignorant of the structure of the part into which he introduces
his needle, might be productive of bad consequences. To a surgeon,
however, properly qualified, (and no other ought to perform this or
any operation) no danger can arise; as the cautions are but few, and no
risk is incurred, if they are attended to. It is only necessary that
the operator, in introducing the needle, should avoid the course of
large vessels, of nervous trunks, and of the tendons of muscles. It is
not, however, proved, that the latter sustain injury from the puncture
of the needle; but it is as well to avoid the possibility of mischief,
by such a cautious mode of introducing the instrument, as shall be
divested of risk. I cannot better familiarize my subject to the reader,
than by a sketch of it in its native state; and as an excellent
description of the operation, as performed by the Japonese natives, is
given in the ninth volume of the “Modern part of an Universal History,
from the Earliest Account of Time,” I shall extract it, as containing
all that is known of its original practice.

“The place made choice of for the puncture, is commonly at a middle
distance between the navel and the pit of the stomach, but often as
much nearer to, or farther from either as the operator, after a due
scrutiny, thinks most proper; and in this, and the judging rightly
how deep the needle must be thrust below the skin, so as to reach the
seat of the morbific matter, and giving it a proper vent, consists the
main skill of the artist, and the success of the operation is said to
depend. Each row hath its particular name, which carries with it a
kind of direction, with regard to the depth of each puncture, and the
distance of the holes from each other, which last, seldom exceeds half
an inch in grown persons, in the perpendicular rows, though something
more in those which are made across the body, thus,


 .  .  .
 .  .  .
 .  .  .


The needles which perform the operation are made, as was hinted at
first, either of the finest gold, or silver, and without the least
dross or alloy. They must be exquisitely slender, finely polished, and
carry a curious point, and with some degree of hardness, which is
given by the maker by tempering, and not by any mixture, in order to
facilitate their entrance, and penetrating the skin. But, though the
country abounds with expert artists, able to make them in the highest
perfection, yet none are allowed, but such as are licensed by the
emperor.

“These needles are of two sorts with respect to their structure, as
well as materials; the one, either of gold or silver indifferently,
and about four inches long, very slender, and ending in a sharp point,
and have at the other end a small twisted handle, which serves to turn
them round with the extremity of the middle finger and thumb, in order
to sink them into the flesh with greater ease and safety; the other
is chiefly of silver, and much like the first in length and shape,
but exceedingly small towards the point, with a short thick handle,
channelled for the same end of turning them about, and to prevent their
going in too deep; and for the same reason, some of them are cased in a
kind of copper tube, of the bigness of a goose quill, which serves as a
sort of guage, and lets the point in, just so far as the operator hath
determined it. The best sort of needles are carefully kept in a case
made of bull’s horn, lined with some soft downy stuff. This case is
shaped somewhat like a hammer, having on the striking side a piece of
lead, to give it a sufficient weight, and on the outside a compressed
round piece of leather to prevent a recoil, and with this they strike
the needle through the thickness of the skin; after which they keep
turning the handle about with the hand, till it is sunk to the depth
they design it, that is, till it is thought to have reached the seat of
the morbific virus, which in grown persons is seldom less than half, or
more than a whole inch: this done, he draws it out, and compresses the
part, in order to force the morbific vapour or spirit out.

“The directions and nice rules for the performing of this curious
operation are many, and require great skill and attention in the
operator; and when duly performed, may be of excellent use, not
only against the excruciating distemper, called Senki, but against
many other topical ones, which are most commonly cured by the Indian
Moxa, and other caustics. On the other hand, these last are often
tried against the distemper above mentioned, by applying the caustic
to the belly, on each side of the navel, and about two inches from
it