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, Koempfer, 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.