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.