A Treatise on AcupuncturationChurchill, James Morss
Science
A Treatise on Acupuncturation
Churchill, James Morss
Acupuncture
In compliance with your request, I send you an account of
the effect of Acupuncturation on our friend Mr.Scott.[9] I
received an urgent message on the morning of the 18th inst.
from that gentleman, requesting I would visit him instantly.
I found him in bed; and, with a countenance expressive of
much anguish, he informed me, that for three days he had
been suffering severely from pain in the loins, which he
attributed to leaving a warm room during one of the late
foggy nights. Within the last 12 hours it had acquired such a
degree of violence that even respiration was insupportable,
except the body were fixed in such positions as permitted
the least possible motion. An attempt to resume the erect
posture, produced violent spasmodic action of the muscles of
the back, which appeared to be communicated by sympathy to
those of the abdomen and chest, impeding respiration with a
convulsive effort; nor could any motion of the body be made
without producing this distressing effect. Neither fever
nor general derangement was present; the secreting organs
of the body properly performing their function, proved the
external locality of the disease. In this state of things,
Acupuncturation presented itself to us as likely to afford
relief, and it was therefore immediately resorted to.
“I applied an exhausted cupping glass upon the integuments,
opposite to the second lumbar Vertebra, and midway between
this bone and the edge of the Latissimus Dorsi muscle, which
was the part referred to as the most concentrated spot of the
disease. As soon as a needle had penetrated to the depth of
an inch, a sensation arose, apparently from the point of the
instrument, which the patient described as resembling that
which is produced by the passage of the electric aura, when
elicited to a metallic point, diffusing itself at first to
some distance around the part, and then extending itself up
the side to the Axilla. This sensation continued to be felt
for the space of a minute, when a violent pain struck into the
right iliac region, immediately above, and corresponding with
the line of, the Crista of the Ilium. No pain was now felt in
the back, except a dull aching of about two inches in breadth
on the right side of the spine, extending from the lower part
of the neck to the Sacrum; corresponding with the situation
and course of the Longissimus Dorsi Muscle. The pain above the
hip now began to subside and in the space of three minutes
from its commencement, had ceased altogether.
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