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.