The two great remedies of the Japanese are acupuncture and burning with the moxa [_mogusa_], the former chiefly practised in a violent colic endemic to the country. According to the Japanese theory, it is caused by wind, and to let out this wind several small holes—nine being a favorite number—are made with needles, prepared for the purpose, generally in the muscles of the stomach or abdomen, though other fleshy parts of the body are, in some cases, chosen for the operation. These needles are nearly as fine as a hair, made of gold and silver generally, but sometimes of steel, by persons who profess a particular skill in tempering them. The bony parts, nerves, and blood-vessels are carefully avoided, and while they are passed through the skin and muscle, they are twirled about in a peculiar manner. There are many practitioners who confine themselves to this practice alone.[55] A still more favorite and universal remedy, employed quite as much for prevention as cure, is burning with the moxa [_mogusa_],—the finer woolly part of the young leaves of the wormwood (_Artemisia_), of which the coarser kind is used for ordinary tinder. It is procured by ribbing and beating the leaves till the green part separates and nothing remains but the wool, which is sorted into two kinds. When applied, it is made up in little cones, which, being placed on the part selected for the operation, are set fire to from the top. They burn very slowly, leaving a scar or blister on the skin, which, some time after, breaks and discharges. The operation is not very painful, except when repeated in the same place, as it sometimes is, or when applied to certain tender parts. It is thought very efficacious in pleurisies, toothache, gout, and rheumatism,—disorders which, like the colic above mentioned, are rapid in their operation, and of which the paroxysms tend to a speedy termination under any medical treatment or none at all. The Japanese have very elaborate treatises as to the effects produced by the moxa, according to the part to which it is applied, and its application forms a science and profession by itself. The fleshy parts, especially of the back, are ordinarily selected. It is used still more by way of prevention than for cure, every person, young and old, male and female, even prisoners in the jails, submitting to the operation at least once in six months[56]. Another remedy is friction, applied by certain professors, and which proves of great use in pains of the limbs, arising from the prevailing vicissitudes of the weather. Internal remedies are generally exhibited in the form of simple decoctions, diuretic or sudorific. Wonderful virtues are ascribed to certain drugs; and, on the whole, the Japanese appear, as in the use of unicorn’s horn and ginseng, to have been not less deluded by quack medicines and medical theories than more enlightened nations.[57]