Quotations about Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine
I have seen a manikin of Japanese make traced all over with lines, and points marking their intersection. By this their doctors are guided in the performance of acupuncture, marking the safe places to thrust in needles, as we buoy out our ship-channels, and doubtless indicating to learned eyes the spots where incautious meddling had led to those little accidents of shipwreck to which patients are unfortunately liable. ~Oliver Wendell Holmes, "Border Lines of Knowledge in Some Provinces of Medical Science," 1861
A good knowledge of the pulse is most important in the understanding of disease. ~N. E. Yorke-Davies, One Thousand Medical Maxims and Surgical Hints, 1883
Isaac Vossius commended the skill of the Chinese physicians in finding out by their touch, not only that the body is diseased, (which, he said, was all that our practitioners knew by it,) but also from what cause or from what part the sickness proceeds. To make ourselves masters of this skill, he would have us explore the nature of men's pulses, till they became as well known and as familiar to us as a harp or lute is to the players thereon; it is not being enough for them to know that there is something amiss which spoils the tune, but they must also know what string it is which causes that fault. ~Robert Southey (1774–1843), Southey's Common-Place Book, Fourth Series: Original Memoranda, Etc., ed. J. W. Warter, 1851
Her Majesty, with beautiful art, in this Letter, smooths the raven plumage of Father Vota, and, at the same time, throws into him, as with invisible needle-points, an excellent dose of acupuncturation on the subject of the Primitive Fathers and the Ecumenic Councils, on her own score. ~Eliza W. Farnham, Woman and Her Era, 1864
She had clever hands, suited equally to the piano or to a surgeon's scalpel. Then, remembering the reluctance of the Chinese to allow surgery, she had chosen pharmacology and finally the study of healing plants. Much of Chinese medicine was based upon such plants. ~Pearl S. Buck, The Three Daughters of Madame Liang, 1969
Zamolxis, he added, our king, who is also a god, says further, 'that as you ought not to attempt to cure the eyes without the head, or the head without the eyes, so neither ought you to attempt to cure the body without the soul; and this,' he said, 'is the reason why the cure of many diseases is unknown the physicians of Hellas, because they are ignorant of the whole, which ought to be studied also; for the part can never be well unless the whole is well.'
And therefore if the head and the body are to be well, you must begin by curing the soul; that is the first thing... 'For this is the great error of our day in the treatment of the human body, that physicians separate the soul from the body.' ~Plato, translated by B. Jowett, 1871
Acupuncture. — In regard of this old-fashioned remedy, although we, in common with others, have found it dramatically effectual in giving relief in some cases of lumbago, yet its disagreeable nature, and, more pertinently, its uncertain action, have led us to largely relinquish its employment. Ordinary
Acupuncture, n. the introduction of needles into the living tissues for remedial purposes. ~New Illustrated Edition of Dr. Webster's Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, 1864
Acupuncturation, n. a pricking with or as if with a needle; the practice of acupuncture. ~The Century Dictionary: An Encyclopedic Lexicon of the English Language, 1895
Puncturation, n. acupuncture. ~H. De Méric, Dictionary of Medical Terms, 1899
Rhaphiostixis, n. acupuncture. ~The New Sydenham Society's Lexicon of Medicine and the Allied Sciences, Based on Mayne's Lexicon, 1893
Rhaphidagogus, n. old term for a needle-holder. ~The New Sydenham Society's Lexicon of Medicine and the Allied Sciences, Based on Mayne's Lexicon, 1893
Farado-puncture, n. the passage of a faradic current into the tissues by acupuncture. ~George M. Gould, An Illustrated Dictionary of Medicine, Biology, and Allied Sciences, 1913 [also referenced in some old Western medical literatures as ‘galvano-punctura’ or ‘electro-puncturation’
Electro-puncture consists in a union of acupuncture with electricity... Sarlandière appears to have employed electro-puncture with great success; but he restricts its use to rheumatic or neuralgic pains, uncomplicated with organic mischief or inflammation... ~Robley Dunglison, M.D., New Remedies: with Formulæ for their Preparation and Administration, 1856 [“Organic mischief,”
In the case of acupuncture, the time period must also be considered. On a fine day, the sun shining, blood in the human body flows smoothly, saliva is free, breathing is easy. On days of chill and cloud, blood flows thick and slow, breathing is heavy, saliva is viscous. When the moon is waxing, blood and breath are full. When the moon wanes, blood and breath wane. Therefore acupuncture should be used only on fair warm days, when the moon is waxing or, best of all, when the moon is full. ~Pearl S. Buck, The Three Daughters of Madame Liang, 1969
Of all the exercises, I should say that T'ai Chi is the best. It can ward off disease, banish worry and tension, bring improved physical health and prolong life. It is a good hobby for your whole life, the older you are, the better. It is suitable for everyone — the weak, the sick, the aged, children, the disabled and blind. It is also an economical exercise. As long as one has three square feet of space, one can take a trip to paradise and stay there to enjoy life for thirty minutes without spending a single cent.
Get Thee to a Puncturist — Acupuncture Wordplay
Her needlework... was excellent... she could work... delicately with the needle. ~J. E. Austen Leigh, A Memoir of Jane Austen, By Her Nephew, 1870 [Context: sewing. But it describes my acupuncturist perfectly!
A tired patient declares: I am not well in health.
The master doctor—curer of souls and bodies—
Reads the reports of his tongue, which tell the
True tale of his life, and she asks the sickly man:
Give me your hand and let me feel your pulse.
She finds his vein, nimble spirits in the arteries—
As if she sat in his heart, she says: you are
Altogether governed by humours. Lie still.
And touching now this and that meridian
She would with sharp needle—point by point—
And the burning of her wholesome herbs
Heal his sickness, see him restor'd to vigour:
What is infirm from your sound parts shall fly,
Health shall live free and sickness freely die.
~William Shakespeare & Terri Guillemets, "So delicate with her needle," 2022, collage poem created entirely from words and phrases in Shakespeare's plays
There's the point. ~William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, c.1606
But in this point... he brings his physic... ~William Shakespeare, Henry VIII, c.1612
I have touch'd the highest point... that full meridian of my glory... ~William Shakespeare, Henry VIII, c.1612
...incensed points... ~William Shakespeare, Hamlet, c.1600
Ecstasy?
My pulse as yours doth temperately keep time
And makes as healthful music...
~William Shakespeare, Hamlet, c.1600
And purge th' obstructions which begin to stop
Our very veins of life.
~William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part II, c.1597
...be not so phlegmatic... ~William Shakespeare, Merry Wives of Windsor, c.1600
I must up-fill this osier cage of ours
With... precious-juiced flowers...
O, mickle is the powerful grace that lies
In herbs, plants, stones, and their true qualities...
~William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, c.1594
...live honestly by the prick of their needles... ~William Shakespeare, Henry V, c.1598
It is... bound to stir the pulses of any man... and... required the needle... of a doctor... ~Mark Twain 1860s
I just went around to the squirrel-doctor's office and watched. There was a line of about sixty squirrels there waiting to stick out their tongues and have the doctor feel their pulse. ~Rupert Hughes, The Fairy Detective, 1910