it a sufficient weight, and on the outside a compressed round piece of leather to prevent a recoil, and with this they strike the needle through the thickness of the skin; after which they keep turning the handle about with the hand, till it is sunk to the depth they design it, that is, till it is thought to have reached the seat of the morbific virus, which in grown persons is seldom less than half, or more than a whole inch: this done, he draws it out, and compresses the part, in order to force the morbific vapour or spirit out." Churchill, p. 16.

The diseases which are thus encountered form no inconsiderable part of the maladies to which our species is subject.

"From the little we have learned of the practice of this operation amongst the Asiatics, it would seem, that it was chiefly diseases of the abdominal cavity and viscera, which afforded opportunities for its performance, such as Colic, Tympany, &c. It is not in such diseases, however, that I have any experience of its use, but it is questionable, whether it might not be beneficial, particularly in the latter, and I would beg to recommend it as a matter of interesting experiment, to be tried in this malady; such an opportunity, should it fall in my own practice, I shall take advantage of.

"The Indians, however, do not confine their practice of Acupunc turation (or Zin-king, as they call it) to diseases of this kind. They puncture the head in all cases of Cephalalgia, in Comatose affections, Ophthalmia, &c. They puncture the chest, back, and abdomen, not only to relieve pain of those parts, but as a cure for Dysentery, Anorexia, Hysteria, Cholera Morbus, Iliac passion, &c. Local diseases of the muscular and fibrous structures of the body, also often afford them occasions for its performance; and it is for diseases of this class only that I have hitherto practised it, and for which I would expressly recommend it." Churchill, p. 21.

From Japan the discovery travelled to Tours, and thence to London. We extract one of the cases recorded by Dr. Haime, a physician of the former place; and one domestic specimen furnished by Mr. Churchill himself.

"A woman had suffered for several days with wandering Rheumatic pains, which continued daily to increase in violence; there were however at all times fixed pains in the shoulder and in the right arm, which acquired such a degree of intensity by intervals, that the patient could not refrain from crying out. She was in this state when she came to consult me: finding, however, neither alteration in the pulse, nor encrease of heat, nor redness of the skin, nor tension, nor swelling in the part affected, I considered the case to be simple Rheumatalgia, and passed the needle to the middle of the arm, between the fibres of the Triceps Brachialis muscle; the place designated by the patient as the seat of the pain. The pain was driven into the fore arm, and the second puncture caused it to descend into the hand, and a third being made in this part, caused it totally to disappear, and the patient said with 'delight and astonishment, she was cured; and was so satisfied with

this treatment, that she spoke of it to every body. I have not since seen her, although I requested her (and she promised) to return in the event of a relapse." Churchill, p. 35.

"William Morgan, a young man in the employment of a timber merchant, felt a violent pain suddenly attack the loins whilst in the act of lifting a very heavy piece of mahogany. The weight fell from his hands, and he found he was incapable of raising himself. He was immediately cupped and blistered on the part: but two days had passed and he was still labouring under considerable pain, augmented violently by every motion of the body. On the third day the operation of Acupuncturation was performed upon the part of the loins pointed out as the seat of the injury, which, as in the former case, dissipated the pains in five or six minutes, and restored the motions of the back. He returned, however, the next day, with the same symptoms as at first, but in a mitigated degree. A needle was now passed to the depth of an inch on each side of the spine, which, as I expected, terminated the disease in a few minutes, and it was with pleasure that I understood the next morning, that the man had gone to his usual employment.

"This case illustrates the observations of the French physicians before cited, as to the efficacy of the remedy in injuries of this description: it is true that in my own practice it is a solitary example; but so decisive was the benefit derived from it, that the case proves a powerful corroboration of both Mr. Berlioz's theory and practice." Churchill, p. 49.

These statements are satisfactory; but the reader has yet to learn that his heart, his brain, his arteries, and, we presume, his marrow, may be punctured with as little ceremony as his elbow.

"The perforation made by a sharp smooth instrument like a needle, is of such a simple nature, that there is little danger of doing any mischief with one of this kind. Dr. Bretonneau, Physican to the " Hospital General" of Paris, has made a number of experiments on puppies, the result of which is, that the Cerebrum, the Cerebellum, the Heart, the Lungs, the Stomach, &c. may be penetrated without occasioning the least pain or inconvenience.

"In one case, where the heart had been punctured, he afterwards discovered an extravasation of blood into the Pericardium; and Dr. Haime asserts, that his experiments prove the doctrine of Mons. Beclard, respecting the elasticity of the arterial tunics, which may be punctured with impunity. One case of this nature occurred to Dr. Bretonneau, where a jet of blood followed the puncture of an artery. The hæmorrhage was immediately stopped, simply by pressure upon the opening. Dr. Haime says, that he has often, when performing this operation upon the human subject, thrust the needle to such a depth into the Epigastrium, that the stomach must have been pierced; but that it was produc

* By a needle of an inch and an half in length.

1

applied; its general Efficacy in peculiar Diseases, and its Success in innumerable Instances, when the Skill of the Physician has been ineffectual. To which is subjoined an alphabetical List of Names (many of the very first Consequence), subscribed in Testimony of the important Use and general Approval of the Indian Method of Shampooing. 8vo. 127 pp. Creasy; Brighton. 1822.

THE longer we live the more we are convinced of the incurable obstinacy of human beings. The tremendous evils discussed in the works before us may be removed, by medical skill; but the stupidity which makes us indifferent to so many valuable remedies, is a general and hopeless disease.

At this present time of writing, although the season be alarmingly mild, we hear the hoarse catarrh, and witness the rheumatic limp or shrug, whichever way we turn. Even we ourselves cannot stoop to inflict punishment upon literary offenders without feeling some twinges of lumbago; and our fingers ends, towards the conclusion of a number, would not be the worse for shampooing. Yet still we go on groaning, hobbling, coughing, as if steam-baths, and vapourbaths, were non-entities and impossibilities; as if Mr. Mahomed had never lived or written; as if Fumigation, and Puncturation, and other remedies that end in ation, did not offer an instantaneous removal of our sufferings. We live in a sceptical age, and most of us prefer bearing pain, and grumbling at it, to being stewed and kneaded at Brighton, or stuck full of pins and needles in Princes-street, Soho. We recommend a perusal of the pamplets now before us, as a sovereign protection against such childish indifference.

Mr. Jonathan Green has the first claim to attention, inasmuch as he proposes to encounter the first bodily ailment to which the human frame is subject-the loss of personal charms. Fevers and most other diseases having been traced up to a disorganized skin, the skin is to be purified and restored to its infantine beauty, by sulphureous vapours. When sulphur and brimstone lose their power, and the malady is evidently seated below the skin, Mr. Mahomed's process may be undergone with peculiar propriety; for his vapours have the faculty of driving the peccant humours of the blood (p. 58), out of the system; and when the task cannot be accomplished by his bath, he sets about it with his knuckles. For every complaint, therefore, which lies within a moderate distance of the surface, Shampooing is the standard cure; but where the disorder is latent, and neither sulphur, steam, nor fist, will reach it, the needle may be plunged into the body to any depth, and will not fail to drive out aches and pains.

Mr. Churchill attributes the discovery of Acupuncturation to the Chinese. It has been claimed for the American Indians on account of a singular and somewhat similar practice.

"This operation is effected in the following manner: the patient is taken to a river, and seated upon a stone in the middle of it. A native dexterous in the use of the bow, now shoots a number of small arrows into various parts of the body. These arrows are prepared purposely for this operation, and are so constructed, that they cannot penetrate beyond the skin, the veins of which opened, by the puncturation, furnish numerous streams of blood, which flow down the body of the patient. If this be the operation which has given rise to the idea, that acupuncturation is practised by the American natives, the conclusion is evidently erroneous, as it is simply a method of blood-letting, and is generally resorted to for the cure of fever. Now, acupuncturation has no reference whatever to bleeding, and it is rare, that even a drop of blood follows either the introduction or withdrawing of the needle; nor does it appear, that the Chinese and Japonese, with whom it originated, intended it as a method of abstracting blood, which is proved, not only by the consequences of the operation, but by the manner in which it is performed, and the nature of the diseases to which it is applied." Churchill, p. 7.

The Japanese mode of operating is worthy of attention.

"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.

"These needles are of two sorts with respect to their structure, as well as materials; the one either of gold or silver indifferently, and about four inches long, very slender, and ending in a sharp point, and have at the other end a small twisted handle, which serves to turn them round with the extremity of the middle finger and thumb, in order to sink them into the flesh with greater ease and safety; the other is chiefly of silver, and much like the first in length and shape, but exceedingly small towards the point, with a short thick handle, channelled for the same end of turning them about, and to prevent their going in too deep; and for the same reason, some of them are cased in a kind of copper tube, of the bigness of a goose quill, which serves as a sort of guage, and lets the point in, just so far as the operator hath determined it. best sort of needles are carefully kept in a case made of bull's horn, lined with some soft downy stuff. This case is shaped somewhat like a hammer, having on the striking side a piece of lead, to give

The

tive of no more inconvenience than the same operation upon the more simple parts of the body. I should, however, contrary to such high testimony, hesitate much to puncture an artery, as an aneurism has been known to result from a small puncture made by an awl, which required the division of the vessel for the cure." Churchill, p. 82.

The cautious recommendation with which this passage concludes, enhances the value of its preceding statements; and enough has now been said to establish the importance of the subject before us, and prove the peculiar propriety of adverting to it at the present season. On all accounts it is desirable to commence a new year well,-and to begin it with a clear skin, with supple joints, and without any deep-seated pain; our friends have merely to put themselves, successively or simultaneously, under the care of Messrs. Mahomed, Green, and Churchill. The sulphureous fumigation can be obtained at an hour's notice, (p. 115.) Should a trip to Brighton be inconvenient, curry-combing may be used as a substitute; and instead of being kneaded like a lump of dough in a baker's trough, it will suffice to be rubbed down after the fashion of a coach-horse.

"It is remarked by Sir John Sinclair, in his Code of Health, that there are many who keep a number of grooms to curry their horses who would add ten years to their comfortable existence, if they would but employ one of them to curry themselves with a flesh brush night and morning.' The currying here alluded to is, in fact, the qualified process of shampooing, unaccompanied with its more agreeable and medicinal properties." Shampooing, p. 89.

For acupuncturation we fear that there is no substitute,-, but the process is so simple, and the effects so immediate, that no one can object to participating in its manifold advantages.

Anxious, as the preachers say, to improve the subject before us, and to tack on a little moral to the tail of our volume, we beg leave to observe that the various remedies now described might be used with good chance of success in other departments than that of medicine. The disorders in the literary, the political, and religious world, might be submitted with advantage to analogous modes of treatment. Carlisle and Lord Byron, the radicals, and the infidels, should be subjected to a regular quarantine fumigation before they are permitted to circulate through the land. Mr. Buxton, Mr. Wilberforce, and the secondary Scotch novellists, might be shampooed with a prospect of considerable benefit.-And Joseph Hume, and Henry Brougham are proper subjects, for acupuncturation. A new and effectual system may be constructed out of these hints, and here, therefore, we take leave of the reader; assuring him at parting, that the first of