CASE II.
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[7] 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.