A Treatise on Acupuncturation

by James Morss Churchill

CASE I.

George Mc’Laughlan, about 30 years of age, a Bricklayer by employment, came to my house in November last, supporting himself by a stick in one hand, and resting the other against the wall, as he proceeded. The body was bent at nearly right angles with the thighs, and his countenance indicated acute suffering. He had been attacked, he said, three days before, with darting excruciating pains in the loins and hips; every motion of the body produced an acute spasmodic pain, resembling an electric shock; and the attempt to raise the body to an upright position was attended by such insupportable agony, as obliged him to continue in this state of flexion rather than encounter it by altering his position. There was no more constitutional disturbance than was to be expected from three days and nights of constant pain; the pulse was a little quickened, and the tongue white, but I attributed this derangement to the irritation set up by the pain and loss of rest. I directed him to place himself across a chair for support during the operation, and I immediately introduced a needle of an inch and a half in length into the lumbar mass on the right side of the spine; in two minutes time I observed that he seemed to rest the weight of his body more on his limbs, and in the next instant, without any enquiry being made, he observed, that he felt his limbs stronger from the “pain having left his hips.” He next plainly indicated that the disease was lessened, by raising his body; from which he only desisted, by being desired to remain at rest, through fear of the needle being broken. The instrument having remained in its place about six minutes, the patient declared he felt no pain, and could, if he were permitted, raise himself upright; it was then withdrawn; the man arose, adjusted his dress, expressed his astonishment and delight at the sudden removal of his disease, and having made the most grateful acknowledgements, left the house with a facility as though he had never been afflicted. The relief was no doubt permanent, as he did not return, which he would most probably have done, had he suffered a relapse.

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.

CASE III.

Elizabeth Jacks, a married woman, aged 44 years, was admitted into one of the public hospitals of London, in the year 1817, for an enlarged Bursa situated under the Rectus Femoris muscle. Soon after her admission she was attacked with violent pains in the limbs, which continued to affect her with greater or less violence, till the month of October, 1820, when a severe rheumatic state of the back of the head and of the loins supervened; the one preventing flexion of the neck, the other of the back. Her digestion continued unimpaired, the pulse about its natural standard, without hardness or acceleration. Her nights were passed without sleep, and every motion of the body was performed with pain and reluctance. In this state she applied to me, and I gave her antimonials combined with opium, keeping the bowels open with gentle aperients. Under this treatment, she was in some degree relieved, but as she laboured under the impression that nothing could be done to eradicate the disease, she discontinued it after a short time, but in a few days afterwards (Nov. 4th,) Mr. Carpue was requested to see her; he prescribed ten grains of Dover’s powder, to be taken every night at bed time: this dose she took twice without any benefit. The pains had now entirely left the parts they at first occupied, and had fixed on the intercostal muscles above and below the seventh and eighth ribs on each side of the chest; whence, to avoid the insupportable anguish occasioned by the action of these muscles in the process of respiration, this function was (or at least appeared to be) wholly supported by the Diaphragm, the abdominal muscles, and the large external muscles of the neck, chest and back. No other force but that of pressure upon the situation corresponding with the interstices of the ribs gave any uneasiness, but on these parts, the slightest pressure produced intolerable pain: this plainly proved that the disease affected the intercostal muscles alone. Peritonœal inflammation ensued, and the suffering which this occasioned, banished for the time, all attention to the original disease; but no sooner was this removed, (which was effected by the most active means) than the patient found that she was still the victim of an unrelenting malady, which had now pursued her upwards of three years. Acupuncturation now recurred to me as a probable mean of relieving her from her sufferings. I accordingly introduced a needle between the sixth and seventh ribs, and another between the seventh and eighth of the right side; in two minutes the patient became sensible of relief, and in two or three minutes more, that side of the chest was emancipated from the disease.

The same operation was now performed on the other side, though the good effect was not equally extensive on this as on the right; yet the patient respired now with so much comparative freedom and ease, that she exclaimed, she should “soon be quite well.”—The following day but one, there was a little augmentation of the pain on both sides of the chest, but a single needle introduced into each part, entirely removed it. No return of pain after this time visited the right side, but the left, still continued to be attacked; until at length the third introduction of the needle, dissipated it permanently, and the patient has since remained free from the disorder. The needles in every instance were suffered to remain in the part about five or six minutes.