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DENTISTRV AMONG THE CHINESE 39

for it; he ought to know eqiialh well how long to leave the needle in
the affected part, so as to ohtain the best possible therapeutic results
in each case.
The points of election for carr\ ing out puncturing in various maladies
are spread over the whole superficies of the bod\-, and amount in number
to 388. Each of these is known by a special name. Each site of election
stands in determinate relations, as to distance, to the known anatomical
points, and may, therefore, be easily and precisely found by appropriate
measurement. The unity of length for these measurements is called
tsim, and is divided into ten fc?7 ; its value varies, however, according to
whether the said measurements be taken on the head, the trunk, or the
extremities. For the head, the length of the tstiii is calculated as equal to
the distance existing between the inner and the outer angle of the eye; for
the trunk, it is equivalent to the eighth part of the horizontal line between
the two breast nipples; and for the extremities, it is equal to the length
of the second phalanx of the middle finger, measured with the joints
bent.
There are twenty-six points of election upon which to carr\- out punc-
V
turing used as a remedy against toothache. There are also six other
points of election for pains in the gums. N
One would naturally be disposed to believe that these points of election
would be situated in proximity to the teeth. Instead, many of them are
situated in distant parts of the body—for example, in the elbow, in the
hands, the feet, the vertebral region, the coccyx, and so on. However,
about half of them are to be found in the labial, maxillary, and peri-
auricular regions.
The puncturing of every point of election is almost always indicated
for the cure of not only one but several, and, indeed, very often many,
maladies; for example, the puncture carried out on the point of election,
kni-tche, situated at the outer extremity of the bend of the elbow, may
be utilized in more than twenty-five morbid conditions ; among which
are pains in the arm, paralysis of the arm, edema of the whole body,
excessive perspiring, vomiting, hematemesis, toothache, boils, gastralgia,
hemiplegia, and even cholera!
This mode of cure depends on the special relation of each point of
election to the so-called canals of transmission and communication
(named in Chinese king) through which the blood and the vital spirits
circulate, and which serve at the same time to transmit the "innate heat"
and "the radical moisture" to all parts of the body.
And here w^e must be allowed a brief digression in explanation of what
we have just said.
The anatomical notions of the Chinese are very erroneous;^ their

' See Bouillet, work quoted at p. 31.