Page 40 - My FlipBook

40 FIRST PERIOD—ANTIQUITT ;

ideas on the functions of the human body and of human Hfe in general,
differ considerably from ours. They recognize two natural principles
of vitality, one they call yaiig (vital, primordial, or "innate heat"), the
other yn (radical moisture). The spirits (that is the air) and the blood
serve as vehicles to these two essential principles of life ; that is, vital
heat and radical moisture. The constant equilibrium, the accord, the
perfect union of these two essential principles of life constitute a state
of health. From their alteration, corruption, or disunion originate all
diseases.
There are twelve principal sources of vitality in the human organism
that is, twelve organs from which the two aforesaid vital principles are
distributed throughout the body: The heart, the liver, the two kidneys,
the lungs, and the spleen are the seat and origin of radical moisture;
the large and the small intestine, the two ureters, the gall-bladder, and the
stomach are the seat and origm of vital heat. These twelve sources of
life are in intimate relation with one another bv means of the canals
of communication, through which the blood and the vital spirits (air)
circulate, carrymg with them into every part of the body vital heat and
radical moisture.^
The points of election upon which to carry out puncturing are situated
along the course of the large lines of communication and transmission;
and that explains, according to the Chinese medical theories, whv a
puncture carried out on a given point of the body can prove useful in
relieving a variety of maladies even in distant parts of the organism.
Puncturing is almost always associated with cauterization, for after
having drawn out the needle, it is usual to cauterize the site of the punc-
ture with the so-called "nwxa," that is, with a kind of vegetable wool
obtained from the leaves and dried tips of the artemisia. One com-
presses this substance very tightly between the fingers into the shape
of a small cone. One next applies a small coin with a hole in the
centre upon the site of election ; the cone of moxa is placed on the
hole in the coin and lighted at its top. As the cone is very compact,
it burns slowly enough, without developing excessive heat, so that,
according to Ten Rhyne,'- who was an enthusiast for this mode of cure,
"the epidermis is drawn without violence and rises gently into a small
blister. The moxa, whilst burning, draws out the peccant huiuors
visibly, absorbing them in such a manner that they are totally con-
sumed without destroying the skin itself."
The application of the moxa is not as painful as might be thought,

' Dabry, op. cir., p. x (introckiction), pp. i, 2, 4, 10, 11.
^ 1 his author wrote toward the end of the seventeenth century ; one of his works is entitled
De Acupunctura.