1	Acupuncture: The Facts Robert Imrie, DVM 448 NE Ravenna Blvd., #106 Seattle, WA 98115 aleonis@seanet.com
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3	Traditional Chinese Medicine: Just how “Chinese” is it?
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19	So now, back to ACUPUNCTURE
20	The Evidence
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44	"ACUPUNCTURE" ACUPUNCTURE, according to the ancient/medieval Chinese, involves: 1. Treating points 2. These points occur along channels 3. “Qi” is manipulated along these channels by means of needing As such, acupuncture has NEVER been part of the historical practice of Chinese veterinary medicine
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47	So, when was acupuncture first transmitted from the East to the West? Chinese medicine – but, curiously, not acupuncture – is first mentioned by a European in the 13^th Century in the travelogue of William of Rubruck. Word of acupuncture first reaches Europe with the return of missionaries in the late 16th century. A century later, in 1680, Wilhelm Ten Rhijn, a Jesuit and a practicing physician, travels from Java to China. He writes, in Latin, the treatise De Acupunctura. However, this tract clearly does NOT deal with acupuncture as we know it. No specific points identified or mentioned. No mention of “qi” – Ten Rhijn treated “winds” Large needles “The needle must be long, sharp and round. It must have a spiral-grooved handle and be made of gold.” Ten Rhijn Needles sometimes implanted deep – into skull or “womb” Left in place for 30 respirations - Subsequently, acupuncture is rejected, forgotten, and then rediscovered in the West in at least four major waves.
48	Transmission to the West: 18^th & Early 19^th Centuries
49	Transmission to the West: 19^th Century In 1822 J. M. Churchill wrote a treatise on “acupuncturation.” In an 1828 British veterinary journal, an anonymous author wrote: “On the whole, these [acupuncture] experiments have been very unsatisfactory. […] The sudden and magical relief which the human being has sometimes experienced has not been seen in the horse, and probably from the thickness of the integument, the animals suffered extreme torture during the insertion of the needles ”
50	From Gustaf Landgren's Treatise on acupuncture: “Two decades ago (1809) acupuncture was ridiculed by the medical community, then Berlioz in France published in 1816 concerning its efficacy in digestive and nervous disorders. Sarlandiere cured a cataleptic, and soon numerous French articles in every medical journal attested to its use. The Italians became exaggeratedly enthusiastic, and Germans used it successfully.” “A number of physicians in France have experimented with fine needles in brain, heart, lung, and stomach in animals without causing notable pain or remarkable phenomena. The author repeated these in cats, with no harm found.” (Note the reference to animal acupuncture.)
51	Transmission to the West: 19^th Century 1816: French physician, Louis Berlioz, applies DC current to acupuncture needles by means of Leyden jars. Prior to 1825: Electroacupuncture undertaken by Chevalier Sarlandière. 1825: Physician and chemist Franklin Bache, great-grandson of Benjamin Franklin, translates (from French) Morand’s Memoir on Acupuncture. Has U.S. edition published in Philadelphia. 1826: J. Hunter Ewing reports he has used acupuncture “many times” and has “been present when others have performed it,” apparently with positive results.
52	Transmission to the U.S.: 19^th Century 1826: Philadelphia physicians Edward J. Coxe, D. Coxe, and Samuel Jackson, conduct exper- iments with acupuncture as possible means of resuscitating drowned people. European experimenters claimed to success- fully revive drowned kittens by inserting needles into their hearts. (Strangely reminiscent claims recently appeared in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association regarding the resuscitation of kittens. These claims have likewise been contested.) The American physicians, unable to duplicate alleged European successes,
53	Transmission of acupuncture to the West Edward Coxe reported: “whatever others may think of the possibility of resuscitating drowned persons by acupuncturation, I can only say that I should think myself highly culpable, if, called to a case of asphyxia, I were to waste time, every moment of which is precious, in endeavoring to resuscitate by a means which I sincerely believe to be good for nothing.”
54	Transmission of acupuncture to the West In 1836, the first mention of veterinary acupuncture in print appears in France. The case reported is of a paralyzed ox treated by implanting 3 inch long needles in two rows on either side of the lumbar spine. The needles are described as being driven in with a mallet and left in place for two days. By 1860, acupuncture popularity seems to have waned. Only half a dozen references to the practice appear in the medical literature over the subsequent half century.
55	Transmission to the West: Early 20^th Century References to the use of acupuncture appeared in two standard human medical texts in the early 20th century. In 1907, A. R. Edwards wrote regarding the treatment of myalgia, “Deep injection of water into the muscles of the back may relieve pain… but is often vigorously opposed by the patient.” William Osler, in 1917, recommended treating lumbago by thrusting three to four inch long needles into the lumbar musculature. He assures the reader that “ordinary bonet needles, sterilized, will do.”
56	Acu-Points and Channels: Lost in Transmission! Note: In none of these pre- and early 20th Century examples of Western acutherapy is there any referecnce to points or channels. Needles are simply inserted near either the point of the pain or the lesion in question. This is quite different from acupuncture as practiced by the Chinese.
57	Soulié de Morant 1939: Georges Soulié de Morant, publishes L’Acupuncture Chinoise, invents the term “meridian” and, for the first time, equates “qi” with “energy.” Qi was originally vapor rising from food. Meridians were either channels or channel vessels. Soulié de Morant went to China at the turn of the century, where he served as French Consul in Shanghai, and then as a judge in the French Concession. He became convinced that acupuncture could cure cholera, among other things. Soulié de Morant returned to France in 1917, where he began actively promoting acupuncture among medical professionals.
58	1940s and 50s 1940s: During WWII a small group of proponents forms in secret in Paris. 1943: The French Society for Acupuncture founded -- the oldest such society in the western world. Paris becomes the center for western acupuncture for many years. The Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Akupunktur (The German Society for Acupuncture) founded in . 1952 1954: The Austrian Society for Acupuncture founded.
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62	… and, of course, cows!
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71	Veterinary Acupuncture: Mid-20th Century to Present
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73	1950s – 1960s: Europe According to Phillip A. M. Rogers: “European pioneers of modern vet AP in the 1950's and 60's included Kothbauer (Austria), Milin (France) and the late Westermayer (Germany).” Milin used acupuncture on small animals in Paris during the 1950s. He employed an electrical point detector to locate acupuncture points in dogs and formulate canine acupuncture charts. Supposedly he confirmed that one could successfully “transpose” point and meridian locations from humans to dogs. He published in various French language journals as early as 1963. Westermeyer and Kothbauer’s activities were limited primarily to cattle.
74	1950s – 1960s: Europe In the late 50s and early 60’s, Kothbauer discovers “Kothbauer points” in cattle. The latter are alleged to be “reflex points” on the skin associated with various major internal organs. He located these points by injecting Lugol’s solution into cattle and then employing an electrical point detector. 1961: Kothbauer publishes “On pain point diagnosis and neural therapy in animals,” Wiener Tierarztl. Monattschr., 53, 282.
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91	“The physicians of today have been cut off from the [ancient] tradition of [human] medicine; how much more does this apply to veterinary medicine!” Hsü Ta-ch’un, 1757
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112	Was there ever “just one acupuncture”? No. Common sense, geography and the historical record indicate just the opposite. China is a huge country. One would expect a wide variety of Chinese medicines to have arisen from various local schools of thought, and during various eras. In addition to various Chinese acupunctures, there are various Japanese, Thai, Korean and Indian acupuncture modalities – most of which have been invented over the last few decades.
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115	"Some traditions call for the..." Some traditions call for the passage of electrical current through needles. Others call for the use of dermal pad electrodes with no skin penetration at all. Therapeutic touch over acupuncture points is really therapeutic non-touch. I.e., it merely involves therapeutic hand-waving over said points. Practitioners of all of these traditions claim substantial clinical efficacy… just as therapeutic phlebotomists did for bleeding prior to the mid-19^th century. The fact that efficacy is claimed for all these variants strongly suggests that acupuncture has no specific, above placebo, beyond distraction, etc., effects.
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