Mechanisms of acupuncture

thousand years in China and Japan; the earliest literary reference is in The Yellow Emperor’s book of internal medicine, dating from the second or third century BC. Acupuncture reached Japan in the sixth century of the Christian era, and was introduced into Europe by ten Rhijne (1683), who had learnt about it in Japan. As a therapy, it spread very slowly in Europe. The first European and American publications on acupuncture treatment appeared in the early nineteenth century (Bache 1826, Berlioz 1816, Churchill 1821, Cloquet 1826). Although acupuncture was used to a considerable extent in conventional medical practice in Europe throughout the nineteenth century, attracting such mainstream giants as Osler, its use gradually died out. While some pioneers such as Felix Mann in the UK and a number of practitioners in France were using acupuncture extensively from the middle of the present century, it was really only in the 1970s that acupuncture captured the public interest and came to be widely practised. Films of acupuncture anaesthesia for operative surgery coming out of China following President Nixon’s visit in 1972 fired the public imagination. Acupuncture received full scholarly treatment in the West in the magisterial treatise of Lu & Needham (1980). In addition to classical acupuncture, a number of variations exist. Notable among these are Ryodoraku (Hyodo 1990, Nakatani & Yamashita 1977, Yoshio 1969) and auricular acupuncture, introduced in France by Nogier (1972). Auricular CHAPTER CONTENTS