198 



ACUPUNCTURE AFRICA. 



ration of acupuncture might be employed by any in- 

 telligent person, or even by the patient, and these 

 are anasarcotis, or watery swelling of the legs, and 

 of the parts of generation in the male, where, from 

 n variety of causes, these tender parts are often dis- 

 tended to an immense size with a clear watery fluid. 

 In either of these cases a few punctures with a 

 common needle often reduce the swelling, and very 

 materially assist the other means employed in the 

 rase. 



Before concluding this article we again recur to 

 the subject of galvanic puncturation, and its effects 

 in paralysis. 



" With respect to our experience of the value of 

 this mode of employing electricity (observes Dr 

 Stokes), I have to remark, that if galvanism or 

 electricity can be of any use to paralysed limbs, 

 this is one of the best modes in which it can be 

 applied. The apparatus is simple, can be prepared 

 in a moment, and does not depend on the state of 

 the weather, like the ordinary electrical machines. 

 There is another advantage also, it is not so likely 

 to excite alarm in the mind of the patient. We 

 have employed it. in several rheumatic and paralytic 

 cases in the Meath hospital, but have not as yet 

 been able to say, that decided benefit has accrued 

 from it to the majority of the patients on whom it 

 has been tried. This is more particularly true with 

 respect to paralytic patients ; in the rheumatic cases 

 we have found it more beneficial. We have had, 

 however, distinct and unequivocal proofs of its value 

 in one case of paralysis of the muscles of the face, 

 which had all the characters of that described as 

 resulting from an affection of the seventh pair of 

 nerves. This patient had been for a long time la- 

 bouring under an affection of one side of his face, 

 and had used a variety of remedies. Those princi- 

 pally employed were stimulating liniments, and the 

 internal use of strychnine, from which he derived 

 some slight benefit, but the application of the gal- 

 vanic fluid in the way I have mentioned, was fol- 

 lowed by decided and rapid improvement. Indeed 

 from the time it was first applied, the patient re- 

 covered rapidly, so that in a very short time all the 

 deformity of face disappeared." 



From these facts and circumstances, and many 

 others that might be adduced, we should be sorry 

 to see the very ancient operation of acupuncture 

 entirely thrown aside, because it fails in many cases, 

 and does not cure every disease for which it has 

 been prescribed. The modus operandi of acupunc- 

 ture, it is difficult, nay, perhaps impossible, satisfac- 

 torily to explain, and it will yet require much close 

 observation and attention to those cases in which it 

 is employed to arrive at even anything like an ap- 

 proach to truth on the subject. This is indeed a 

 matter of very little consequence to the patient, so 

 that under its application the disease has been re- 

 moved, but to the professional man, and indeed to 

 every inquiring mind, it is always matter of deep 

 regret that darkness should envelope the rationale 

 of a process by which so much good is effected, an<i 

 that we should still be shut up to act in so very 

 many cases on empirical principles. " The effects 

 of acupuncture," says Dr Elliotson, " are not de- 

 duceable from counter stimulation, for they are 

 sometimes most remarkable when such stimulation 

 has been scarcely felt ; not from electrical agency, 

 for they are equally produced when the needles em- 

 ployed are of gold or silver ; nor from moral agency, 

 for they .who derive the curative influence of the 

 needles, are as much benefitted by their application, 



irovided (la-ir cases be suitable, as those who have 

 he most unlimited confidence in their efficacy ; the 

 reasoning and incredulous European being, in this 

 respect, on a level with the all-believing and un- 

 ettered Chinese. And yet these effects are not 

 only beyond all dispute, but, in many instances, are 

 so prompt, so marked by cessation of pain, as to 

 mpress the vulgar mind with the idea of superna- 

 tural agency. The differences of opinion respect- 

 ing the value of acupuncture, are the very oppo- 

 sites of each other, and are entertained by two 

 classes of practitioners the one indifferent, deem- 

 ng its importance so problematical, so improbable, 

 that investigation of its merits would be a waste of 

 time the other enthusiastic, being satisfied, from 

 observation and experience, that many owe their 

 deliverance from pain to the prolonged or frequent 

 application of. the needles, who had sought relief 

 in vain from the adoption and long perseverance in 

 the use of other means. For our own part, fully 

 convinced of its importance in therapeutics, we 

 should merely recommend, that greater attention be 

 bestowed in observing the cases in whicli it is found 

 beneficial, in order to enable us to point out with 

 greater precision those in which it is suitable." 



AERATED WATERS, a term popularly applied 

 to a variety of acidulous and alkaline beverages, 

 more or less impregnated with fixed air or carbonic 

 acid gas. Water absorbs under the natural pres- 

 sure of the atmosphere, about its own bulk or 

 volume of carbonic acid gas. If a pressure be ap- 

 plied equal to two atmospheres, the water will ab- 

 sorb double its own volume, its absorbing power 

 increasing as the pressure. Water thus impregnated 

 acquires a pleasant acid taste, to which is usually 

 added a small quantity of potash or soda, and sucl* 

 flavouring or other ingredients as may be required 

 to imitate the natural mineral waters. The manu- 

 facture of these liquids has of late years become of 

 considerable extent, owing to their agreeable as 

 as well as medicinal qualities. 



AFRICA (n). The discovery by Lander of the 

 termination of the Niger in the bay of Benin has 

 opened up a broad and rich territory to commercial 

 enterprise. The resources and the necessities of 

 this extensive district of Africa are equally invit- 

 ing, and it is presumed that a thriving traffic will 

 speedily be established with it. On Lander's re- 

 turn to England, after the death of his master, 

 Clapperton. the intelligence and enterprise which 

 he had shown recommended him to government as a 

 fit person to complete the discoveries which had been 

 begun by Clapperton and his companions. Lander, 

 accordingly, went out with his brother, and landed 

 in the Bay of Benin (1828). The account of their 

 journey is most interesting: The two brothers, who 

 had been equipped by the government, and furnished 

 with small presents to the native chiefs and princes, 

 were in general well received by all ranks, and were 

 able at last to accomplish the objects for which so 

 many expeditions had been undertaken, and so many 

 travellers had died. 



They reached Boussa, a large city on the Niger, 

 and the capital of a considerable kingdom. At this 

 place there occurs a series of interruptions in the 

 bed of the river, which, from some cause not ex- 

 plained, is said to be contracted in one spot to a 

 very small breadth, without increasing either in 

 depth or velocity a strange phenomenon, if cor- 

 rectly observed. The travellers from Boussa sailed 

 up the stream, for a considerable distance, through 

 a line of navigation broken by shallows and rapids, 



