JAPAN. 263 



impoftor. As to geography they made the world confift of three Geography. 

 parts, Ch'ma^ Siam, and "Japan. We may fee by their maps 

 their extent in that branch of fcience ; we have one as a proof 

 in the Britijh Mufeum. 



Their fkill in phyfic is not lefs moderate; their great art Physic. 

 is that of the pulfe. The phyficians firft feel one arm and then 

 another, as if the impulfe did not come from the fame machine, 

 the heart. Their M/cu/apius or Apollo, is the god Jakuji. They 

 have very few remedies ; two form the principal, the one is the 

 Acu-pun£iura, or pricking with the needle, in life for a dreadful acu-punctura. 

 fpecies of colic common in JapaJt. The profeiTors in the art 

 make ufe of certain needles ; and form with much ceremony 

 and fuperftition, the pun(5tures in three rows *. But this ope- 

 ration is applied for the cure of other diforders t. 



The other great remedy is the Moxa, a cauftic applied in Moxa. 

 almoft every diftemper. It is made of the leaves of the Arle- 

 mijia vulgaris, and being fet on fire, is placed on the part 

 afFeAed. The flame is not vifible, nor is the burning attended 

 with any confiderable pain. The aftr logers are confulted on 

 the occafion, who have figures of the human body drawn like 

 the man in the almanack, with all its parts marked to which the 

 Moxa is to be applied]:, for the phyficians feem to a6t with pe- 

 culiar reverence to the influence of the ftars. 



This remedy is alfo in ufe in India, and other countries in 

 AJia. It has even been introduced into Europe as a cure for the 



* Kaempfer, ii. App. p. 29. tab. 43. 



■\ A fingular coincidence with the Chinefe practice, mentioned by Dr. Gillan. Embaffy, 

 vol. ii. p. 249. £. 



X Kaempfer, ii. tab. 44. 



gout, 



