182 ANTI-ANAPHYLACTIC TREATMENT OF DISEASES 



a direct action of the medicine on the intestinal germs or on 

 the lesions. We have definitely shown that, in general, the 

 pathologic manifestations of a lesion can be caused only by 

 nervous reactions, and we have also seen that, in preventing 

 the nerve centers from acting, it is possible to prevent or to 

 cure a hepatic or nephritic colic; we could therefore deduce 

 that our bacterial preparations were curative only on account 

 of their action on the nerve centers. 



A confirmation of this hypothesis can be found in the 

 results sometimes obtained by a method applied in China 

 from time immemorial, called "cha-chin," from which 

 " reflexotherapy " is derived, as practised during these last 

 years by several European doctors, and propagated in France 

 particularly by. Peter Bonnier. 



We have not been able to obtain definite information 

 about "cha-chin." According to several European doctors, 

 who have sojourned in China, the "cha-chin" method con- 

 sists in pricking the patients with long needles at different 

 parts of the body, and particularly at the joints, which must 

 be pierced, right through. Chinese doctors obtain by this 

 method, and apparently often, rapid cures, even in serious 

 cases of acute infectious diseases, and more particularly in 

 cholera. 



Peter Bonnier treated all kinds of infirmity and chronic 

 disease (deafness, nervous ticks, asthma, certain dermatoses, 

 gastro-intestinal disturbances) by touching certain points 

 of the nasal mucosa with a galvano-cautery. According to 

 his idea, by cauterizing the termination of the trigeminal 

 nerve, he caused a reaction in the bulbar centers, which then 

 acted to restore the peripheral cellular functions. 



Whatever the explanation, there are cases of asthma and 

 of serous mucomembranous enteritis which have resisted all 

 other known treatments and have been undoubtedly and 

 radically cured by Bonnier. In several of these cases the 

 cure has lasted for over ten years. 



Is it possible to attribute today the curative results of 

 reflexotherapy it appears that this method has proved 

 itself of certain efficacy only in the ratio of 1 case in 10 to 

 reactions of a kind differing from nervous shock? 



