634 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1683. 



above all others, 1 . rockqualiph, bearing fruit like kidney beans, and a root 

 yellow, bitter and odoriferous; 2. xinkiu, a tuberous root smelling like lovage, 

 remarkable among them for its enticing fish by the scent; and, 3. nixziu, whose 

 root they make the basis of all decoctions, in which form they exhibit all inward 

 medicines ; neither do they give many more than these named. Their internal 

 medicines are calefactive and discussers of wind ; and if those fail, they presently 

 have recourse to moxa or their needle. 



De Acupunctura. The needle is made long, slender, sharp, of gold, or at 

 least silver, with a wreathed handle. 



It is to be conveyed, either by the hand or a little mallet, into the part gently, 

 a finger's breadth or more, as the case requires, and to be held there for the space 

 of 30 breathings^ if the patient can bear it, otherwise repeated punctures are 

 rather used. The puncture must be when the party is fasting, deeper in a great 

 than less disease ; in old than young men ; in grown persons than in those that 

 are lean and tender ; in fleshy parts than in nervous. The needle is chiefly used 

 in diseases of the head and lower belly; and is applied to the head in head- 

 aches, lethargies, convulsions, epilepsy, diseases of the eyes, &c.; to the ab- 

 domen in colic, dysentery, want of appetite, hysterical disorders, surfeits, 

 pains of thebelly and joints, obstructions of the liver and spleen, &c. The womb 

 itself may be perforated, the Japanese affirm, and the foetus wounded, when its 

 motions are enormous and threaten abortion. In these cases the needle must 

 be applied to the part whence the distemper arises; to the stronger, on the back; 

 to the weaker, on the abdomen : where the pulse scarcely is perceived, there the 

 puncture must be made in the arms, a little beside the veins. The surgeons 

 keep by them images, wherein all the places in the body proper for the needle 

 are designed by marks. The author himself was an eye witness of the use of this 

 puncture on a soldier, who being afflicted with violent disorders of the stomach, 

 and frequent vomitings, at sea, suddenly relieved himself by pricking a thumbs- 

 breadth deep into four different places, about the region of his pylorus. 



In his discourse of chemistry, he asserts its antiquity as far back as Tubal 

 Cain, whence he thinks the Vulcan of the heathens by some small change of 

 letters took his name ; that therefore Hermes Trismegistus was not the inventor 

 of it, but learnt it of Abraham in Egypt, &c. &c. 



In his discourse of physiognomy, after making some remarks on the vanity 

 of astrology and chiromancy ; he observes, that the countenance is the epi- 

 tome of the whole man, representing (if dissembling intervene not) all the 

 inward passions and motions of the soul: and this upon the account, that the 

 temperament of the body, influencing the manners of the mind, also disposes 

 variously the lineaments, complexion, features, and air of the face. Then de- 



