Description

We are offering a very fine set of acupuncture needles,  in its original fitted case, that is European in orgin and C1825 in date. Contrary to popular belief,  the Western use of acupunctrure in a medical setting is not something that occurred in this century. While Chinese in origin, acupuncture has a  much longer history in the West.

Writting in the December 1997 issue of the Journal of Integrative Medicine (Volume 3, Issue 1, supp.)  Gary Kaplan noted:

“Acupuncture stands on the threshold of acceptance by the medical establishment in the United States. This medical philosophy and practice is challenging the basis of our understanding of health and illness. The history of acupuncture’s journey to the West is chronicled in a review of milestones of medical history. The historical journey out of the orient began with Jesuit missionaries who entered China in the 16th century. By the end of the 19th century, many of France’s most prominent physicians were using acupuncture. Probably the most influential French acupuncturist was George Soulie DeMorant, whose text, L’Acupuncture Chinoise(Chinese Acupuncture) was published in 1939. In the United States, acupuncture was first mentioned in the medical literature in 1822, and was endorsed by Sir William Osier for the management of lumbago in his text. The Principles and Practice of Medicine, published in 1892.”

And an unattributed editorial Published 22 December 1973 in the British Medical Journal(   ( Br Med J 1973; 4 :687) contains the following:

” That its [acupuncture’s] use in Britain goes back to the early years of the 19th century may come as a surprise to doctors today, though as noted in these columns recently’ it was a subject that graced the pages of the first volume of the Lancet in 1823. A recent review of its practice in the nineteenth century therefore makes interesting reading.John Elliotson, who began to employ the technique at St. Thomas’s Hospital in 1824 “