Japan and the Japanese

THUNBERG AT JEDO. 411
nine being a favorite number are made with needles, prepared
for the purpose, generally in the muscles of the stomach or abdo-
men, though other fleshy parts of the body are, in some cases,
chosen for the operation. These needles are nearly as fine as a
hair, made of gold and silver generally, but sometimes of steel, by
persons who profess a particular skill in tempering them. The
bony parts, nerves and blood-vessels, are carefully avoided, and
while they are passed through the skin and muscle, they are
twirled about in a peculiar manner. There are many practitioners
who confine themselves to this practice alone.*
A still more favorite and universal remedy, employed quite as
much for prevention as cure, is burning with the moxa the finer
woolly part of the young leaves of the \vonnwood (Artemesia), of
which the coarser kind is used for ordinary tinder. It is procured
by rubbing and beating the leaves till the green part separates and
nothing remains but the wool, which is sorted into two kinds. When
applied, it is made up in little cones, which, being placed
on the
part selected for the operation, are set fire to from the top. They
burn very slowly leaving a scar or blister on the skin, which, some
time after, breaks and discharges. The operation is not very pain-
ful, except when repeated in the same place, as it sometimes is, or
when applied to certain tender parts. It is thought very efficacious
in pleurisies, tooth-ache, gout and rheumatism disorders which,
like the colic above-mentioned, are rapid in their operation, and of
which the paroxysms tend to a speedy termination under any medi-
cal treatment or none at all. The Japanese have very elaborate
treatises as to the effects produced by the moxa, according to the
part to which it is applied, and its application forms a science and
profession by itself. The fleshy parts, especially of the back, are
ordinarily selected. It is used still more by way of prevention than
for cure, every person, young and old, male and female, even pris
oners in the jails, submitting to the operation, at least once in sis
* There have not been wanting attempts to introduce acupuncture into
European practice. See a sensible article on this subject by Remusat (*Vov.
Melanges Jlsiai., \ol. I. ), in which he gives an analysis of a t. Japanese eatiseon
acupuncture, which, with a translation of it, was brought home bj Tit-
eingh.