EQUINE VETERINARY EDUCATION / AE / AUGUST 2004 275

Tutorial Article
Acupuncture and ‘traditional Chinese medicine’ in the horse.
Part 1: A historical overview
D. W. RAMEY* AND P. D. BUELL†
PO Box 5231, Glendale, California 91221 and †6206 25th Avenue, NE Seattle, Washington 98115, USA.
Keywords: horse; acupuncture; Chinese medicine

Introduction practised in the USA and Europe is not the same as the healing
systems being practised in East Asia. Furthermore, the systems
The last 3 decades have brought a wave of interest in a variety being practised in either locale are removed from the practice
of unrelated therapeutic approaches commonly referred to as of Chinese medicine prior to the 20th century. Indeed,
‘alternative’, ‘complementary’ or ‘integrative’. Among Unschuld (1998a) wrote: “What is very much now an
the most curious of those approaches is acupuncture, a ‘alternative’ Chinese medicine is only a minimal vestige of ideas
minor tradition in the historical medical practice of China. and practices…extracted from a highly impressive variety of
Investigations into acupuncture in human medicine have medical thought, and supplemented with modern elements of
increased since interest began approximately 30 years ago and Western rationality…”. Chinese medicine, in the sense of a
veterinary investigations have also been conducted. However, homogeneous system of ideas and therapeutic practices - even
historical and scientific information about acupuncture, as a series of empirical observations codified over time - did not
particularly pertaining to the horse, is rather scattered, exist prior to its promotion as such in the 20th century and
somewhat incoherent and often inaccurately cited. This does not exist today.
article, the first of a 2 part series, attempts a brief Neither is Chinese medicine a homogeneous or ‘complete’
overview of the history of equine acupuncture and treatment approach. Several conceptual ideals supposedly
‘traditional Chinese medicine’ (TCM). unmet by Western medicine have been erroneously attributed
to Chinese medicine; for example, the assertion that Chinese
The history of Chinese medicine medicine is more ‘holistic’ than Western medicine. Historical
reality does not lend itself to the support of such attributions.
The most recent wave of interest in Chinese medical practises Nevertheless, one of the early bestsellers on Chinese medicine
dates to 1972, when a delegation including US President (Kaptchuk 1983) made just such false claims and has
Richard Nixon visited the People’s Republic of China. During influenced the perception of Chinese medicine accordingly.
the visit, traditional Chinese healing practices were presented Similarly, the notion that there is a vast gulf between
to the Western media as the quintessential Chinese medicine, ‘traditional’ Chinese and traditional ‘Western’ medical practices
and were even employed on one delegation member. is baseless. In fact, the theoretical bases for some traditional
However, the introduction of traditional Chinese healing Chinese medical practices were very much like those
practices, and the subsequent curiosity about them, has also expounded by contemporaneous European physicians (e.g. the
been accompanied by the introduction of some rather Chinese had ‘qi’; the Greeks had ‘pneuma’). Similarly, in China,
widespread and fundamental misunderstandings of what throughout history, the primary therapeutic approach was a
traditional Chinese medicine is, and was. well-described tradition of drug and herbal-based therapies.
One basic misconception is that Chinese medicine, as This tradition was not based on mystical concepts. Its
currently practised in the West as ‘traditional Chinese medicine’ prescriptions were based on recognition of the problem and
(TCM), is a reflection of the medicine that is most commonly subsequent selection of the desired substance (Unschuld
practised in China, and, furthermore, that such medicine is a 1986), mirroring medical therapeutics in contemporaneous
true reflection of ancient practice. Neither premise is correct. In cultures. Only the more recent development of science-based
fact, the ‘Chinese medicine’ of the 10th century is different medicine in the West brought Chinese (‘Eastern’) and
from that of the 1st century, which is different from that of the ‘Western’ practices into opposition.
19th century (Unschuld 2000). The ‘Chinese medicine’ being The earliest traditions of Chinese medicine (Shang dynasty,
17th–11th centuries BC) were tied to beliefs in ancestors who
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. were capable of endangering or destroying human life.
276 EQUINE VETERINARY EDUCATION / AE / AUGUST 2004

Healing practices were directed at restoring not only the living, sometimes crisscrossing river beds” and became “nothing
but also the dead. Later, magical, demonological or more than a complex labyrinth, in which those thinkers seeking
supernatural beliefs pushed ancestral medicine into the solutions to medical questions wandered aimlessly in all
background, and unseen demons became the cause of all directions, lacking any orientation, and unable to find a feasible
disease (such beliefs still persist in some parts of the Chinese way out” (Unschuld 1999).
population). Demons residing in the body caused such things Western medicine was introduced into China in the 19th
as swellings, and insertion of such things as needles or lancets century and the 20th century essentially stopped the further
could be employed in an effort to kill them (Loewe 1982). development of Chinese medicine within the confines of its
The most influential period in Chinese medical history traditional theoretical foundations. Science-based medicine has
occurred during the Han Dynasty (approximately 2nd century largely supplanted traditional practices in China and traditional
BC to 2nd century AD). It was during this time that the beliefs appear to be dwindling following a government
Chinese intellectual elite attempted to reduce the phenomena campaign to eradicate psuedoscience (Hepeng 2003).
of the world to a limited number of causes and effects. This
‘systematic’ way of thinking made it possible to try to The history of acupuncture
understand natural processes, as well as to influence them.
Therefore, theories involving such ideas as ‘yin and yang,’ ‘qi’ While not synonymous with TCM, of all traditions of the
and ‘five phases’ evolved, and were used in an effort to historical practice of medicine in China acupuncture appears
explain normal and pathological body functions. Such to be the primary subject of the most recent wave of curiosity
constructs have been described as theories of ‘systematic in the West. The chronology of acupuncture in human therapy
correspondence,’ whereby the body and all its functions were is fairly well established, albeit along a somewhat rough and
said to correspond to entities in the larger world. uneven timeline.
However, such theories were neither generally accepted No archaeological or historical evidence has been
nor consistent. For example, one school of Chinese thought discovered that suggests acupuncture was practised in China
subdivided the 2 categories of yin and yang into 4 yin (in humans) prior to the mid-2nd century BC. Currently, the
and yang subcategories, whereas a second school proposed earliest reliably dated Chinese medical texts were discovered in
3 subcategories for both. Both of these schools of thought, 1973 at the Mawangdui graves, sealed in 168 BC (Harper
although contradictory, appear to have agreed in their rejection 1987). The Mawangdui documents, a total of 14 medical texts
of the ‘five phases’ doctrine that is important to other Chinese written on silk and wood, appear to provide a comprehensive
theories (Unschuld 1985). The Chinese apparently never made picture of Chinese medicine as it existed during the 3rd and
any attempt to resolve such contradictions. This resulted in early 2nd centuries BC. Acupuncture is not among the
many factions within the domain of TCM and acupuncture. numerous therapeutic interventions mentioned. The earliest
Over time, 2 distinct traditions of medical literature became archaeological findings, discovered in the 1970s, were 4 gold
apparent in post Han China. Pharmaceutical and prescription and 5 silver needles, discovered in the tomb of Han Dynasty
literature was developed and applied without mystical Prince Liu-Sheng (?–113 BC) in Hebei Province. These artefacts,
concepts such as yin and yang. On the other hand, an found in association with other therapeutic instruments, may
acupuncture literature developed that elaborated those arcane have been employed in therapeutic ‘needling’ of some sort
notions, although this was clearly a minor tradition, relative to (Yamada 1998). However, the precise nature of this ‘needling’
the traditions of Chinese herbal medicine. However, as theories is unclear. For example, according to the Chinese classic
of systematic correspondence became more influential in medical text Huang Di neijing, ‘needles’ were also used to
Chinese medical thought, factors such as anatomy and remove ‘water’ from joints, to lance abscesses or for bleeding.
physiology tended to become less significant. As a result, as The earliest reference to any kind of therapeutic ‘needling’
Epler 1980 wrote:“In the history of Chinese medicine, rather (zhen) is found in a historical text, the Shiji [Records of the
than progressing from a reasonable, although incomplete, Historian] of Sima Qian, written c. 90 BC. The Shiji mentions
knowledge of the body to a more detailed one by systematic one instance of ‘needling’ in the texts, in which a dead prince
dissection, the medical writers go in the opposite direction, was resuscitated with a needle placed in the back of his head.
under the sway of the cosmologists, to a less accurate picture”. However, ‘needling’ was not associated with a system of
Although efforts to unite the 2 traditions were made, insertion points or conduits and the reference may refer
particularly in the 12th–15th centuries, those efforts were merely to lancing a boil or abscess.
never successful. Indeed, Chinese medicine “took the form of The Huang Di neijinga, introduced the practice and
a stream flowing into an increasing number of separate and theoretical underpinnings of what clearly became human

aThe title Huang Di neijing has been the subject of numerous English translations. There is some apparent confusion about the title, which
appears to stem from an apparent misconception by Dr Ilza Veith who suggested, in her translation of the book, that the title should be translated
as ‘The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine’. However, the title simply means ‘The Inner Classic of Huang Di’. Huang Di is the name
of the mythological ‘Yellow Emperor’, who, being considered god-like, is also sometimes referred to as the ‘Yellow Thearch’ (Thearch = god-
ruler). The ‘inner’ (the Chinese nei) means an inner or esoteric tradition transmitted from master to student, as opposed to wai, an ‘outer’
tradition for public consumption. The Chinese word jing means simply ‘Canon’ or ‘Classic’. Accordingly, any translation referring to this text as
being related to ‘internal medicine’ is simply incorrect.
278 EQUINE VETERINARY EDUCATION / AE / AUGUST 2004

acupuncture in the historical sense (i.e. the manipulation of qi for his own personal health (Li 1994), acupuncture and
flowing in vessels or conduits by means of needling). The traditional herbal therapies provided Chinese political leaders
book, made up of 3 distinct texts, comprises pieces written by with an expedient and face-saving alternative to the only other
various authors from various periods. It is not clear when healthcare option available to the masses; no healthcare at all.
individual pieces were written or included in the larger text Although the subsequent promotion and revival of interest in
(Keegan 1988). However, the book is not ancient. The main various Chinese medical traditions has been an economic boon
content of the book dates from later centuries and the earliest for China, there is no evidence that such a revival has resulted
known versions date from the 5th to 8th centuries AD in improved health for the Chinese citizens. In fact, ‘Western’
(Akahori 1989), although none of the earlier versions survive medicine is in high demand in China.
as such. The text available today went through its final revision
in the 11th century. The Huang Di neijing introduced the idea Acupuncture in the West
that the body contained functional centres (‘depots’ and
‘palaces’) connected by a series of primary and secondary Chinese medicine was first mentioned by a European in the
conduits that allowed for influences (qi) to pass within the 13th century in the travelogue of William of Rubruck; however,
body and to enter from without. The text largely ignores Europeans became generally aware of acupuncture only in the
specific skin points at which needles can be inserted. In fact, 16th century upon the return of early missionaries from the
older parts of the Huang Di neijing are influenced by Chinese interior and the Chinese Imperial Court. It reached the
instructions to treat illness by phlebotomy (blood-letting). It USA somewhat later. It has since been rejected, forgotten and
has been theorised that blood-letting eventually developed rediscovered again in at least 4 major waves, including the
into acupuncture, and the focus shifted from removing visible current one. For a time, acupuncture became fairly well
blood to regulating invisible qi. established in parts of Europe, particularly in France and
The concept of an invisible agent responsible for Germany (concurrent with Chinese attempts to ban the
maintaining life and health - qi - is not uniquely, nor even practice). Several prominent French physicians advocated
initially, Chinese. Indeed, the concept of a vital air or spirit is a acupuncture in the 18th and 19th centuries, but other equally
fundamental concept of ancient medicine of virtually every prominent doctors were not impressed and accused proponents
culture. For example, the Greek physicians Praxagoras and of resurrecting an absurd doctrine from well-deserved oblivion
Erasistratus, among others, hypothesised that arteries (Lacassagne 1954). Nineteenth century England also saw a brief
conducted the vital force pneuma, and not blood (Prioreschi period of popularity for acupuncture. However, by 1829, the
1996). In light of the interactions that occurred between editor of the Medico-Chiurgical Review wrote: “A little while
China and the West in Han times, it is not unreasonable to ago the town rang with ‘acupuncture,’ everybody talked of it,
speculate whether much of the information presented in the everyone was curing incurable diseases with it; but now not a
Huang Di neijing is simply an adaptation of Greek medicine. syllable is said upon the subject” (Anon 1829). Georges Soulié
Doubts about the efficacy of treatments that pierce the de Morant, a French diplomat resident in China who became
body appear early on. Quotes that if one does not believe in fascinated by acupuncture as a treatment for cholera,
needling (‘needling’ may not be synonymous with subsequently published his influential book L’Acupunture
acupuncture), one should not use it, appear in purported Han Chinoise in 1939, and kindled the first of the 20th century
dynasty writings (Lu and Needham 1980). Over time, for waves of interest in acupuncture (Soulié de Morant 1994).
unknown reasons, acupuncture lost much of its appeal. By at In the USA, acupuncture enjoyed a brief period of popularity
least 1757, the ‘loss of acupuncture tradition’ was lamented during the first half of the 19th century, particularly among
and it was noted that the acupuncture points, channels and physicians in the Philadelphia area (Cassedy 1974). In 1826,
practices in use at the time were very different from those 3 local physicians conducted experiments with acupuncture as a
described in the ancient texts (Unschuld 1998b). Eventually the possible means of resuscitating drowned people, based on
Chinese and other Eastern societies took steps to try to claims by European experimenters that they had successfully
eliminate the practice altogether. In an effort to modernise revived drowned kittens by inserting acupuncture needles into
medicine, the Chinese government attempted to ban their hearts. Those same physicians were unable to duplicate
acupuncture for the first of several times in 1822 and the those reported successes and subsequently ‘gave up in disgust’
Japanese officially prohibited the practice in 1876 (Skrbanek (Coxe 1826). The 1829 edition of Tavernier’s Elements of
1985). Even before the 1911 revolution, acupuncture was no Operative Surgery included 3 pages on how and when one
longer a subject for examination in the Chinese Imperial might perform not only acupuncture, but also ‘electro-
Medical Academy (Prioreschi 1995). acupuncturation’ (Tavernier 1829). Publications extolling the
However, during the ‘Great Leap Forward’ of the 1950s practice appeared on occasion for the next 20 years.
and the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, Chairman Mao Although none of the early American accounts of
Zedong promoted acupuncture and traditional medical acupuncture mention acupuncture ‘points’ or ‘meridians,’
techniques as pragmatic solutions to providing healthcare to a they all claimed substantial success as a result of inserting
vast population that was undersupplied with doctors (Huard needles directly into, or in the immediate vicinity of, painful or
and Wong 1968), and as a superior alternative to ‘imperialist’ otherwise afflicted areas. However, by the second half of the
practices. Although Mao apparently eschewed such therapies 19th century, Western practitioners had largely abandoned
EQUINE VETERINARY EDUCATION / AE / AUGUST 2004 279

Fig 2: Physiognomy points for determining a horse’s character

may have been interpreted incorrectly as acupuncture points
by modern practitioners.

involving qi and with the mai or ‘vessels’ containing qi, was

ever a historical veterinary practice in ancient China.
Bits and pieces of information on the treatment of animals
survive from early texts such as the 6th century Qimin yaoshu,
although they contain nothing remotely resembling
acupuncture (Ramey and Buell 2001). The first recorded
veterinary therapeutic tradition involving ‘needling’ of any sort
appears to begin in Song times, possibly around AD 1000 or,
more likely, after this date. Among Song sources calling for the
‘needling’ of animals is the Fanmu zuan yanfang
(Compendium of Efficacious Recipes from the Nomadic
Fig 1: ‘Needles’ - rather, lancets and sharp blades for bleeding - Tradition), compiled by Wang Yu in either the late 11th or early
as shown in an 18th century Japanese text. 12th century AD (although the surviving version is from the
late 13th or early 14th century), which deals with camel
acupuncture. In 1859, it was concluded that “its advantages medicine (Franke and von den Dreisch 1997). Although
have been much overrated, and the practice…has fallen into ‘needling’ is mentioned, that described is very much a minor
disrepute” (Gross 1859). The Index Catalogue of the Surgeon- tradition and is clearly not associated with the kind of
General’s Library includes barely half a dozen titles on the theoretical underpinnings necessary to call it acupuncture. The
subject for the entire half-century of 1850–1900. key works in Chinese veterinary medicine date from the 17th
and 18th centuries and relate primarily to horses and other
The history of veterinary acupuncture large animals. Perhaps the most important of them is the Ming
Dynasty Yuan Heng liaoma ji (Yuan and Heng’s Collection for
In contrast to the history of human acupuncture, that of Treating the Horse), published in AD 1608 and commonly
veterinary acupuncture is somewhat more obscure and has attributed to two brothers, Yuan and Heng (Guo 1988a,b).
not been extensively studied. However, assertions that Much of the confusion regarding animal acupuncture
acupuncture has been practiced on animals for thousands of appears to have arisen around the Chinese word zhen
years are baseless. From the historical record, it is clear that (‘needling’). Whereas ‘needling’ may be applied in various forms
veterinary acupuncture, as currently practiced, is a relatively in traditional Chinese veterinary texts, it is always secondary to
recent invention. herbal treatments. Furthermore, in reading the texts, it is clear
As in Chinese medicine for humans, the bases of that this ‘needling,’ as described in the traditional texts, has little
traditional veterinary medicine in China have been described or nothing to do with modern acupuncture. Instead, it appears
as “imaginary, religious, mystic and empirical” (Bossut 1990). to refer to any intervention with a sharp or hot object.
However, there is no evidence that acupuncture, Completely lacking is simple ‘needling’ using very fine needles
unambiguously defined by Chinese medicine historians as of the type found in modern human of veterinary acupuncture
puncturing the skin with needles in association with theories (except in a very few surgical interventions, such as cataract
280 EQUINE VETERINARY EDUCATION / AE / AUGUST 2004

Yuan Heng liaoma ji clearly distinguish between acupuncture

and other human medical traditions and those of veterinary
medicine. Furthermore, they insist that the relevant treatment
points are different between humans and animals, in part
because animals are ‘things’ (Guo 1988a). In fact, the roots
of ‘modern’ veterinary acupuncture can be most clearly
traced to 19th century Europe (Jochle 1978) and treatment
‘points’ to European literature that predates the Chinese
sources (Stork 1971).
Misconceptions about the antiquity of veterinary
acupuncture arise from veterinary sources. For example, “One
of the first veterinary textbooks, Bai-le’s (Bo Le’s) Canon of
Veterinary Medicine,” was “written around 650 B.C. [sic], [and]
was based primarily on acupuncture” (Jaggar 1992; Ridgway
1999). However, such assertions are unsupportable. While Bo
Le (also known as Sun Yang) was probably a historical figure
and is assigned some knowledge in the treatment of horses in
sources written long after he lived, his primary reputation in
later times was as a physiognomist, one skilled in divination
based on physical features such as hair whorls (Sterckx 2002).
Texts associated with Bo Le’s name are only mentioned more
than 1000 years after his death, and these texts appear to have
been lost. The Simu anji ji (Collection of Herdman’s Ways for
Pacifying Stallions), a collection of veterinary texts that, in its
present form, was published only in 1384 (although much of
the material is a few centuries older), is apparently the first
Chinese book to include actual texts of veterinary works
attributed to Bo Le (Simu anji ji 1957). The texts include the Bo
Le zhen jing [Bo Le’s Canon of ‘Needling’]. However, the
traditions described therein are primarily bleeding, cautery and
physiognomy, not acupuncture.
Much of the ‘historical’ practice of human and veterinary
Fig 3: Points at which faeces purportedly accumulate and
causes colic - not acupucture points - and the manual method acupuncture is quite recent and of curious origin. For example,
of removing such accumulations. ear acupuncture has been recommended for various
procedures in equine medicine and surgery (Klide and Kung
removal). Indeed, contemporaneous Japanese sources show 1977; Schoen 1994a), although it was developed by a French
‘needles’ that look far different from those currently employed physician, P.M.F. Nogier, based on his ‘sudden intuition’ that
in modern acupuncture (Ryoyaku baryo benkai 1859). Rather the antihelix of the ear was actually an upside-down model of
than the slender, filiform needles employed by modern the fetal human vertebral column (Nogier 1957). Acupuncture
practitioners, the ‘needles’ of 17th and 18th century Eastern analgesia, perhaps the most commonly promoted application
veterinary literature appear to be lancets or blades, such as of the practice, is an invention of the late 1950s (Hsu 1996).
would be used for bleeding or lancing abscesses and other Acupuncture anaesthesia, claimed by proponents to be
lesions (Fig 1). Such ‘needles’ are even represented in modern evidence of its effectiveness, is not popular in China and was
literature (Kao and Kao 1974). The Yuan Heng liaoma ji and used for clinical anaesthesia in 0–10% of cases in
similar texts thus describe ‘needling’ (bleeding, lancing, surgery, 10 large Chinese hospitals surveyed in 2001 (Nishimura 2002).
etc) traditions that have little or nothing in common with Finally, the association with and translation of qi as a form of
acupuncture as currently practised. energy was not made until 1939, at the same time that the
Additional confusion surrounds ‘points’ (xue) described in term meridian was coined (Soulié de Morant 1994).
such texts. The relevant points are clearly used for such Similarly, some of the ‘traditional’ theoretical aspects of
interventions as bleeding, surgery, cauterisation or divination veterinary acupuncture are also modern. Animal acupuncture
- not acupuncture (Fig 2). In the numerous illustrations in the meridians date only to the 1970s and were invented at the
Yuan Heng liaoma ji associated with ‘needling’, it is insistence of Western practitioners (White 1994), although even
significant that, although individual points are often some acupuncture practitioners question their existence.
associated with organs, there is no association of a connected However, various authors (mostly Western) have ‘discovered’
series of points (e.g. conduits or conduit vessels); rather, the meridians in cattle, pigs, dogs, cats and various other species,
points are individual and the theoretical system developed in mostly by ‘transposition’ from one of many human charts even
human acupuncture is entirely lacking. The authors of the though such transposition fails to find a single point of
EQUINE VETERINARY EDUCATION / AE / AUGUST 2004 281

agreement between such charts and traditional Chinese animal for Treating Horses], Yedo (org. 1759) 2, 24B.
illustrations (Panzer 1993). In addition, such transposition might Anon (1957) Simu anji ji, Zhonghua shuju, Beijing.
seem inappropriate in light of the Confucian tradition that the Bossut, D. (1990) Development of veterinary acupuncture in China,
human civilised world should never mix with that of the savage In: Proceedings of the 16th IVAS Congress of Veterinary
(animal) one (Despeux 1981) and the explicit historical Chinese Acupuncture, International Veterinary Acupuncture Society,
Noordwijk, Holland. p 5.
reference that treatment points - whatever the treatment - were
not the same in humans as in animals (Guo 1988a). Cassedy, J. (1974) Early uses of acupuncture in the United States
[Addendum (1826) by Franklin Bache]. Bull. N.Y. Acad. Med. 50,
Conversely, numerous historical Chinese veterinary 892-906.
practices appear to have been largely abandoned. For
Coxe, E. (1826) Observations on asphyxia from drowning. N. Am.
example, prohibitions against ‘needling’ on certain days Med. Surg. J. 292-293.
associated with the 60 day cycle of the traditional Chinese Despeux, C. (1981) Apercu historique de l’art veterinaire en Chine.
calendar or with phases of the moon appear not to be Rev. Acuponct. Vet. 9, 21-22.
followed. Similarly, ‘divination’ techniques, whereby through Epler, D. (1980) Bloodletting in early Chinese medicine and its relation
close examination of physical and morphological features such to the origin of acupuncture. Bull. Hist. Med. 54, 357-367.
as ‘swirl’ patterns in the coat one may determine whether a Franke, H. and von den Dreisch, A. (1997) Zur traditionellen
particular horse will be ‘lucky’ or ‘unlucky,’ appear to have lost Kamelheilkunde in China. Sudhoffs Archiv. 81, 84-89.
their historical importance (Heerde 1998). Gross, S. (1859) A System of Surgery, Blanchard & Lea, Philadelphia.
Finally, traditional Chinese texts appear to have been pp 575-576.
misinterpreted in the veterinary literature, leading to a false Guo, H. (1988a) Xinke zhushi ma niu to jing da quan ji [Newly Printed
impression about animal acupuncture history. For example, a and Annotated Horse, Ox, and Camel Classics], Nongye chuban
chart from the Yuan Heng liaoma ji has been claimed to show she, Beijing (org. 1795). p 40.
lateral acupuncture points (Schoen 1994b). However, the Guo, H. (1988b) Xinke zhushi ma niu to jing da quan ji [Newly Printed
and Annotated Horse, Ox, and Camel Classics], Nongye chuban
accompanying text indicates that such ‘points’ are, in fact,
she, Beijing (org. 1795). pp 107-109.
‘knots’ (jie) where faeces accumulate and cause colic (Guo
Harper, D. (1997) Early Chinese Medical Literature: The Mawangdui
1988b). A subsequent illustration in the same text even shows Medical Manuscripts, Kegan Paul International, London.
an arm inserted rectally in an effort to remove the impactions
Heerde, M. (1998) Song on the observation of the hair whorls of good
at their source (Fig 3). A philological approach to Chinese and bad horses. In: Pferdeklassiker, PhD Thesis, University of
veterinary medicine, with accurate translations from original Munich. pp 33-34.
source material, is mandatory for its understanding. Hepeng, J. (2003) China loses its faith in traditional beliefs. Sci. Dev. Net.
http://www.scidev.net/News/index.cfm?fuseaction=readNews&itemi
Conclusions d=1034&language=1
Hsu, E. (1996) Innovations in acumoxa: acupuncture analgesia, scalp
D. C. Epler Jr., historian of medicine, has observed: “The and ear acupuncture in the people’s Republic of China. Soc. Sci.
Med. 42, 421-430.
technique [acupuncture] is said to be over 2000 years old and
contemporary authors continue to cite ancient texts when Huard, P. and Wong, M. (1968) Chinese Medicine, Weidenfeld &
Nicholson, London. p 150.
describing its theoretical foundations. However, when these
Jaggar, D. (1992) History and basic introduction to veterinary
ancient texts are approached as historical documents, rather
acupuncture. In: Problems in Veterinary Medicine: Veterinary
than as source books that can be continually reinterpreted for Acupuncture, Ed: A. Schoen, Lippincott, Philadelphia. pp 1-11.
medical practitioners, then they indicate vast differences Jochle, W. (1978) Veterinary acupuncture in Europe and America: past
between the early use of needles and the present form of and present. Am. J. Acupuncture 6, 149-156.
acupuncture. What is now known as acupuncture is thus the Kao, F.F. and Kao, J.J. (1974) Veterinary acupuncture. Am. J. Chin.
result of a long development and bears little resemblance to Med. 2, 89-102.
its ancestral version” (Epler 1980). So it is with the putative Kaptchuk, T. (1983) The Web That Has No Weaver, St. Martin’s Press,
history of veterinary acupuncture. In fact, claims for the New York.
extreme antiquity of human and veterinary acupuncture are Keegan, D.J. (1988) The Huang-Ti Nei-Ching: The Structure of the
widely reported in the veterinary acupuncture literature, but Compilation, the Significance of the Compilation. Dissertation,
are not supported by the historical record. UMI Dissertation Service Order 8916728.
Klide, A. and Kung, S. (1977) Veterinary Acupuncture, University of
Pennsylvania Press, Pennsylvania. pp 265-270.
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