Exploring our archives

Acupuncture has been practiced in China, Japan and Korea for centuries and along with other ‘traditional’ or ‘complementary’ therapies remains a controversial topic in Western medicine. In the Hooke folio, an account of a meeting on the 18 January 1682 records the Royal Society discussing a letter from a Wilhem Ten Rhyne, from the factory of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) which asks that his manuscript on the use of acupuncture in Japan be published in English. The letter also describes the use of artemisia vulgaris, commonly known as mugwort, a herb used traditionally in Europe and America. In Oriental medicine it is known as moxa and is used in combination with acupuncture to stimulation circulation. The use of moxa to cure gout had also been discussed in a meeting of 1st August 1678, leading to a wider discussion about the effects of heat on the human body. This led to the observation that, like Chinese and Japanese doctors, Galen had paid more attention to the pulses in various parts of the body than was usual among surgeons of the day.

The Royal Society continued to debate the benefits of both moxa and acupuncture: a letter of 1692 from Wilhelm Ten Rhyne answers a list of queries about the specific uses of the techniques in Japan. These remedies had also been noted by Engelbert Kaempfer (1651-1716) in his ‘History of Japan, giving an account of the ancient and present state and government of that empire. . .To which is added, part of a journal of a voyage to Japan, made by the English in the year 1673’. Kaempfer’s manuscript was not published for almost a century acquired by the botanist and President of the Royal Society Hans Sloane who saw to the translation of the work by Johann Caspar Scheuchzer and its publication in 1727.

The benefits of ‘alternative’ or ‘complementary’ medicines are still hotly debated. While some claim that acupuncture essentially has a placebo effect, other research has suggested more tangible medical effects, most recently in treating Parkinson’s disease. The effects of artemisia vulgaris are a matter of continuing debate, some studies (for example the study of Cardini and Weixin published in JAMA in 1998) suggest it can assist in breach births by promoting fetal activity. A recent Royal Society policy paper on the issue stresses the importance of large scale randomised control trials in exploring the effects of types of therapies.

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