We Can Learn from History

   Acupuncture; history notes

 

                Are we too superior in our conceits to recognize the ability we ought to see in others?

                '

                I write here in hope that we may more enjoy the fruits of acupuncture. The French and Russians began to enjoy those fruits of the acupuncture part of Chinese Health Care many years ago. Our AMA has not pointed us to a legal road to making acupuncture an active part of our health care system. It  that seems finding and setting up that road is up us, we the people. 

               

                 The people of some countries have struggled a bit with deciding how to regulate acupuncture, bur most have allowed it legal practice. Russian elites have demanded it. Chinese demand that extensive education and careful oversight of the the practice be established and maintained. European countries have demanded that all acupuncturists be medical doctors as well. Some of them have neglected the supervision of its teaching.

 

                Some knowledge of the history of acupuncture may prove of help to to us. Allow me to pass on some of that history which have begun to learn.

 
Before 900 AD                

                A medical school was established in China during the Tang dynasty before 900 AD. Its name, translated to English can be, the Imperial Institute of Physicians. The college trained 350 students at a time in herbal medicine and surgery. Herbal medicine seems to have been the more important part of the instruction. Surgery was mainly limited to fractures, skin diseases, and wounds.

 
600 AD                

Tang emperors also organized the nation's doctors into the grand Medical Service. It will be great when we can organize our healthcare to include the best of the kinds available in other countries. The development of organized healthcare in China began at least as early as 600 AD. Certainly we ought to be able to improve and extend our healthcare in the near future.

 
About 700 AD             

    Chinese health care was regulated and delivery improved beginning in about 700 AD. Prospective doctors underwent rigorous examinations. Future doctors were examined on their familiarity with the principles of acupuncture and its diagnosis and techniques, also on the best written works. 

 

                Chinese controlled the quality of their health care then and now. There were and are laws prohibiting the practice of healthcare and cure without licenses.

 

                    

According to surviving healthcare books and documents from as far back as the Tang, a variety of maladies were treated. their practice dealt with tuberculosis, goiter, rickets, beriberi, dropsy, Cholera, dysentery, measles, smallpox, and leprosy.

As we begin to use our choice of the very best European and Asiatic healthcare, we can learn from and adopt some of their methods of  control and safety. There  is much of value we can learn if we would. We can learn to benefit from acupuncture as have the French, and Russians, and others. Our healthcare professionals have much to teach others.

Let's get back to the Tang dynasty way of dealing with acupuncture. On the second day of their examinations was a demonstration of one's effectiveness of dealing with the needles of acupuncture. A great deal more of Chinese history is becoming available these days and the Chinese share share much of their modern healthcare understanding, knowledge, and techniques. We can learn from them and help them to learn from us.

 Acupuncture points

                In 1027 AD the sung dynasty emperor, Je Tsug ordered Wang Wei, a noted acupuncturist and sculpture to cast two hollow figures with the acupuncture points points marked by their names and small holes. The figures were covered with wax and filled with water. These figures were used to train and test students. Similar figures are used by students and teachers and students today, Since the Sung dynasty only about a dozen points have been changed, added, or deleted. I understands that a total of about 365 points are used today. For the interested person there is much historic and present day information available online.

 
 Chaing Kai-shek              

 During the reign of Chaing Kai-shek, western medicine was extolled and acupuncture was repressed and schools closed. Still, the Chinese people looked to their traditional medicine. Thousands were killed by quacks and the untrained in the use of traditional medicine. Many came to doubt their ''medicine."

When the communist consolidated power acupuncturists began to use the needles where they were most likely to be used correctly, on themselves. A graduate from their schools may have pricked himself ten thousand times refining his skills and touch until teachers and testers were sure of his ability. There remained much to be learned of diagnosis.  

 

                Now, acupuncture has been modernized by Chinese doctors also trained in western medicine. Acupuncture is used extensively. Electronic needles are used, and their use has moved into most modern Chinese medicine. 

 "Head Zones"

                In 1893 Sir Henry Head, a British nerve specialist, noticed that some patients suffering from diseased gallbladders and kidneys felt pain in parts of the body far from from the stricken organs. The pain was external, on the surface of the skin, and a specific disease always resulted in pain from the same place. Think of the diagnostic possibilities, Some wise doctors have been trained in "Head Zones."

German doctors soon began to use their knowledge of "Head Zones" to deaden areas of the skin to relieve pain in internal organs. Does that remind you of anything in particular?

 

                Some American doctors add to this practice by injecting these surface areas with chemical Anesthesia to get the same result. American doctors were amazed to find that their injections in Head Zones not only relieved pain, but in many cases cure diseases. Head Zones have been too largely forgotten, but there is still a bit of ongoing work being done in the U.S. and elsewhere. 

 

            By the way, the areas of the skin Dr. Head linked with the gallbladder and kidneys are the same ones acupuncturists use today and the same ones they have used for many hundreds of years.

 

                I believe that we can benefit from careful training of good acupuncture practitioners in the U.S. I believe we would benefit even more by good appropriate oversight of those practitioners and of all physicians and health practitioners. For developing appropriate training of acupuncturists in the U.S. we could increase exchange of healthcare practitioners between China and America.

 

                

            Thank you for reading

 

 

                                                                                                RCS 

Acupuncture: history and scientific observation

 Acupuncture: history notes
 

                Are we too superior in our conceits to recognize the ability we ought to see in others?

               

             I write here in hope that we may more enjoy the fruits of acupuncture. The French and Russians began to enjoy those fruits of the acupuncture part of Chinese Health Care many years ago. Our AMA has not pointed us to a legal road to making acupuncture an active part of our health care system. It  that seems finding and setting up that road is up us, we the people. 

               

                 The people of some countries have struggled a bit with deciding how to regulate acupuncture, bur most have allowed it legal practice. Russian elites have demanded it. Chinese demand that extensive education and careful oversight of the the practice be established and maintained. European countries have demanded that all acupuncturists be medical doctors as well. Some of them have neglected the supervision of its teaching.

 

                Some knowledge of the history of acupuncture may prove of help to to us. Allow me to pass on some of that history which have begun to learn.

 

                A medical school was established in China during the Tang dynasty before 900 AD. Its name, translated to English can be, the Imperial Institute of Physicians. The college trained 350 students at a time in herbal medicine and surgery. Herbal medicine seems to have been the more important part of the instruction. Surgery was mainly limited to fractures, skin diseases, and wounds.

 

                Tang emperors also organized the nation's doctors into the grand Medical Service. It will be great when we can organize our healthcare to include the best of the kinds available in other countries. The development of organized healthcare in China began at least as early as 600 AD. Certainly we ought to be able to improve and extend our healthcare in the near future.

 

                 Chinese health care was regulated and delivery improved beginning in about 700 AD. Prospective doctors underwent rigorous examinations. Future doctors were examined on their familiarity with the principles of acupuncture and its diagnosis and techniques, also on the best written works. 

 

                Chinese controlled the quality of their health care then and now. There were and are laws prohibiting the practice of healthcare and cure without licenses.

 

                According to surviving healthcare books and documents from as far back as the Tang, a variety of maladies were treated. their practice dealt with tuberculosis, goiter, rickets, beriberi, dropsy, Cholera, dysentery, measles, smallpox, and leprosy.

            As we begin to use our choice of the very best European and Asiatic healthcare, we can learn from and adopt some of their methods of  control and safety. There  is much of value we can learn if we would. We can learn to benefit from acupuncture as have the French, and Russians, and others. Our healthcare professionals have much to teach others.

            Let's get back to the Tang dynasty way of dealing with acupuncture. On the second day of their examinations was a demonstration of one's effectiveness of dealing with the needles of acupuncture. A great deal more of Chinese history is becoming available these days and the Chinese share share much of their modern healthcare understanding, knowledge, and techniques. We can learn from them and help them to learn from us.

 

                In 1027 AD the sung dynasty emperor, Je Tsug ordered Wang Wei, a noted acupuncturist and sculpture to cast two hollow figures with the acupuncture points points marked by their names and small holes. The figures were covered with wax and filled with water. These figures were used to train and test students. Similar figures are used by students and teachers and students today, Since the Sung dynasty only about a dozen points have been changed, added, or deleted. I understands that a total of about 365 points are used today. For the interested person there is much historic and present day information available online.

 

                During the reign of Chaing Kai-shek, western medicine was extolled and acupuncture was repressed and schools closed. Still, the Chinese people looked to their traditional medicine. Thousands were killed by quacks and the untrained in the use of traditional medicine. Many came to doubt their ''medicine."

                When the communist consolidated power acupuncturists began to use the needles where they were most likely to be used correctly, on themselves. A graduate from their schools may have pricked himself ten thousand times refining his skills and touch until teachers and testers were sure of his ability. There remained much to be learned of diagnosis.  

 

                Now, acupuncture has been modernized by Chinese doctors also trained in western medicine. Acupuncture is used extensively. Electronic needles are used, and their use has moved into most modern Chinese medicine. 

 

                In 1893 Sir Henry Head, a British nerve specialist, noticed that some patients suffering from diseased gallbladders and kidneys felt pain in parts of the body far from from the stricken organs. The pain was external, on the surface of the skin, and a specific disease always resulted in pain from the same place. Think of the diagnostic possibilities, Some wise doctors have been trained in "Head Zones."

            

            German doctors soon began to use their knowledge of "Head Zones" to deaden areas of the skin to relieve pain in internal organs. Does that remind you of anything in particular?

 

                Some American doctors add to this practice by injecting these surface areas with chemical Anesthesia to get the same result. American doctors were amazed to find that their injections in Head Zones not only relieved pain, but in many cases cure diseases. Head Zones have been too largely forgotten, but there is still a bit of ongoing work being done in the U.S. and elsewhere. 

 

            By the way, the areas of the skin Dr. Head linked with the gallbladder and kidneys are the same ones acupuncturists use today and the same ones they have used for many hundreds of years.

 

                I believe that we can benefit from careful training of good acupuncture practitioners in the U.S. I believe we would benefit even more by good appropriate oversight of those practitioners and of all physicians and health practitioners. For developing appropriate training of acupuncturists in the U.S. we could increase exchange of healthcare practitioners between China and America.

 

                Check RCS Posts for health related posts.

            Thank you for reading

 

 

                                                                    RCS 

Archaeology, preHistory, and History From Times Before the U.S.

 A glance, a peek, a little look into the past of one region on Earth

                As there was no United States yet during the times we will look at here it might be better to say that this is a look at pre-Columbian North America. That is the lands now claimed by the people of Canada, the U.S., and Mexico. There is much to learn of and from these times. You may take the following as a brief  introduction to topics which are entertained on this blog which includes essays, videos, archaeology, prehistory and a bit more.

                    In the Americas precolumbian times are those times before around 1492 before Columbus had touched on the american continents. A time that began for us when we began to the many different peoples who were encountered by those arriving soon after Columbus. Archaeology is a quickly growing science which is often actually digging up items from the past doings of humans and analyzing them. Prehistory is the history which comes to us not written. I is not a precise time. In away it is information about the past from before there were historians. With this little review I am ready to move forward.

                    I see now that what I have written here is mostly about what has now become that part of North America, which became the USA. As I am a Gringo, I have a reason, often called an excuse. The name Gringo was originated by Mexicans at one of those times the people north of the Rio Grand chose to fight with those people south of the Rio Bravo and those people chose to fight back. History which is simple is usually best not trusted. The Rio Grand/Grande and the Rio Bravo are both the same river which in my experience is neither grande nor bravo. In English neither big nor fierce. 

                        

                Anyway, when combatants rested from shooting one another they often sang. Often they sang nightly. Those north of the river very much liked a popular song with the refrain, "And green grow the rushes ho." On the south side of the river one asked another what the noise was and the other answered. "It's the Gringos" the plural of how "Green grow" sounded from that side of the river.

                    Now I have simplified the story, but that's history.

                    And now I will go on with short form of the history while being as honest as I can in hopes that you will be the wiser for my telling.

               

                 We have have learned from early post columbian persons(often indirectly) such as the Spaniard Hernando de Soto and his report on his 1540 to 1542 travers of what is now the U.S. southwest and also and also from other early Spanish visitors and colonists. Now that was a long sentences, but it was my effort to shorten and simplify this story of history. I hope you enjoyed my effort on your behalf. You may read it again if  you so wish. That was less than 200 years ago. Religion is part of history. One of the most recent bringer of many hundreds of such bringers came about 2,000 thousand years ago. Now on YouTube we are being told of human doings of  before Noah's flood. Others on You Tube are telling us that we were up and doing 20,000 years ago and probably had experience more than one really big flood and some really big comets, and a lot of parties. Some real experts are tellings that it is very likely humans were up and doing more than 200,000 years ago. Between those times and this there have been some curious happenings and doings.

                    The Spanish were not the first to arrive in the Americas which we once called the New World. Most of those we called Indians  came in waves after the last Ice Age and some before that. Just before the Spanish came the Portuguese had followed the cod here. Before that came the Vikings. It seem that the Dutch followed the Portugues everywhere and got to this New World before the English.

Spanish:

                    The Spanish looked around a lot and did some finding. The next people who came in some numbers and did considerable looking around were the French, French voyageurs. We have learned from those them. They wrote about their doings as did the Spanish. So from them we have some documented stories we can call history. The French came about 100 years after the Spanish and what we have called Native Americans, had already suffered a lot. What we have called Voyageurs,were interested in fur and traveled to where it could be gotten. They learned to trade with the early comers we have called natives, persons born to the land.

French:

                    Many French arrived. They moved up and down the Mississippi drainage basin and elsewhere. They observed the native Americans and found them and their settlements less impressive than the Spaniards had. I the past century the native culture had deteriorated greatly. The great die-off had begun. 

A French visiter, an artist. saw the Indian activity with the eyes of an artist and saw it as curious, but not impressive. A caption on a 1590 painting of his done in what is the northeast Florida read, "Sometimes the deceased king of this province is buried with great solemnity, and his great cup from which he was accustomed to drink is placed on a tumulus with many arrows set about it." His painting may have have been exactm, but his captio is likely to have been written with more humor than understanding.

                    The early Spanish and later the earliest French who traveled up and down the Mississippi river and its large tributaries such as the Missouri and Ohio rivers were privileged to see many mounds and other earth works still in use and cared for.

                After about 1670 priests and others traveling these rivers were finding most of the mounds becoming grown over with grass and some brush. However, some of the sites, like those at what was to become the present of the city of Saint Louis, Were still able to impress them. Avery few, like those at Natchez, were still occupied and French colonists found it necessary to remove Indians by force.

English:

                By 1770 the Indian population east of the Mississippi to the Atlantic coast and all along the Mississippi and its tributaries was greatly diminished. The Dutch, English, were adding to the Spanish, Portugues, and French European arrivals. English were arriving in great numbers and learned little of what the various Indian culture had been 200 years earlier. Still we have gather much information about the mounds, other earthworks, and Indians themselves from the writings of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Haven, and later Wesley Powell.

     

Us, Now:

                These days, 500 post Columbian years later, archaeologist are digging up a great deal of bone and artifact and providing us with much new information and providing fresh analysis. Since the great die off there is some return of population growth of population of those of Indian background, but many languages have been lost and much culture has been lost too. But a notable number of those named Indians and there culture is still among us; Americans all. Along with the archaeological information the is significant ethnological information available. You can find more prehistorical and historical information here on Mago Bill. Mago Bill history is mostly Irish.

                This example of the relatively new archaeological information available is from the not so new site of Watson Break. Watson Break is located in the present-day Ouachita Parish in the state of Louisiana. It dates from what has been called the North American Archaic Period. What is now Ouachita Parish has been home to many succeeding Native american groups in the thousand years before Europeans began to settle there. People of the Marksville culture, Troyville culture, Coles Creek culture, and Plaquemine culture built villages and earthwork mound sites throughout the area. a notable example is Filohiol Mound site located on a natural levee of the Ouachita river.

                Watson Break earthworks date to about 5,400 BP; which is about 3,500 BC. The arrangements of the mounds at WB was constructed over centuries by what is thought to be a hunter gatherer society. It is located near Watson Bayou in the floodplain of the Ouachita river. By the way, bayous might have been human modifications for communications and agriculture. The Break site consists of eleven mounds connected by ridges and causeways to form a large oval of nearly 900 feet across.Researchers believe the Break site is older than the better known Poverty Point site.

                Watson Break people seem to have planned and organized work forces to accomplish their earthworks.

                The site seems to have been abandoned around 2,800 BC.

                You can find out more about Native Americans on this History With RCS blog site and I hope to add more from time to time.

                When you have corrections, additions, questions, or other comments there is a "comments" app below for you to use.

                Thank you for reading.

                                                                                        Richard Sheehan

        

                 

Watson Break Mound Builders

A Vantage Point From  Which to Begin to View North American Pre-History

                I am using the Watson Break archaeological site as a beginning point to look at the prehistory of North America and at the people of that time. There is a lot to learn from what we learn about the pre-Columbian people of North America. This essay is a very brief  introduction to that which we are learning of these people.

History Can Provide Some Useful View Points

                With a bit of research we have learned from post-Columbian persons such as Hernando de Soto and his 1540 to 1542 travers of what is now the U.S. southeast and from other early Spanish visitors and colonists. They saw earthworks, many of which have been called mounds. We have also learn from the later French voyageurs and from men like the French artist wo saw Indian activity with an artistic eye, with perhaps, a view to later sales. A caption on a 1590 of his in what is now northeast Florida read, "Sometimes the deceased king of this province is buried with great solemnity, and his great cup from which he was accustomed to drink is placed on a tumulus with many arrows set about it." His painting may have been exact, but his caption is likely to have been written with more humor than understanding. He saw mounds as did voyageurs and as did Spanish explorers, colonists and others.

                    The early Spanish and French who traveled up and down the Mississippi river and its large tributaries like the Missouri and Ohio rivers, one hundred and 200 years before the English, were privileged to see many mounds and other earth works still in use and cared for.

                    After about 1670 priests and others traveling the rivers were finding that most of the mounds were were becoming grown over with grass and some brush. However, some sites, like those at what was to become the present site of the U.S. city of saint Louis were still able to impress them. A very few, like those at Natchez were still occupied. So occupied that French colonists found it necessary to remove Indians by force.

                    Other information on Mound Builders may be gathered from writings of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Haven, and John Wesley Powell. 

                    Archaeology has become an Important source of Information. Today archaeological sites, interpretation, and speculation is hot.

                    These days there is a great deal of fresh new archaeological information available. There is also more ethnological information available. You can find more interesting historical, archaeological, and pre-historic information here on this blogsite.

Watson Break Site

                    Some of the newer archaeological information deals with the Watson Break site. This site is in present da Ouachita Parish, Louisiana. It dates from what has been called the North American Archaic Period. What is now Ouachita Parish has been home to many succeeding Native American groups in the thousands of years before Europeans began to settle there. People of the Marksville culture, Troyville culture, Coles Creek culture, and Plaquemine culture built villages and earthwork mounds throughout the area. A notable example is the Filhiol Mound site located on a "natural" levee of the Ouachita river.

                    The name Ouachita is the Spanish version of the Indian people who lived in northeastern Louisiana along the Ouachita river and were known in the Ouachita mountains of the State of  Arkansas.

                    Watson Break earthworks date to about 5,400 BP, which is about 3,500 BC. The site seems to have been abandoned around 2,800 BC.

A Little About the People of Watson Break 

                    The arrangement of mounds at WB was constructed over centuries by what is thought to be a hunter harvester society. It is located near Watson Bayou.

in the flood plain of the Ouachita river. By the way, bayous might be constructs of Native Americans. The Break site consists of of eleven mounds connected by ridges and causeways to form a large oval, nearly 900 feet across. Researchers believe that it is older than the Poverty Point site. Poverty point is worth writing about. We can write about Poverty Point when you comment.

                    Watson Break people seems to have planned and organized work forces to accomplish their earthworks.

                    You can find more about  Native Americas on this blog and hope to publish more from time to time. You can tell me about content you would like to see here in "comments." I really like it when you offer help and suggestions. Have in mind that when you have corrections, additions, questions, or feel like making a comment, there is a ''comments'' app just below.

                    Thank you for reading!

                                                                                                rcs