Chinese vs. American Acupuncture

To the Editor: In his letter, “Osler, Acupuncture, and Lumbago” (N Engl J Med 287:314, 1972), Dr. Luis Fernandez-Herlihy dubs Sir William Osler the “pioneer North American acupuncturist” and notes that Osler recommended acupuncture for lumbago 50 years before the Chinese Great Leap Forward. In deference to both Sir William and Chairman Mao, it might be of interest to compare Osler's acupuncture with the Chinese variety. Osler advocated acupuncture both for lumbago and for sciatica.¹ Two decades later, Hare, in his Practical Therapeutics, devoted a short article to “acupuncture” and essentially repeated Osler's descriptions.² Neither Osler nor Hare ventured to.