Treatment of acute pathologies, head pain, Chinese lithograph

Lithograph from Huitu shajing hebi (Illustrated Compendium of Acute Pathologies), published in 1911 (3rd year of the Xuantong reign period of the Qing dynasty). This is a specialised text dealing with shabing - a category of sudden, acute diseases. It contains descriptions of 44 conditions, each accompanied by an illustration. The condition depicted here is toutong sha (acute illness characterised by head pain). The symptoms of this condition are headache, dizziness, feelings of heaviness in the head etc. According to the text, the condition is treated by acupuncture at the danzhong (Chest Centre) point, the tianting (Celestial Courtyard) point, in both armpits and above the navel. The illustration shows a male patient, clasping his painful head in both hands.

Picture title: Toutong sha (illness characterised by acute headache). Other lettering: Insert a needle in the left and right costal points (xiexue). Insert a needle in both taiyang (Great Yang) points. Also insert a needle in the crease at the top of both big toes. This is known as neiting (Inner Courtyard). Needle baihui (Hundred Meetings).