This is a form of acupuncture, so named from Baunscheidt, its inventor. "The instrument employed consists of a heavy disk, about half an inch in diameter, having inserted into it about twenty-five sharp needles, each about nine-sixteenths of an inch in length. To this disk a strong wire spiral spring (five and a half inches in length) is attached, and the other extremity of the spring is inserted into an elongated spindle-shaped handle." The spring and needles are contained in a cylinder, the handle attached. The following is the mode of using it: the open extremity of the cylinder is placed firmly on the skin; the handle is then drawn up, which compresses the spring; now, if suddenly loosed, the recoil of the spring drives the needles smartly into the skin. The punctures may be rubbed with a weak mixture of croton-oil, with cajeput-oil, or other suitable counter-irritant.

Actions and Uses

These are methods of counter-irritation which appear to possess peculiar powers. The theories which have been proposed to explain their mode of action are far from satisfactory. The method of Baunscheidt is that of an ordinary counter-irritant added to the effects of acupuncture; but no explanation has hitherto been offered which accounts, in a rational manner, for the curative effects of acupuncture in certain maladies.

In tic-douloureux, sciatica, lumbago, and myalgia, it occasionally happens that remarkable and instantaneous relief is obtained by the insertion of acupuncture-needles deep enough to reach near the affected nerve.

When the patient is timid, the sensibility of the skin may be diminished by the application of chloroform for a minute, or of the ether-spray or methyl chloride. If rapidly rotated by the finger and thumb, the needle will penetrate with little suffering.