MASSO-THERAPEUTICS AND SCORPION STING. "
To the Editor, Indian Medical Gazette." Sir,?In the perusal of a small book on Masso-Therapeutics by Murrell, I have found the solution of a matter that has puzzled me for some nine or ten years. It is as folio ws : In 18801 was Civil Surgeon of Banda, N.-W. P., and those who know that locality will remember that the house and black cotton cracked soil are full of scorpions. One day when some repairs were being executed to the roof of my house, either on ?
the tiles or thatch, and I think the former, a Christian servant of mine was stung in the right great toe by a scorpion. I found the man in great pain about the whole leg and thigh extending to the groin, and awaitinar the arrival of one of the men on the house-top who was to "cure" him. Fully anticipating a failure I looked on expecting a triumph for modern medicine, but I was mistaken. The workman having got one of my servant's towels, made a knot at one corner, and having pulled it very tight in his teeth, he seized the suffering servant's thigh, in both hands, surrounding the limb a little below the groin and apparently making pressure. The knot of the towel was also ra his hand. After a few seconds he asked the patient where the pain was, and the latter said there, pointing down towards his knee; the operator then made a second knot on the towel and grasped the seat of pain as before. The patient now said the pain was in the calf of his leg : the knotting and pressing process was repeated, the pain then going to the foot or ankle, and, finally, the fourth knot and pressure at the ankle placed the pain in the toe originally stung. The operator now said he could not take the pain any farther, but he did not explain the reason ; those present, I think, thought it was because there were no more corners on the towels to knot. The man opened the knots off the towel, and, returned to his work on the house, and I said to the ser" You are not such a fool as to tell me that fellow vant, has really taken the pain out of your leg." He replied, "Yes,
THE INDIAN MEDICAL GAZETTE.
160
it is true. The pain was like fire up my leg and thigh, and it i3 now1 only slight in my toe." The whole process took two or three minutes, and the man had only just It been stung; so tt e affair is quite true and reliable. can fully be accounted for by massage, as some of the " '? described in the book I mention are more wondercures ful. Perhaps my friend of the house-top was an accomplished Masseur without his knowing it.
sir,
Yours obediently,
29th
April
1889.
H. P. ESMONDE WHITE, F.R.C S.I., Durbar Physician, Travancore.
[May,
1889.
To the Editor, Indian Medical Gazette." Sir,?In the perusal of a small book on Masso-Therapeutics by Murrell, I have found the solution of a matter that has puzzled me for some nine or ten years. It is as folio ws : In 18801 was Civil Surgeon of Banda, N.-W. P., and those who know that locality will remember that the house and black cotton cracked soil are full of scorpions. One day when some repairs were being executed to the roof of my house, either on ?
the tiles or thatch, and I think the former, a Christian servant of mine was stung in the right great toe by a scorpion. I found the man in great pain about the whole leg and thigh extending to the groin, and awaitinar the arrival of one of the men on the house-top who was to "cure" him. Fully anticipating a failure I looked on expecting a triumph for modern medicine, but I was mistaken. The workman having got one of my servant's towels, made a knot at one corner, and having pulled it very tight in his teeth, he seized the suffering servant's thigh, in both hands, surrounding the limb a little below the groin and apparently making pressure. The knot of the towel was also ra his hand. After a few seconds he asked the patient where the pain was, and the latter said there, pointing down towards his knee; the operator then made a second knot on the towel and grasped the seat of pain as before. The patient now said the pain was in the calf of his leg : the knotting and pressing process was repeated, the pain then going to the foot or ankle, and, finally, the fourth knot and pressure at the ankle placed the pain in the toe originally stung. The operator now said he could not take the pain any farther, but he did not explain the reason ; those present, I think, thought it was because there were no more corners on the towels to knot. The man opened the knots off the towel, and, returned to his work on the house, and I said to the ser" You are not such a fool as to tell me that fellow vant, has really taken the pain out of your leg." He replied, "Yes,
THE INDIAN MEDICAL GAZETTE.
160
it is true. The pain was like fire up my leg and thigh, and it i3 now1 only slight in my toe." The whole process took two or three minutes, and the man had only just It been stung; so tt e affair is quite true and reliable. can fully be accounted for by massage, as some of the " '? described in the book I mention are more wondercures ful. Perhaps my friend of the house-top was an accomplished Masseur without his knowing it.
sir,
Yours obediently,
29th
April
1889.
H. P. ESMONDE WHITE, F.R.C S.I., Durbar Physician, Travancore.
[May,
1889.
