202
Oupping and Gwpping Instruments.
[Book II,
and ehest, so that air within them becomes rarefied and consequently nolonger in equilibrium with that without—hence when in this state a com-munication is opened between them and a liquid, the weight of the atmos-phere resting upon the latter necessarily drives it into the mouth; as forexample, when a person drinks water from a tumbler or tea from a cup.How singulär that the rationale of taking liquid s into the stomach was notunderstood tili the 17th Century—that so simple an Operation and one in-cessantly occurring, should have remained unexplained through all pre-vious time!
T wo kinds of suction have been mentioned by some writers, but the prin-ciple of both is the same : one, the action of the ehest just mentioned—theother, that of the mouth alone; viz. by lowering the under jaw while thelips are closed, and at the same time contracting and drawing the tongueback towards the throat. There is this difference between them: theformer can be performed only in the intervals of respiration, while thelatter may be continuous, since breathing can be kept up through the nos-trils. One has been named supping, the other sucking. The term ‘ sucker,’commonly applied to the piston of atmospheric pumps, arose from itsacting as a Substitute for the mouth. With this explanation of the termssuction, sucking, &c. we shall occasionally use them, in accordance withgeneral custom, for want of Substitutes equally populär.
Infants and the young of all mammals not only practice sucking tili theyquit their mother’s breasts for solid food, but most of them continue thepractice through life when quenching their thirst: of this man is an ex-ample, for it is by sucking that we receive liquids into the stomach,whether we plunge our lips into a running stream, receive wine froma goblet, or soup from a spoon. As the origin of artificial devicesfor raising liquids by atmospheric pressure may be traced to this naturalOperation, some other examples may be mentioned. Of these, suckingpoison from wounds is one. This has been practiced from unknown an-tiquity. Job, speaks of sucking the poison of asps—At the siege of Troy,Machaon ‘ suck’d forth the blood’ from the wounds of Menelaus ; and thewomen among the ancient Germans were celebrated for thushealing theirwounded sons and husbands. The serious consequences that often at-tended the custom, led at an early period to the introduction of tubes, bjmeans of which the Operation might be performed without danger to theoperator; for scrofulous and other diseases were frequently communicatedto the latter, by drawing tainted blood and humors into the mouth; whereas,by the interposition of a tube, the offensive matter could be preventedfrom coming in contact with the lips.
Before the use of the lancet was discovered, these cupping tubes wereapplied in ordinary blood-letting. Even at the present day such is theonly kind of phlebotomy practiced by the oldest of existing nations; for“ the name and the use of the lancet are equally unknown among the na-tives of Hindostan. They scarify the part with the point of a knife andapply to it a copper cupping-dish with a long tube affixed to it, by meansof which they suck the blood with the mouth.” a It is the same with theChinese , Malays, and other people of the east. These generally use thesame kind of apparatus as the Hindoos, but sometimes natural tubes areemployed, as a piece of bamboo. b The horns of animals, as those ofoxen and goats were also much used; these on account of their com-cal form being better adapted for the purpose than cylindrical tubes.