Acupuncture in Eighteenth-Century French Medical Writings: Knowledge Sources, Interpretations and Cognitive Biases

Abstract:

In the mid-to-late 18th century, the French medical community began to take notice of acupuncture, an exotic therapeutic practice. It was incorporated into several comprehensive medical works and became the subject of medical degree theses. This article, for the first time, systematically reviews five 18th-century French medical texts that address acupuncture, including two dissertations from the University of Montpellier Faculty of Medicine, two surgical monographs, and the medical volume of an encyclopedia. By analyzing these texts, it explores the sources of knowledge on acupuncture available to French medical scholars of the time, as well as the conceptual frameworks through which they understood the practice. It presents their evaluations and interpretations regarding acupuncture techniques, clinical efficacy, and mechanisms of action. The article also discusses issues such as theoretical misinterpretation and cognitive bias reflected in these texts during the transmission of acupuncture to the West.