| Notes: | Attributed to Louis Augustin Alemand, Michał Piotr Boym and Julien Placide Hervieu. These attributions denied by M.D. Grmek. Les reflets de la sphygmologie chinoise dans la médecine occidentale. "Biologie médicale" vol. 51, 1962, numéro hors série, p. lix-lxiii.
University of Chicago Library's copy is a "rare copy of 'the first Western book on Chinese medicine, with a few brief comments on Japanese methods. This anonymous collection of translations of early Chinese texts on pulse medicine has been variously attributed to different Jesuits working in China at the time' (Garrison and Morton). This work gives the first account of the Chinese theory of pulses, and of the theory and practice of acupuncture. The text appears to be a compilation of Chinese texts translated or summarized. This work would also appear to be a partial source for the two books generally credited with giving the first Western accounts of Chinese medicine: Andreas Cleyer's Specimen medicinae Sinicae (Frankfurt, 1682) and Michel Piotr Boym's Clavis medica ad Chinarum doctrinam de pulsibus (Nuremberg, 1686). The Wellcome and NLM catalogues cite the following as authors, or possible authors, while noting the reservations of Grmek: Louis-Augustin Alemand (1653-1728); Michel Boym (1612-1659); and Julien Placide Hervieu (1671-1746), but dates alone rule out all three. The author, a Jesuit, states that he is writing from Canton in 1668, having been thrown out of Peking along with his fellow Christians. M.D. Grmek, in 'Les reflets de la sphygmologie chinoise dans la médecine occidentale' (Biologie médicale, v 51, 1962 pp lix-lxiii), proposes as possible candidates the Jesuit fathers Jean Valat, Adrien Greslon, Humbert Augery, Jacques Le Favre, Claude and Jacques Motal and Philippe Couplet. However there is no convincing evidence for any attribution" -- dealer description.
Garrison-Morton (5th ed.) 6491.9
Also available online.
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