[New study on the history of anesthesiology--(5) and (6). Reevaluation of surgical achievements by Tokumei Takamine].
A half century has passed since K. Higaon-na, a historian from Okinawa, first reported that in 1689 Tokumei Takamine (1653-1738) had performed successfully a hare-lip operation under general anesthesia with mafutsu-san for a royal grandchild Sho-eki of the Ryukyu Dynasty in the Ruykuys, now known as Okinawa. As Higaon-na obtruded his opinion above mentioned without any substantial proof on the public, and many medical historians as well as historians have followed him thereafter. No historical documents are available concerning surgical achievements by Tokumei Takamine to clarify them in detail but it clearly says in the genealogy of the Takamines that Kou Kaiyu ([symbol: see text]) taught his ancestral prescription and surgical technique of hare-lip operation to Tokumei Takamine on his repeated solicitation when they stayed in Fu-chou. Takamine made two scrolls describing the secret prescription and surgical method of hare-lip, and presented them to a magistrate Genzaimon Murao and his physician Doh-yo Isashiki in 1690. In 1986, a scroll has been found in Sendai city of Kagoshima prefecture, which was transcribed by two physicians named Antei Kore-eda and Encho Nagai at Kagoshima in 1754. No information is available about biographies of these two physicians. A careful study of this scroll has revealed that it bears the prescription of an ointment including ten remedies to dress the incision and surgical method of hare-lip. Accordingly it is clearly proven by this newly discovered scroll that Tokumei Takamine did not administer any general anesthetics when he performed surgical operations for hare-lip on several occasions.
Matsuki
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Department of Anesthesiology, Hirosaki University, School of Medicine, Hirosaki 036-8563.
D000776:Anesthesiology / Q000266:history*; D002971:Cleft Lip / Q000601:surgery*; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal; D049670:History, 17th Century; D049671:History, 18th Century; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D019647:Oral Surgical Procedures / Q000266:history* / Q000379:methods
D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal