they show how prescriptions are adapted to the individual's particular disharmony, and also how
acupuncture points are chosen and combined.

For reasons of length, this book omits the discussion of skin diseases and paediatric diseases,
while the discussion of gynaecology is limited to dysmenorrhoea, menorrhagia and
pre-menstrual tension: it is hoped that gynaecology will form the subject of a future book.

Finally, each chapter includes the Western differentiation of the symptom discussed, e.g. the
possible causes of headaches in Western medicine. Of course this is not intended to be a
replacement of a good book on Western clinical medicine (some are mentioned in the
bibliography): it is simply meant to provide the practitioner in a clinical setting with a quick
check-list of the possible Western causes of that particular symptom. This is important because
we should know when to refer a patient to a Western medical doctor or specialist for a further
diagnosis. For example, a patient may come to us complaining of urinary difficulty and we
should know when to suspect a prostate carcinoma. The second reason for familiarizing
ourselves with the Western differentiation of symptoms is prognosis. Although Chinese
medicine is excellent at providing not only a diagnosis but also a reasonable prognosis by
carefully examining symptoms, signs, tongue and pulse, in many cases the prognosis depends
also on the Western diagnosis. For example, it makes a big difference to prognosis whether
tingling in a limb is caused by a "simple" Liver-Blood deficiency or by the beginning of multiple
sclerosis.

I sincerely hope that this book will be of practical use to practitioners in various countries in
order to develop Chinese medicine and help it to take its rightful place in modern medicine.

Amersham, 1994
G.M.

Acknowledgements

I acknowledge with sincere thanks the many people who, in one way or another, helped me to
write this book.

The most important period in my professional training was spent at the Nanjing College of
Traditional Chinese Medicine and I am deeply indebted to its directors, teachers and other
members of staff for the care and patience in sharing their profound knowledge with me. I am
also grateful to the teaching staff of the Jiangsu Province Hospital for Traditional Chinese
Medicine where my clinical training took place.

Dr J. H. F. Shen was and continues to be an inspiration. I owe him a debt of gratitude for
communicating his diagnostic skills to me.