[French vice-consul George Soulié de Morant and golden acupuncture needles].

The literature study and physical measurement were adopted to analyze the origin and relevant texture information of a box of French golden acupuncture needles stored in Yunnan University of CM. In 1901 the French vice-consul George Soulié de Morant went to China, based on his Chinese linguistic skills, he studied with several Chinese medicine masters during that time. After returning to France, he researched clinic acupuncture with western medical doctors and published articles and books on it, which led him to be a Nobel Prize nominee. He made a box of acupuncture needles, collected by Yunnan University of CM, in which nine needles made by the gold-copper and silver-zinc alloy, decorated with ruby and sapphire representing tonification and dispersion. The parameter of material, thickness and length match well to the description in Zhengjiufa (Chinese Acupuncture). Being the golden box with needles of its kind in the whole world, it has more value of medicine, education, historical and cultural relics than jewellery, which is the wisdom and innovation stimulated by ancient Chinese medical theory in the western world.