He is said to have diagnosed a case of diseased bowels by the pulse alone, and then to have cured it by operation.

He offered to cure the headaches of a famous military commander of the day by opening his skull under hashish; but the offer was rudely declined.

This story serves to show, in spite of its marvellous setting, that the idea of administering an anaesthetic to carry out a surgical operation must be credited, so far as priority goes, to the Chinese, since the book in which the above account is given cannot have been composed later than the twelfth century A.D..