Abstract
Understanding the present condition of Oriental traditional medicine in different country is demanded for the Korean Traditional Medicine to prepare his orientation in future. Also it is not possible to separate the present condition of OTM from history of oriental medicine as a whole. This is valid for the introduction of TCM in the west. The first information have arrived in Europe by the terrestrial and maritime travelers accounts. The diplomatic way, with special reference to Jesuit fathers, has brought cultural and theoretical precise data. The physicians of East India Company and, later, of expeditionary forces, have supplied with practical data. Five periods follow one another: 1) Period when the source reached and are used in Europe. This first step is intimately involved with the use and comparison of similar factor between the two medical systems ; 2) "Discovery" and use of needles ; 3) latent period when techniques coming from acupuncture source were developed ; 4) "Chinese Acupuncture" correctly speaking ; 5) modern period or investigating period, when Eastern and Western people are trying to correlate data of traditional medicine with those of western science. In particular the actual situation from 2000.
