Massage and the original Swedish movements : their application to various diseases of the body

An excerpt from the Manual treatment for disease has to a certain extent existed since the creation. Man had, by instinct, acquired the art of manipulation long before nature yielded her secrets in medicine. This is still the practice among many nations. In Sweden, even at the 'present time, certain manipulations are used among the peasants for cramps, swellings, etc. The Swedes seem never to have lost the artbut recently revived in other countries.Amiot and Dally speak of a perfect system of gymnastics among the Chinese three thousand years before the Christian era. They maintained that gymnastics, by preventing stagnation, produced an even and harmonious movement of the fluids in the human body, which is necessary to health. Not only did they use gymnastics to preserve health, but they also had a thorough knowledge of their therapeutic effects. From each of the natural positions they placed the body and limbs in certain derivative positions, which modified the movement of the fluids and were, of course, important in different diseases.The priests of Egypt used some manipulation in the form of kneading and friction for rheumatic pains, neuralgias, and swellings.The Hindoos, also, had some knowledge of their therapeutic importance; but the masses were soon mystified-by the priests, who by incantations and magical words, led them to believe they were invented by the gods.Even the Persians used a few movements for different affections.The Greeks were the first to recognize gymnastics as an institutiona fact of much importance to the free states. Here they were auxiliary to the development of the people both socially and politically. The gymnasts were political, pedagogic, esthetic, and therapeutic. The philosophers and the physicians recommended manual treatment. Plato even divided it into active and passive movements, and especially recommended the latter. Some physicians practised the movements themselves; but there arose a class of people, called Pdotribes, some of whom acquired great skill in the manipulation of the human body.Although the Romans imitated the Greeks to some extent, they rather preferred calisthenics; yet the manual method was more extensively practised in Rome under the emperors than it had hitherto been by any other nation.Thus we see that among the ancients the most common movements were a few passive manipulations, while in the Middle Ages the gymnastics of an earlier period were more or less forgotten. Cover ......Page 1 Contents......Page 4 Preface......Page 3 Introduction......Page 6 Stroking......Page 11 Frictions......Page 13 Leg massage......Page 19 Arm massage......Page 20 Chest massage......Page 21 Back massage......Page 22 Abdomen massage......Page 24 Liver massage......Page 26 Stomach massage......Page 27 Head massage......Page 28 Face massage......Page 29 Eye massage......Page 31 Neck massage......Page 32 Nose massage......Page 34 Ovaries massage......Page 35 Uterus massage......Page 36 Vibration massage......Page 37 Massage positions......Page 43 Various movements......Page 56 Respiratory movement......Page 69 The physiology of the movement......Page 77 Mechanical action of muscles......Page 79 General weakness......Page 81 Anemia......Page 82 Plethora......Page 83 Headaches......Page 84 Apoplexy......Page 86 Infantile paralysis......Page 87 Neuralgia......Page 90 Neuritis......Page 91 Writers cramp......Page 93 Laryngitis......Page 94 Colds......Page 95 Heart diseases......Page 96 Dyspepsia......Page 98 Constipation......Page 99 Obesity......Page 102 Diabetes......Page 103 Bladder infections......Page 105 Lumbago......Page 106 Gout......Page 107 Dislocations......Page 113 Varicose veins......Page 115 Fractures......Page 116 Feet deformities......Page 117 Eye affections......Page 119 General remarks......Page 120