Handbook of massage / by Emil Kleen ; authorized translation from the Swedish by Edward Mussey Hartwell.

  • Emil Kleen
Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Handbook of massage / by Emil Kleen ; authorized translation from the Swedish by Edward Mussey Hartwell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    have many points in common, as has been remarked already; and many such points are found in their historical development. On the whole, gymnastics have emerged within the domain of science earlier than massage, since the scientific requirements of the first are much more easily fulfilled than those of the latter. Men have been quicker to learn the worth of muscular exercise, to set forth its indications and to prescribe it, than in attaining a comprehension of the physiological effects of massage and of the meaning of its various manipulations, which presupposes a far wider knowledge of anatomical, histological and physiological facts. It is in Asiatic literature of hoar antiquity that we find the first known works which touch upon mechano-therapeutics. Among them is the oft-referred-to Kong-Fu* of great age, but uncertain date, possibly 2700 B. C. It is a description of gymnastics, and contains illustrations showing a variety of positions. Whether it contains anything about massage I cannot say; but it is certain that its importance in this connection has been greatly overrated. In a document discovered toward the close of the eighteenth century, which forms a part of the collection of the Hindu Vedas, or books of wisdom, and in which, among other things that Susruta sets forth concerning the medical experiences and opinions of Dhavantare, his teacher, we find notices of gymnastics and massage, which latter was included in the religious precepts of the laws of Manu.f We also have positive evidence of the existence of mechano-therapy among the ancient Persians; the name of a famous Phenician masseur and gymnast, Elix, has been preserved: and finally, we know that the ancient Egyptians knew about massage as well as gymnastics. [Alpinus, Haecker.] In this as in other branches of medicine, the Greeks were the first in Europe J td make genuine progress. Among them we find the oft cited general massage, which was made use of in the baths, the gymnasia, and the home, and was to some extent practiced by specialists (paedotribai). So, too, bcal massage, and many therapeutical facts concerning it, was known in ancient Greece. It gives me especial pleasure to introduce to the reader a well-known and highly-esteemed colleague, from ancient Hellenic times—no less a person than Hippocrates (460-377 B. c.) as one of the most prominent defenders of this massage. He refers to the use of frictions in sprains, reduced luxations, constipation, etc., and cites a brief list of cases. Possibly he had been indoctrinated with his partiality for mechano-therapy by Herodicus, his preceptor, Who seems to have been a gymnastic enthusiast. * Lepage: Historique sur la Medecine des Chinois. Paris, 1873. Nebel, who has studied the history of mechano-therapy much more profoundly than I have, has given me the following:— 1. Kong-Fu properly means mechanical treatment; wherefore we can use this term, for .the Chinese work in question, in a secondary sense only, analogous to that in which, for example, we speak of Billroth's Surgery; 2. Peter Amyot, who is frequently assumed to be a contemporary of Abbe Hue, was one of the principal authors of the Memoire concernant les Chinois, published in 1776; 3. Hue, on the other hand, wrote his L'Empire Chinois, in 1S31 : 4. Tao means : member of the Sect of Tao, which was founded some centuries before the Christian era by Tao-tse, or Lao-tse, or Lao-kinn. j- Dr. Wise : Commentary on the Hindu System of Medicine. Calcutta, 1845. Cited by Dally, Lietard, and others. I For details regarding mechano-therapy in ancient Europe, consult C. Keyser's Latin translation of Flavius Philostrates. Heidelberg, 1840; as well as CEuvres d'Oribase. Bussemaker et Daremberg. Paris, 1851.