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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    Among the manifold acquisitions of culture which Greece presented to her con- querors, the Romans, were several of a medical nature; and the flourishing condi- tion of mechanotherapy in Rome was largely due to Grecian influence. Certain of the most renowned physicians of Rome were Greeks. Among them I will mention Asclepiades, who was in practice shortly before the birth of Christ, and made exten- sive use of massag£. We find evidence in Roman literature * that, from the dawn of our era both gymnastics and massage were held in high repute by the profession and by the laity. Mechano-therapy derived the greatest advantage from the atten- tion bestowed upon it by the foremost physician of the Roman Empire, namely, Galen (i 31-201 A. D.). As is well known his influence was extended over many centuries after his own, and it is partly due to him that this form of treatment did not become extinct during the middle ages. In the fourth century of our era, Oribasius wrote his celebrated work, which is the principal source of our knowledge of the mechano-therapy of the ancients. From a work of the fifth century, upon obesity, we learn that medical gymnastics were still alive in that period; and in the seventh century, vEtius wrote about active and passive movements, about resisted movements and frictions. [See below regarding Ling.] The further we advance in the mediaeval literature the fewer signs of life in mechano-therapy do we find. It shared the fate of all science, not only in making no further progress, but in losing most of the ground previously gained. It is easy to understand that the seed-corn of preceding generations would fail to germinate in ages when men, showing more and more aversion to the lessons of experience, wandered off into pure speculation, and finally landed in complete mysticism. It is true that the Arabs, whose dominion in medicine lasted for several centuries— beginning with the ninth century—followed the doctrines of Galen in the main, and therefore could not leave unnoticed any form of treatment that he had highly prized. Avicenna (b. 980) in particular interested himself somewhat in mechano-therapy. The monks, too, who in this period were the foremost practitioners of medicine, were in their capacity as physicians followers of Galen. Nevertheless, the Arabs, in their therapy, relied chiefly on the resources of pharmacology; and the monks found prayer and incantation easier than massage and gymnastics. In the fourteenth century anatomy began to free itself gradually from the Galenic traditions, and, in the course of this and the next centuries, won a comparatively sure place for itself. Thus one of the conditions for the development of mechano-therapy was fulfilled, and very soon signs of new life in this department began to appear— the great Ambroise Pare (1517-1590) warmly espoused the cause of mechanical treatment, and attempted to base it on anatomical and physiological grounds; an event of much more importance than the predilection that the conspicuous humbug Paracelsus showed for gymnastics about the same time. Furthermore, in the sixteenth century, we find a number of physicians and men of science, whose names are worthy of mention in an historical sketch of this sort : Leonhard Fuchs, in Germany; Timothy Bright, in England; Champier du Choul and Faber de Saint Jory, in France; Antonius Gazi, Prosper Alpinus, Hieronymus Mercurialis ( De arte gymnastica. Venetiis, 1569), and Fabricius ab Aquapendente, in Italy. The last named, as is true of several others, has been looked upon by many as the inventor of massage. We come now to the time of the appearance of the greatest genius of modern times. Even within the limited field which here concerns us, we find traces of the wide * Aulii Cornelii Celsi: De medicina, translated into German by B. Ritter. Stutt- gart, 1840.