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It seems rather of necessity than predilection in the sense of apologia that
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 art — but 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 institution — a 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 Padotribes, 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. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries
well-known physicians recommended gymnastics. Fuller and Tissot wished to
combine the movements with the study of medicine. In the early part of the last
century a therapeutic system of gymnastics acquired a reputation heretofore
unknown, in movements based upon a certain action between operator and patient.
The Swede, P. H. Ling (1776-1839), and his predecessors, erected the first
scientific system, in which they adopted the new medical science, making the
movement treatment a perfectly scientific remedy, worthy of the confidence of
every educated man. In our own time, Dr. Mezger, of Wiesbaden, has demonstrated
certain passive movements, and arranged them into a system that is now indorsed
by every intelligent physician.
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