THE ACTION OF MASSAGE UPON THE MUSCLES. 679 



ings of fatigue ; and the same result was obtained when the elec- 

 tric current in place of the will was used to tire the muscles. 



5. As the result of general fatigue, the muscles of the hand 

 were also tried in an indirect manner. Prof. Maggiora, after a 

 walk of ten miles, to which he was not accustomed, took a trac- 

 ing of the fatigue curves of the right and left middle fingers as 

 before, and found that they were only capable of doing one fourth 

 as much work as when he was rested. After massage for ten min- 

 utes they were so much temporarily rested that they did nearly a 

 normal amount of work and gave nearly a normal tracing. The 

 work probably would have been equal to normal had it not been 

 for the superadded fatigue of taking the fatigue tracing half an 

 hour before the massage ; for it has been found that the muscles 

 of the middle finger when tired by contractions with three kilo- 

 grammes every two seconds require about two hours' rest in order 

 to give normal fatigue tracings every two hours during the day. 



G. The effect of massage upon muscles weakened by loss of 

 sleep was a]so inspected. In muscular fatigue from fasting rest 

 alone does not restore them, and in fatigue from wakefulness 

 nourishment alone affords no appreciable relief. After the loss of 

 a night's sleep the fatigue curve was taken and found to be very 

 small, but after ten minutes of massage it was temporarily re- 

 stored to a natural curve, which could not be obtained on previ- 

 ous occasions by rest nor by nerve tonics alone. 



7. Intense and prolonged intellectual work produces a state of 

 general lassitude. After the final examination of twenty medical 

 students, which lasted for five hours. Prof. Maggiora was much 

 exhausted. He then took a fatigue curve of flexion of the middle 

 fingers of both hands. This was only about one fifth normal. 

 Half an hour later, after ten minutes of massage, the number of 

 contractions was little less than natural, and might have reached 

 natural- but for the fatigue induced by the preceding experiment. 



8. After a slight attack of fever of ten hours' duration the 

 muscles were weak the whole of the following day, but after mas- 

 sage the aptitude for work was increased so that the contractions 

 of the fingers gave almost a natural tracing of fatigue. 



9. The effect of massage upon anaemic muscles was most in- 

 teresting. Dr. Maggiora demonstrated that anemia for a short 

 time from three to five minutes produces phenomena in mus- 

 cles similar to fatigue ; or, in other words, lessens their vigor and 

 resistance to work. Compression of his brachial artery was made 

 for three minutes, and at the end of this time, while the compres- 

 sion was still maintained, a fatigue tracing was taken and found 

 to be very small, the finger contracting only eleven times. Two 

 hours later the brachial artery was again compressed for three 

 minutes, and at the same time the forearm was subjected to mas- 



