MASSAGE. 7 2 3 



Germany, in a lecture on this subject published in the "Wiener med. 

 Wochen.," No. 45, 1875, says : "I can only agree with my colleagues, 

 Langenbeck and Esmarch, that massage in suitable cases deserves more 

 attention than has fallen to its lot in the course of the past ten years 

 in Germany. ... As practice in the manipulations, time, persever- 

 ance, and personal interest in the matter are necessary, and these one 

 can not bestow who interests himself much in medicine and surgery, 

 I have turned over to my old experienced surgical assistant suitable 

 cases for massage, and he has already obtained a series of results both 

 favorable and surprising, and far exceeding my expectations of this 

 method of treatment." Previous to the past fifteen years the French 

 physicians took more interest in massage than any others, but of late 

 they have almost entirely laid it aside. With their waning interest 

 the Scandinavians and Germans have taken up the subject with re- 

 newed zeal, and from time to time furnish instructive accounts of their 

 experiments, successes, and failures. 



How is massage regarded, and what is its condition, in the United 

 States ? Except among very few epicures in this matter, if one may 

 so speak there is as yet but little evidence of a desire to place mas- 

 sage, and those who do it, on their merits alone, irrespective of the pol- 

 icy of employing persons who are only rubbing-machines, or of toler- 

 ating obnoxious individuals so long as the poor patients' minds are sat- 

 isfied. This is too often the case, and then massage is said to have 

 failed and valuable time is lost, when, if it had been properly applied, 

 it might have been successful ; or, on the other hand, perhaps it should 

 have been omitted and other remedies employed. The writer of this, 

 in a recent paper on the " History of Massage," has said : " In almost 

 every city of the United States, and indeed of the whole civilized 

 world, there may be found individuals claiming mysterious and mag- 

 ical powers of curing disease, setting bones, and relieving pain by the 

 immediate application of their hands. Some of these boldly assert 

 that their art is a gift from Heaven, due to some unknown power 

 which they call magnetism, while others designate it by some peculiar 

 word ending with pathy or cure, and it is astonishing how much credit 

 they get for their supposed genius by many of the most learned peo- 

 ple." Let a fisherman forsake his boat, or a blacksmith his anvil, or 

 a carpenter his bench, or a shoe-maker his shop, and proclaim that he 

 has made the wonderful discovery that he is full of magnetism and 

 can cure all diseases, and, be he ever so ignorant and uncouth, he is 

 likely to have, in a remarkably short space of time, a large clientele 

 of educated gentlemen and refined ladies. It is not meant to imply 

 that the previous occupation of such people is at all to their discredit, 

 but, were they capable of giving a rational explanation of their doings, 

 the halo of mystery would be removed from around them, and their 

 prestige and patronage would suffer a sudden decline. 



In Boston and Philadelphia, and perhaps in other cities as well, 



