MASSAGE. 731 



of the first importance, and will alternate with friction and manipula- 

 tion. Percussion is in massage what faradization is in electricity, and 

 will often answer the same purpose ; manipulation, or deep-kneading, 

 is to massasre what the constant current is to electricity, and the ulti- 

 mate effects of each are very much alike. In "Schmidt's Jahrbiicher" 

 and elsewhere numerous instances are given in which massage has suc- 

 ceeded, after electricity and other means had failed. The reverse of 

 this may be true, but as yet I have not seen any proof of it. Let us 

 now speak of the general effects of massage, and, further on, its influ- 

 ence more in detail. And, first, it may be well to premise that it re- 

 quires, on the part of the patient a certain amount of latent energy, 

 if one may so call it, in order to undergo even a minimum seance of 

 massage ; for a patient may be so weak as to preclude the possibility 

 of its being applied without harm resulting. In properly selected 

 cases, instances of which are frequently seen in individuals suffering 

 from overwork, or want of work, worry, depression of spirits, and loss 

 of sleep, together with feeble and tardy digestion those who can not 

 get or take rest, no matter how favorable the opportunity the effects 

 of massage are generally as follows : While it is being done, and often 

 for several hours afterward, the patients are in a blissful state of re- 

 pose ; they feel as if they were enjoying a long rest, or had just 

 returned from a refreshing vacation, and not a few say that it makes 

 optimists of them for the time being. It produces warmth, comfort, 

 and sleep ; relieves or cures constipation, muscular pains, and stiffness. 

 At the same time it exerts a peculiarly delightful and profound effect 

 upon the nervous system, its influence being tonic, sedative, and 

 physiologically counter-irritant, making more blood flow through the 

 skin and muscles, and consequently less to the brain, spinal cord, and 

 internal organs. To those to whom exercise would be injurious, mas- 

 sacre affords the advantages of exercise without exertion while the 

 subjects of it are resting, their over-taxed will and used-up nervous 

 energy not being required to express themselves in voluntary motion. 

 For reasons such as these, we find no less an authority than the British 

 "Journal of Mental Sciences" (for April, 1878) recommending "mas- 

 sage for certain melancholies, with trophic and vaso-motor affections, 

 and also where dementia is threatened after an attack of excitement. 

 Under this treatment mental comfort and a sense of well-being take 

 the place of apathy and lassitude." 



Lord Bacon has quaintly remarked that " repair is procured by 

 nourishment, and nourishment is promoted by forwarding internal 

 concoction, which drives forth the nourishment, as by medicines that 

 invigorate the principal viscera ; and, secondly, by exciting the exter- 

 nal parts to attract the nourishment, as by exercise, proper frictions, 

 etc." Massage excites the external parts to attract and assimilate the 

 nourishment, brought thither by an increased volume of blood, and 

 this, at the same time, favors absorption of the natural worn-out 



