MASSAGE. 545 



The gymnasiums and palsestriums of the Greeks were famous. 

 Plato writes, "The object of gymnasiums is to instruct youths and 

 men how to preserve health and keep their frames in good con- 

 dition." 



Before the Greeks took part in the national games, they had to 

 undergo a course of preparation — bathing, friction, anointing, and also 

 rubbing with sand. Fine sand from the Nile was preferred, and was 

 imported from Egypt for the purpose ; there were many rules for 

 carrying out the process properly, and it was performed in various 

 ways. 



Among the many editions of the works of Hippocrates, there is a 

 French one by Littre, in which the following passage occurs : 



"A physician must possess experience of many subjects, among 

 others, of massage." 



Among the Romans, as, indeed, every child knows, the constant 

 use of baths, followed by friction and anointing with oil, was custom- 

 ary. In illness, rubbing with warm oil, other kinds of friction, and 

 " movement-cures," wei'e used. Asclepiades also recommended exer- 

 cise and friction. Celsus, the author of eight books on the science of 

 healing, took for his motto, " The best medicine is to take no medi- 

 cine." In inflammation of the brain, if he wished to induce sleep, 

 he ordered rubbing for a considerable time (would this be animal 

 magnetism ?). He also advises rubbing to cure acute pains in the 

 head, though not during an attack, and recommends friction to 

 strengthen weak limbs. 



Celsus lays much stress on passive movement for invalids. "The 

 gentlest is exercise in voyaging on a ship, either in harbor or on a 

 river. If being driven in a carriage is too fatiguing, he recommends 

 the invalid to be carried on a couch or in a chair, and advises that the 

 patient should be rocked in bed if too feeble to rise. Galen, who lived 

 in the second century after Christ, approved highly of massage and 

 gymnastics, but he did not advise athletics. He ordered friction in 

 the evening, to remove fatigue. The body was to be rubbed with a 

 woolen cloth, afterward with oil till the surface became red, and then 

 with the bare hands in various directions. Rufus of Ephesus, who 

 lived in the reign of Trajan, writes, " Women and maidens should sing 

 and dance, not only to do honor to the gods, but in order to preserve 

 their health." He adds, " It is important that physicians should not 

 confine their attention to the bodily health, but should do all they can 

 to develop the mental strength and well-being of children and young 

 people, of men, and even of old men." 



We must pass over notices of many treatises that appeared during 

 the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, onlv remarking that Hoffman, 

 in 1708, seems to have advocated the principles that govern the Ger- 

 man schools of gymnastics in the nineteenth century. 



Hoffman wrote that the conditions under which health is to be 

 TOL. xxx. — 35 



