390 HEALTH. 



The results which have followed this art, are so great as compared 

 with the slightness of the causes set at work, that some have sus- 

 pected a mesmeric effect from the operator to the patient. It may 

 be so; but at any rate there is a moral cause involved which we 

 think is to be taken into account in all such procedures. The patient 

 feels that something is being done for him ; that another human 

 being is active and anxious on his behalf, and does not disdain to 

 toil for his bodily restoration. To many a sick man this is an ele- 

 ment of health ; so that the bad pun by which I have heard Kinesi- 

 pathy changed into kindly sympathy, conveys a serious truth. I 

 even deem that the dumb hidden organs know the touches of a 

 brother's hand and heart, and are organically comforted by them; 

 for they all have feelings of their own, and spirits ; as we have 

 shown in many places in these Chapters (pp. 226 — 228, 233 — 236). 

 This points to a defect in mere drug medicining : a physician writes 

 a prescription and leaves it : he has done nothing ostensible to the 

 sufferer, still less to the viscera and vitals of his patient; and the 

 rapport between the two persons is very feeble, and by no means of 

 that fraternal warmth which is curative wherever it is truly expe- 

 rienced.* 



Ling's system has the merit, a great one in our eyes, of continu- 

 ing practices that have existed in nearly all nations, from India to 

 Sweden; for rubbing, shampooing, and various forms of gymnastics 

 are almost as widely diffused as language itself. Nor until of late 

 ages has gymnastics disappeared from formal medicine. Kinesipathyf 



* The following works give a general notion of the Swedish Medical Gym- 

 nastics, though specific movements are difficult to describe, and should be wit- 

 nessed in order to be comprehended. 



Ling, Gymnastiken 's Almanna Grunder. Upsala, 1834, 1840. 



De Betou, Therapeutic Manipulation. London, 1846. 



Georgii, Kinesitherapie, oti Traitement des Maladies par le Mouvement, selon 

 la Methode de Ling. Paris, 1847. 



■ Kinesipathy, or the Cure of Diseases by specific active and passive 



Movements. London, 1850. 



H. Doherty, Rinesipathy, or Medical Gymnastics for the Cure of Chronic 

 Disease. London, 1851. 



| Ling's aim was nothing less than the physical education of man correspond- 

 ing to the mental. This branch is deserving of an attention which it has not 



