EFFECT OF MASSAGE. 21 



The appetite is usually small, the digestion imperfect, and 

 flatulence troublesome ; and here an absolute milk diet, like 

 that usually employed in typhoid fever, is often most service- 

 able, beini:^ easily taken and easily digested, while the milk 

 sugar itself has a diuretic action, and tends to reduce dropsy. 

 But while simple rest prevents the risk of increased arterial 

 tension and consequent opposition to the cardiac contractions 

 which might arise from muscular exertion, the benefit wiiich 

 w^ould accrue from continuous muscular exertions and increased 

 circulation w^ould be lost were it not that they can be supplied 

 artificially by massage. This plan of treatment, although it has 

 only recently been revived, was known to Harvey, '* who 

 narrates the case of a man who, in consequence of an injury — 

 of an affront which he could not revenge — was so overcome 

 with hatred, spite, and passion that he fell into a strange dis- 

 order, suffering from extreme compression and pain in the heart 

 and breast, from which he only received some little relief at last 

 when tlie whole of his chest was pummelled by a strong man, as 

 the baker kneads dough."* 



This was a very rough form of massage, but the same knead- 

 ing movements which Harvey described have been elaborated 

 into a complete system, more especially by Ling in Sweden, and 

 made widely known in America and this country by Weir- 

 Mitchell and Playfair. One might naturally expect that knead- 

 ing the muscles would increase the circulation through them in 

 somewhat the same way as active exercise, but, to the best of 

 my knowledge, no actual experiments existed to prove this, and 

 I accordingly requested my friend and assistant. Dr. Tunnicliffe, 

 to test the matter experimentally. The method employed was, 

 in the main, the same as that devised by Ludwig, and employed 

 by Sadler and Gaskell under his direction. The results were 

 that, during the kneading of a muscle, the amount of venous 

 blood which issued from it was sometimes diminished and some- 

 times increased; that just after the kneading was over the flow 

 was (limiuislied (apparently from the blood accumulating in the 

 muscle), and this diminution was again succeeded by a greatly 

 increased flow exactly corresponding to that observed by Ludwig 



• The Works of William Harvey, SjJenl.am Socictj-'s edition p. 123. 



