632 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Zander, has in the last thirty years developed a system of mechan- 

 ical movements, both active and passive, given by means of appa- 

 ratus. In these the resistance and amount of motion can be grad- 

 uated to the patient's needs, and the personal element of the 

 operator is eliminated. Each system fulfills certain indications, 

 and neither can wholly supplant the other. If the Swedish school 

 had given us nothing more than passive movements in therapeu- 

 tics, our debt would have been great. The extraordinary promi- 

 nence in recent years of massage as a remedial agent, in so far as 

 it is justified by results, rests largely on the employment with it 

 of passive movements. These enable the patient to obtain many 

 of the benefits of exercise without effort and without undue 

 fatigue, and can be employed in thousands of cases when active 

 exercises are contraindicated or impracticable. Through passive 

 exercises may be obtained the local effects of exercise on the cir- 

 culation, easing of cardiac action or its gentle stimulation, mental 

 discipline, or mental sedation, as in the soothing effects of rocking 

 or swaying movements on infants ; in a word, the more harmoni- 

 ous distribution of nervous and vascular activity. 



It is well to remember Ling's adage that every movement 

 properly performed is a respiratory exercise, and it is probable 

 that respiratory development may be best attained through 

 climbing, running, and similar exercises by those who are strong 

 enough and energetic enough to take them. Those who most 

 need them, however, are neither strong nor energetic, and it is 

 often impossible to get patients to practice the purely respiratory 

 exercises with sufficient care and persistence. In such cases, 

 where more thorough pulmonary ventilation and respiratory 

 power are required, passive respiratory movements, manually or 

 mechanically given, often serve a useful purpose. 



There is no more promising field for the therapeutic applica- 

 tion of exercise than in the treatment of the insane and mentally 

 unbalanced and defective. The elder Seguin has shown that the 

 idiotic brain could be most effectively reached and developed 

 through neuromuscular training, especially of the hand, and the 

 value of manual employments, industrial training, and social life 

 has been to some extent recognized in provision for the epileptic, 

 idiotic, insane, and criminal. The striking and oft-quoted results 

 obtained by Dr. Wey in the physical training of vicious and 

 stupid criminals at the Elmira Reformatory by means of im- 

 proved diet and systematic bathing, massage, drill, and gymnas- 

 tics, mark an era in the treatment of the defective classes. A 

 large proportion of previously incorrigibly dull and vicious in- 

 dividuals submitted to a few months of this treatment improved 

 remarkably in physical and mental condition. It is safe to say 

 that better provision will be made in future in our public institu- 



