HEALTH BY EXERCISE. 
THE 
MOVEMENT- CURE, 
EMBRACING 
THE HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF THIS SYSTEM OF MEDICAL 
TREATMENT, WITH EXAMPLES OF SINGLE MOVEMENTS, 
THE PROCESSES OF MASSAGE, 
AND 
DIRECTIONS FOR THEIR USE IN VARIOUS FORMS OF CHRONIC DISEASE, 
FORMING A COMPLETE MANUAL OF EXERCISES; 
TOGETHER WITH 
A SUMMARY OF THE PRINCIPLES OF 
GENERAL HYGIENE. 
BY 
GEO. H. TAYLOR, M.D. 
NEW AND ENLARGED EDITION. 
NEW YORK: 
FOWLER & WELLS, PUBLISHERS, 
NO. 753 BROADWAY. 
I884. COPYRIGHT, 1883, BY 
FOWLER & WELLS. TO HIS FRIENDS, 
PROF. GABRIEL BRANTING, 
FOR 
FORTY-FIVE YEARS DIRECTOR OF THE SWEDISH CENTRAL GYMNASTIC 
INSTITUTE, 
AND 
HERMAN SATHERBURG, M.D., 
PROFESSOR OF 
ORTHOPOEDIC SURGERY IN THE CAROLINIAN MEDICO-CHIRURGICAL 
INSTITUTE, STOCKHOLM, 
AS A TESTIMONIAL OF GRATITUDE 
FOR 
THEIR KIND PERSONAL INSTRUCTIONS AND GENEROUS HOSPITALITY, 
BEING AN ATTEMPT TO CARRY OUT, IN A NEW DIRECTION, 
THOSE PRINCIPLES 
TO THE 
Elucidation and Practice of which they have so assiduously and success- 
fully devoted themselves, 
is 
AFFECTIONATELY AND RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED 
BY 
.Author;. PREFACE. 
To do what he can to encourage and assist 
people in a rational endeavor to acquire and 
maintain an intelligent control of their entire 
physiological being-to bring into and keep in 
healthful and effective play all the complex 
machinery of their organism, has been the sole 
aim of the writer in this work. The importance 
of the agency proposed to effect this is conceded 
in general terms by all; it never was disputed, 
indeed. But this admission, so freely and so 
gracefully rendered, amounts to very little; it is 
not much better, really, than a virtual confes- 
sion of inability to rebut the arguments directly 
or indirectly advanced in every sound physio- 
logical treatise. 
The plan of the present work, so far as I am IV 
PREFACE. 
aware, is quite new, no attempt having been 
hitherto made to analyze single movements, with 
a view to the production of such a combination 
of effects as -are wanted to meet the various 
pathological needs of the system. This object, 
1 am quite certain, has been, at best, very imper- 
fectly accomplished; but I would fain indulge 
the hope that I have at least done the work of 
a humble pioneer, in breaking the ground and 
throwing out some hints and suggestions that 
may prove useful to the future laborer in this 
wide and fertile field. 
The Author can not but hope, too, that he 
has furnished to his medical readers some food 
for thought that may lead to results in their prac- 
tice that shall more than compensate for the 
time and strength expended in the work. 
To a thorough understanding of all the prin- 
ciples of the Movement-Ci re, an intimate ac- 
quaintance with Anatomy and Physiology, and, 
indeed, with medical science generally, is abso- 
lutely essential. Of course, skill in diagnosis, 
and in the practical application of these princi- 
ples in the treatment of the countless ills of hu- 
man flesh, can be acquired only by long and 
patient training and study. I do not expect, for 
I know it would be quite impossible in the nature PliEFACE. 
V 
of things, to turn every good-natured person who 
may do me the kindness to peruse these chapters 
into a good doctor. I should be entirely satis- 
fied-the height of my ambition would be reach- 
ed-could I but prevent a few hundreds of my 
Christian fellow-men and women from making 
lad doctors of themselves. 
I have not endeavored to shake my reader's 
faith in the wise, prudent, conscientious, and 
learned physician. No one honors him more 
than does the writer. Blessed, say I, is the 
man or woman who has a good doctor, but more 
blessed he who ca/n do without him ! To enable 
my reader so to do has been my main aim in the 
preparation of this manual. 
In Part I. is given what I conceive to be the 
more important principles upon which is based 
the practice of the Movement-Cure. These prin- 
ciples are mostly simple deductions from phys- 
iological science, and the cure is only the prac- 
tical application of demonstrated physiologica' 
truths 
In Part II. are given a number of examples of 
the method of carrying these principles into 
practice. 
In Part III. the pathology of various common 
chronic affections is briefly discussed, and certain VI 
PREFACE. 
means of preserving the health and improving 
the strength are noticed. 
Part IV. contains a concise statement of some 
of the relations of the system to temperature, air, 
food, light, heat, etc., with observations upon the 
superior advantages of obeying the laws of life, 
with a view to the maintenance or the restora- 
tion of health and vigor, over irrational and in 
discriminate drug dosing. 
GEO. H. TAYLOR. 
No. 17 East 58th Street, 
New York, 1879. PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION. 
Under the title of " An Exposition of the Swedish 
Movement Cure" the larger part of this work has been 
before the public for twenty-three years. The same has 
also been printed under the title of "Health by Exercise." 
Meantime successive editions of the work continue to be 
called for. 
The present edition includes the practical portion of 
the author's work on Massage. This extends the scope 
and usefulness of the work by rendering the same princi- 
ples available for the restoration of the feeblest chronic 
invalids. G. II. T. PUBLISHERS' NOTICE. 
The issue of the first edition of this work, several years ago, marked 
an era in the progress of physical exercise, as a means of promoting 
health. A result of the wide-spread attention it attracted to the general 
subject, was the invention or introduction of numerous devices and 
methods for exercise. 
But experience has taught that the use of an apparatus, which is ex- 
cellent merely as a means of developing muscle, does not necessarily im- 
prove the health. It invites to the overwork of parts, and neglect of 
other parts, and of ten aggravates weakness, which it is intended to remove. 
Dr. Taylor's manual does away with all apparatus, which necessarily 
costs money and requires room, even if it were desirable, It equips a 
man with a knowledge of his needs, and shows exactly what kinds of 
manipulation and movement particular disorders and affections require. 
It is so clear and minute in its descriptions of methods and results, that 
any reader may make practical use of its teachings. It points out how 
many diseases and local affections, which cannot be cured by the use of 
medicine, though they may be alleviated, can be both relieved and 
cured by proper application of exercise. 
It is believed that this new and cheaper edition of so excellent a 
work will be welcomed by both those who are well and those who are 
ill. TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
©no. 
PRINCIPLES CONNECTED WITH THE USE OF MOVEMENTS. 
CHAPTER I. 
INTRODUCTORY. 
PAG! 
Physical Self-Training, and the Classes of Persons for whom It la specially 
needful 17 
1. After Duplicated Movements 19 
2. Those who are but Slightly Affected by Disease 20 
8. Sedentary Persons ., 21 
4. Persons Engaged in Mental Toil 21 
5. Young Students of both Sexes 22 
6. Tendency to Diminish the Drug Practice 24 
CHAPTER H. 
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF MOVEMENTS. 
Movements among the Chinese 33 
Movements in India 89 
Movements among the Greeks and Romans 41 
Biography of Ling 47 
Ling's Statements of Principles 63 
The Movement System in Stockholm 59 
Testimony of Philosophers-Dally, Hoffman, Rousseau, Pliny, Galen, Plato, 
Bacon, Georgii 62 
CHAPTER IH. 
THE RELATIONS OF CHEMICAL AND MOLECULAR CHANGES TO THE 
ORIGIN OF FORCE IN THE BODY. 
Importance of First Principles. (h 
These Forces a Product of Vital Action 71 
Different kinds of Motion 77 
Reciprocity of Actions . gQ 
The System as a Reservoir of Force 82 
Description of Muscle. ' 83 
Physiological Effects of Exercise 86 
Effects of Muscular Contraction on the Local Circulation '.' 86 
Effect on Respiration 87 
Effect on the Secretions 88 
Effect on the Excretions ... .., 89 
Effect on Absorption 89 
Effect on the Quality of the Blood 90 
Effect on the Dig stion 90 
Effect on the Organizing Process 91 
Movements Stimulate the Vitalizing Processes 93 
Co-ordination of Motions by the Nerves 98 
The foregoing Effects 9( X 
CONTENTS. 
CHAPTER IV. 
MOVEMENTS, AND THE PRINCIPLES GOVERNING THEIR APPLICATION. 
PASS 
Definition 97 
Different kinds of Movements, Active and Passive 98 
Single and Duplicated Movements 99 
Concentric and Eccentric Movements 102 
General and Localized Movements 105 
Influence of Movement in Regulating the Forces of the Body 109 
Relations of the Action of the Will and of the Muscles in Movements 112 
Movements as a Specific Medical Agency 116 
Movements as related to Pathology 120 
Province of Movements 121 
Morale of Movements 122 
MOVEMENTS COMPARED WITH GYMNASTICS. 
The Muscles a Medium of Language, and of the Manifestation of Character.. 129 
CHAPTER V. 
CHAPTER VI. 
DIRECTIONS FOR PRESCRIBING AND APPLYING MOVEMENTS. 
Time Considered 185 
Manner 186 
Rhythm 186 
Exertion 187 
Number187 
Order 188 
Relation to Diseased Parts 189 
Regions of the Body 140 
TERMINOLOGY OF POSITIONS. 
Importance of System 149 
Positions and Movements 144 
Commencing Positions 145 
Principal Positions of the Trunk145 
Standing Positions-Erect, Fall, and Bent Standing145 
Kneeling Positions-Erect and Fall Kneeling 146 
Sitting Positions-Sitting, Short, and Long 146 
Lie-Sitting, Half-Lying, Fall and Stride Sitting 147 
Lying-Forward, Backward, Sidewise, Trunk, and Leg 147 
Head-and-Heels, Elbows-and-Toes, Sidewise and Balance Lying 14S 
Hanging 148 
Positions of the Anns and Legs 14S 
Arm Positions seen in a Front View of the Body 150 
Arm Positions seen In a Side View of the Body 152 
Leg Positions 154 
Lower Leg Positions .... 155 
Stride) Walk, Step-Standing, and Foot-Support-Standing 155 
Squat an 1 Leg-Angle Positions IM 
CHAPTER VII. CONTENTS. 
XI 
Hart W. 
EXAMPLES OF SINGLE MOVEMENTS. 
CHAPTER VHI. 
REGION OF THE FEET. 
PA<S1 
Remarks on Movements of the Feet . 157 
Examples of Movements of the Region of the Feet.. 160 
L Standing, Feet-Extending 160 
2. Toe-Support, Half-Standing, Heel-Pressing 161 
8. Wing-Walk, Toe Wall-Standing, Foot-Bending e. 162 
4. Long Sitting, Feet Sidewise-Bending 162 
Long-Sitting, Feet-Rotation 168 
Foot-Percussion 164 
Foot-Rotation (Passive) 165 
Support Half-Standing, Leg-Swinging 165 
CHAPTER IX. 
REGION OF THE LEGS. 
Remarks on Movements of the Legs 167 
Walking. 167 
Examples of Movements of the Legs 170 
Wing-Stride-Standing, Curtseying 170 
Half-Standing, Curtseying .. 171 
Balance-Standing, Curtseying 172 
W ing-Kneeling, Knee-Stretching 172 
Half-Standing, Alternate Twisting 173 
Wing-Walk, Forward-Fall-Standing, Knee-Bending 174 
Leg-Angle, Half Standing, Leg-Clapping 174 
Region of the Hips 175 
Remarks on the Region of the Hips 175 
Wing-Stride, Short-Sitting, Leg Outward-Stretching 176 
Leg-Angle, Half Standing Knee-Stretching 177 
Wing-Recline, Support-Sitting, Knees-Raising. 177 
Half-Standing, Leg Forward-Raising 178 
Hnlf-Standing, Leg Backward-Raising 179 
Half-Sianding, Leg Sidewise-Raising 179 
Forward-Fall, Head-Support-Standing, Leg-Raising » ISO 
Half-Standing, Leg-Rotation 181 
Wing-Sitting, Double Leg Twisting 181 
Le-s Angle, Lie Sitting, Knees-Stretching 182 
Shelter Trunk-Backward Lying. Legs-Raising ..... 1*8 
Kick Backward Lying, Legs-Separation 184 
Sidewise-Lying, Leg-Raising. 184 
Backward-Lying, Legs-Rotation 185 
Wing Leg-Angle Half-Lying, Knee-Stretching 185 
Thigh-Rotation 180 
Chine-Knocking 187 
CHAPTER X. 
REGION OF THE TRUNK. 
Remarks on the Region of the Trunk ,.... 188 
Movements of the Digestive Organs 189 
Movements of the Respiratory Organs 193 
Btretch-Stride Short-Bitting, Trunk Forward-Sidewise Falling 198 
Stretch-Stride Short-Sitting, Trunk Backward-Sidewise Falling. 199 
Btretch-Sitting, Trunk Backward-Falling 199 
Half-Stretch, Half-Wing, Stride Short-Sitting, Trank Sidewise Bending 209 XII 
CONTENTS. 
PASS 
Half-Stretch Half-Wing, Stride-Sitting, Trunk Twisting 201 
Shelter Stride-Sitting, Change-Twisting 202 
Yard-Sitting, Arms Swaying 203 
Stretch-Slride-Kneeling, Trunk Backward-Bending 2 4 
Half Stretch, Half-Wing. Reclined Stride-Kneeling, Trunk-Twisting 206 
Half-Stretch, Half-Wing, Walk-Kneeling, Trunk-Twisting 206 
Arms-Angle, Reclined Kneeli g. Arms Stretching 207 
Back-Reclined Stride-Kneeling, Arm- Backward-Striking 208 
Wing Stride-Kneeling, Ringing 208 
Yarn Stride-Kneeling, Swaying 209 
Stride-Sitting, Arms S dewise Raising 210 
Stretch Hall Wa k, Halt-Kneeling, Trunk Bad.ward-Bending ...211 
Hall-Wing, Half Curve (weight held) Step-Reclined-Standing, Trunk Sidewise- 
Bending 211 
Half- ing, Half-Stretch, Step Standing, Trunk Sidewise-Bending 212 
Half-Stretch, Half-Wing, Half Kick, Reclined Standing, Trunk Sidewise-Bend- 
ing 213 
Half-Stretch, Reclined Kick-Standing, Trunk-Twisting 213 
Shelter Long-Silting, Trunk Forward-Bending 214 
Arms-Angle, Half-Kick (foot supported) Reclined-Stauding, Arms-Stretching.. 214 
Yard-Reel med, Half Kick Standing, Swaying 216 
Half-Stretch, Half-Wing, Walk, Trunk Sidewise-Bent, Standing, Trunk -Twist- 
ing . ' ... 216 
Yard Walk-Standing, Trunk Backward-Bending 217 
Upward Sidewise Stretch Doorway-Standing, Walking 217 
Shelter, Sidewise-Bent Stride-Standing, Trunk Rotation 218 
Head-and-11 eels Lying, Holding 219 
Elbow-and-Toes Lying, Holding 220 
Elbow-and-Leg Sidewise-Lying, Hips Raising 221 
Shelter Baek-Lying, Head-and-Legs Raising 222 
Back Lying, Holding .. 222 
Wing-Stride Leg-Angle Standing, Trunk Vibradon 223 
Operations upon the Digestive Organs 223 
Kneading, Shaking, Stroking, Circular Stroking, Point Pressure, Clapping.... 224 
Agitation of the Abdomen and Diaphragm 226 
REGION OK THE ARMS. 
Remarks on this Region 227 
Stretch Backward-Lying, Weight-Holding 229 
Rack Grasp, Forward Fall-Standing, Arms Angling 230 
Stretch-Grasp Standing, Hip Rotation 231 
Half Stretch Grasp Standing, Arm Twisting 232 
Yard Stride-Sitting, Arms Twisting 232 
Standing, Arms Rotating. 233 
Hanging, Swinging 284 
Swing-Hang-Standing, Trunk Rotating 236 
Trunk Forward-Fall Hanging, Holding 237 
Backward Fall Elbows Support Lying, Holding 238 
Half-Stretch support Half Standing, Stretching 239 
Stretch-Stride Standing or Star-Stauding, Stretching 240 
CHAPTER XI. 
CHAPTER XH. 
REGION OF THE HEAD AND NEOK. 
Remarks on the Region of the Head and Neck 241 
Head Turning 242 
Head Forward Bending . 242 
Head Backward Bending 243 
Head Backward Bending and Twisting (Screw-Raising). 848 CONTENTS. 
XIII 
IPart 
THE PUROLOGY OF SEVERAL FORMS OF CHRONIC DISEASE. 
THE RELATIONS OF MOVEMENTS, 
raox 
Remark 246 
Indigestion, Dyspepsia 247 
CHAFFER XIII. 
CHAPTER XIV. 
NERVOUSNESS. 
Nervousness 262 
Seminal Disease 271 
Neuralgia 278 
Scrofulous Affections 277 
CHAPTER XV. 
CHAPTER XVI. 
Pulmonary Affections-Consumption . 280 
Paralysis of the Nerves of Motion 808 
CHAPTER XVII. 
CHAPTER XVHI 
CONSTIPATION, DIARRHEA, AND PILES. 
Constipation 808 
Diarrhea -. 815 
Piles 817 
Deformities of the Spine 820 
CHAPTER XIX. 
CHAPTER XX. 
Female Diseases 823 
MISCELLANEOUS APPLICATIONS OF MOVEMENTS. 
Movements to Remove Fatigue 840 
To Stop Nose-Bleed 841 
To Induce Vomiting 842 
To Remove Chilblains 8-48 
To Relieve Headache 844 
Worms in Children 846 
Hernia 846 
Prolapsus of the Womb and Bowels 84T 
To Relieve Backache 841 
Amenorrhea ' 847 
To Excite Action of the Lower Bowels 847 
CHAFFER XXI. XIV 
CONTENTS. 
CHAPTER XXII. 
DIFFERENT EFFECTS OF VARIOUS COMMON EXERCISES UPON PERSONS IN 
HEALTH. 
PAGE 
Walking .. 348 
Running 348 
Dancing 349 
Sewing 849 
Agricultural Labors ; • - 350 
Painting, etc.... 351 
Study 351 
MOVEMENTS ADAPTED TO THE USE OF SCHOOLS. 
Order of Command fcr Free-Sitting Movements 355 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
W ioitr. 
CHAPTER XXIV. 
MASSAGE. 
TREATMENT OF INVALIDS TOO FEEBLE FOR SELF-HELP, BY THE EMPLOY- 
MENT OF SINGLE MOVEMENTS. 
How these Principles are Available by the Feeblest Invalid 358 
Transmission of Energy 800 
Localized Massage 362 
Massage and the Nervous System 363 
CHAPTER XXV. 
Conditions essential for Massage 366 
CHAPTER XXVI. 
DESCRIPTION OF SPECIAL PROCESSES OF MASSAGE APPLICABLE TO THE 
WHOLE BODY. 
Transverse Pressure-Motion 371 
Longitudinal Pressure-Motion 373 
Circuitous Pressure-Motion 373 
Fingers and Thumb Grasping r.. 374 
Fingers and Thumbs point-pressure Motion 375 
Knuckle-Pressure Motion 376 
Surface Rubbing, Friction, or Stroking 377 
Direct Friction of the Skin 377 
Rubbing over the Clothing 380 
Percussion 382 
MASSAGE OF THE LOWER EXTREMITIES. 
The Feet 386 
Foot Rotation 887 
Foot Twisting 388 
Foot Bending or Stretching 388 
Double Pressure-Motion to the Foot 388 
CHAPTER XXVII. CONTENTS. 
XV 
PAGE 
Leg Wringing 389 
Legs Transverse Pressure-Motion 390 
Thigh Rotation 390 
Leg Twisting .... ... ..... 892 
Longitudinal Pressure-Motion of the Leg 392 
CHAPTER XXVIII. 
UPPER EXTREMITIES. 
Hands-Finger Rotation 393 
Finger Twisting 393 
Hand Twisting 394 
Wrist Rotation 394 
Forearm Rotation 395 
Arm Wringing 395 
Arm Rotation 396 
Double Pressure-Motions of the Arms and Legs 397 
CHAPTER XXIX. 
THE DIGESTIVE ORGANS. 
Kneading the Abdomen 402 
Kneading-Second Method 402 
Kneading-Third Method 403 
Kneading by Trunk Rotation 404 
Trunk Twisting 405 
CHAPTER XXX. 
MASSAGE OF THE HEAD. 
Posi tion-Action 407 
Throat 408 
Neck 409 
Nose 409 
Ears 410 
Eyes and Temples 410 
Eyelids 411 
£il>t. 
HYGIENE. 
CHAPTER XXXI. 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF HYGIENE. 
Food 413 
Quantity 413 
Quality 415 
Salt 417 
Preparation of Food-Cooking 418 
Proper Times for Eating 419 
Drinks 421 
Milk. 421 
CHAPTER XXXII. 
TEMPERATUBE. 
Physiological Effect of Heat and Cold 423 
Origin of Colds 426 
Effect of Continued and Great Extremes . 428 XVI 
CONTENTS. 
, PAGE 
Importance of Cold 429 
The Wate.r-Cure ' ''. 429 
The Cold Bath 430 
The Warm Bath 481 
The Hot Bath ; ' " ' 432 
Local Baths 432 
Effect on the Nerves ' 433 
Compresses 434 
The Air Bath 434 
The Cold General Bath 435 
Reaction 436 
Shower and Douche Baths 436 
CHAPTER XXXIII. 
Light 488 
Mental Hygiene 441 
CHAPTER XXXIV. A MANUAL OF EXERCISES 
PART I . 
PRINCIPLES CONNECTED WITH THE USE OF MOVEMENTS. 
(Qyter (Ont. 
INTRODUCTORY. 
Physical Self-training, and the Classes of Persons 
for whom it is Specially Needful.-There are not in 
nature nicer or wiser adaptations of means to ends, than 
are exhibited in the arrangements of the human sys- 
tem for the maintenance in perfect order and health of 
its functions. Such provision implies the reverse of 
chance or accident as its controlling cause, and in fact 
intelligence in the arrangement of its activities and 
relations, if indeed safety and perpetuity be the object 
contemplated in it. That all may have to a certain 
and sufficient extent the control of their own physical 
systems, will scarcely be denied; for it is on this fact 
that human actions and human responsibility are based. 
The acknowledgment of this evidently throws the 
responsibility for his health, efficiency, and happiness 
upon his own shoulders, where every man should feel 
that it belongs. 18 
INTBODUCTOKY. 
The moral and intellectual natures of man have ever 
been regarded as proper subjects for training and de- 
velopment, in order to secure their due healthful 
exercise. The physical system is manifestly a subject 
for corresponding attention; and its right to this ad 
vantage should be recognized, and receive in civilized 
communities no less regard. That physical culture 
should claim the precedence, would seem to be indi- 
cated by the fact that the physical is prior in the order 
of development, not only as respects the individual, 
who is, through the physical, fitted for his destiny as 
an intellectual being, but also in the progressive un- 
folding of the powers of the race. 
Physical culture, then, should be promoted both as 
a science and as an art, in all the numerous applica- 
tions of which it is susceptible, till it assumes a posi- 
tion in the public esteem commensurate with its im- 
portance. The particular form it shall take, and the 
modes of carrying it out, will long remain a matter of 
abstract and experimental investigation; each person 
interested contributing something of his experience 
and thought toward the realization of the grand object 
-the highest efficiency and well-being of mankind, 
physical and moral. 
This subject is one that receives much superficial at- 
tention. It is one concerning which an abundance of 
"vague and glittering generalities" have been ex- 
pressed, but only a very few practical precepts or defi- 
nite directions given. While all seem familiar with 
the subject of exercise, in its relations to the health, 
but very few admit that they are prepared to meet, 
with suitable applications, any given case requiring 
treatment. The feeble person and the invalid are con 
rtantly advised to take exercise. The popular lecturer, INTRODUCTORY. 
19 
books, friends, physicians unite in confirming the dic- 
tates of his common sense in this respect; but the in- 
quirer looks almost in vain to all these sources for any 
definite and satisfactory information based on physi- 
ology and the laws of life, such as will tell him how the 
remedy operates, and also how it should be applied. 
The present treatise, it is hoped, will assist in sup- 
plying the needs here referred to, in the several direc- 
tions now to be named. 
1. The class of persons who will best understand 
the meaning as well as the method of the present 
treatise, consists of those who have been, or are, under 
my medical direction. Indeed, this is the class that 
loudly call for the work, and who have constantly 
spurred me on to its completion. After receiving for 
a while a full prescription of duplicated movements, 
until their health has become much improved, such 
persons require, at every stage of their progress toward 
the goal of perfect health, directions for self-treatment 
-for a continuation, in a modified form, of the measures 
previously employed. I have felt, as others have and 
will, the need of such particular directions as each 
patient may require, and which this treatise is an 
attempt to furnish. In this way, the purposes of both 
physician and patient are equally served, and the desired 
object of extending the practice of movements in a do- 
mestic way is to a limited extent realized. But the 
reader must understand at the outset, that the move- 
ment-cure can be practiced in this way only to a limited 
extent, both on account of the obscure nature of the 
diseases for which it is applied, and also from the kind 
of processes which it employs. 
The present treatise is therefore confined to the disr 20 
INTRODUCTORY. 
cussion of a few single 'movements. With those who 
have had a previous training with the duplu ated move- 
ments, the directions herein contained will be of the 
greatest service, net only for the purpose of carrying 
on the curative processes to results of greater perfec- 
tion, but also for preventing a recurrence of the com- 
plaint, since it is the prime object of the treatment to 
secure to the invalid the intelligent and permanent 
command of himself. 
2. There is in the community a very large class of 
persons who might be called half-invalids-persons 
who do not possess a satisfactory amount of health, 
but who at the same time feel that they are not the 
proper subjec s for medical care. Such persons feel 
that they are forewarned of disease, and would gladly 
attempt to avert it, could they obtain such directions 
for doing so as would meet the approbation of their 
reason or instinctive sense of physiological propriety. 
Current medical practice takes no cognizance of these 
cases; or if it does, it is in such a way as often to confirm 
the subject in serious and prolonged disease. Aware 
of this fact, many keep aloof from medical advice of 
any kind, and insist that suffering in any of the more 
moderate forms is less a misfortune than the habit of 
gulping drugs for the palliation they afford. For per- 
sons of this class, it is evident that it is not drugs, but 
such easily performed self-training as that of which 
examples and directions are here given, that is re- 
quired. By this means, lhe abundant latent powers 
which they possess are developed into activity and 
harmony, and they soon rejoice in health, while lhe neg- 
lee: or continued misdirection of these would eventually 
have degenera.ed into grave, and perhaps fatal, disease INTRODUCTORY. 
21 
3. Besides these, there are many whose avocations 
are sedentary, yet such as require the continued and 
often severe employment of a part of their muscles. 
This tends to an undue and disproportionate activity 
of some parts of the body to the detriment of others. 
Such avocations constitute in many constitutions a 
potent cause of ill health; but the ill effects of them 
can, in general, be easily counteracted by a recourse 
to such means as are prescribed in this treatise. Per- 
sons suffering from the causes here alluded to, will be 
enabled to remove fatigue and congestion from the 
parts of the body that have been abused by too con- 
tinuous exercise, and thus to prevent the occurrence of 
the grievous symptoms so ccmmonly resulting from 
such causes. 
4. Persons of literary and of business habits require 
a similar aid to preserve them from falling into habit- 
ual ill health. The habit of this class of persons is, to 
employ all' the available forces of their organism 
through a particular channel-the brain and nerves, 
and of course to excite nutrition chiefly in a single de- 
partment of their organism. This is contrary to the 
laws of the system, and ill consequences are necessa- 
rily ere long felt. This disproportionate use and un- 
balanced nutrition, whereby one set of functions is 
heightened, is, of course, to the detriment of another 
set of functions, which, becoming reduced in power, 
are, at last, literally starved out. Examples of this 
class of persons are met with everywhere, and gener- 
ally recognized at sight. It is to be hoped the time 
will come when such physiological abuse will meet the 
general reprehension it so much deserves. 
The principles advocated, and the practical examples 22 
INTRODUCTORY. 
afforded in this work, are adapted to obviate all such 
unfortunate results. Persons whose tastes or necessities 
lead them to employ the nervous departmen ' of their 
being chiefly, may, if they choose to learn hou, counter- 
act any disproportionate nervous wear, and by attend- 
ing to its cultivation, maintain their physical vigor. 
5. As a necessary element in the education of the 
young, physical culture should hold a place co-ordi- 
nate with that of the intellect-it should be a part of 
all academic training. For the want of this culture, 
educational means and appliances too often defeat their 
own purposes; for the due co-ordination of the powers 
of the body, under the order of civilizational develop- 
ment, can not with safety be left to chance. If we are 
to judge of the utility of institutions of learning by 
many of the specimens of manhood which they turn 
out, our decisions respecting them can not be unquali- 
fiedly favorable. Sadly true will this appear when we 
come to set against the fulfillment of the highest hopes 
of parent, teacher, and friend, in regard to intellectual 
advantages, the destruction of the power to use them. 
With physical health broken down, and stamina de- 
stroyed, we are led to inquire if the advantages are 
not quite counterbalanced. We are at least justified 
in making the inference, that the processes tending to 
such results are radically defective. The hardy team- 
ster or plowman, with few intellectual resources, has, 
with nothing to boast of, in fact, besides an excellent 
physique, in the comparison, plainly the best of it; for 
though the college youth has satisfied the amid ion of 
his friends in the mattei of intellectual culture, his 
success proves of little avail as a source of rational 
enjoyment, or as contributing to the world's advance- INTBODUCTOBY. 
23 
ment; since he has at the same time acquired a fear- 
ful drawback in the form of the life-lease of a narrow 
chest, shrunken and flabby muscles, and a general dys- 
peptic or consumptive habit. While learning was 
being put into him, his natural pluck was driven out 
of him-an exchange of very questionable advantage. 
With females, the case is even worse. The girl is 
sacrificed to society's conventionalisms, senseless and 
even vicious though they may be; while the boy may 
rudely thrust these aside. Many of the world's lead- 
ers have acquired the power to be such, by shocking 
their friends in their boyhood. But, her parents or 
teachers knowing nothing nor caring for vita] laws, the 
girl is restrained in the opportunities for bodily activity 
that nature would seek; and by the time that her edu- 
cation is " finished," she is rendered, physically, 
thoroughly useless, both from want of power and of 
disposition to be otherwise. Regardless of the neces- 
sary physical conditions, her intellectual powers can 
not be sustained; and, in too many instances, she is ren- 
dered incapable of reaching or appreciating the higher 
ends of life, and becomes satisfied with a merely senso- 
rial existence. 
We may conclude, then, that the prevalent amount 
of disease among females is not a sacred birthright de- 
rived from the providential constitution of things, but 
that it is acquired, and follows as the necessary conse- 
quence of the inharmonious action of the organism, 
imposed by the customs of society and the neglect of 
bodily culture. It is thus that the chlorosis, the ner- 
vousness, the dyspepsia, the deformity of spine and 
chest, the loss of the attractions that should belong to 
the sex, and divers other afflictions, so common with 
females, are fully accounted for. 24 
INTRODUCTORY. 
It may be said that physical training, when subjected 
to rules, is unnatural, and that this matter is better 
left to the spontaneous suggestions of nature. 
I would reply to this, that if so, all education, any 
training, is equally "unnatural." The object of all true 
culture is to aid the designs of nature; and our plans 
must be carried out conformably to her laws, in order 
that we may attain satisfactory results. We are pur- 
posely so constituted as to be susceptible of improve- 
ment in every department of our being; and such im- 
provement becomes a duty we owe ourselves. Civili- 
zation proceeds by steps; and when any custom or 
mode of life exists that is attended by unwholesome 
effects, it is an indication that further knowledge is re- 
quired for their counteraction; for that civilization is 
faulty which does not prevent the evil results of any 
habits that cultivated society may impose. 
The principle of cultivating the body along with the 
mind, so as by preserving the health to render mental 
culture available, is far from being new. It has been 
often recognized and put in practice; and laudable and 
successful examples have existed both in ancient* and 
in modern times. But it has been culpably overlooked 
or slighted by us, the American people; and for such 
neglect we, as a nation, are now receiving the castigation 
necessary to correct our short-comings in this respect. 
6. It need not be concealed that the influence of the 
principles of physical culture, such as it is my present 
♦ The Greeks made the education of their children of both sexes an affair of state 
-it was done at the public expense. In this way they became the type of the hu- 
man race in its best characteristics. In form they were all but perfect; in courage 
unequaled ; they exrelied in the arts and sciences; in polite literature, in poetry and 
history, they are still our masters. Their theory <>f education, and the practical re> 
ralta of it, were better than ours at thia day.-Da. Cjiapmam. INTRODUCTORY. 
25 
purpose to inculcate, is to a considerable extent inimi- 
cal to the interests of the current medical practice. 
So far as this influence is based upon the truths it 
must inevitably prevail, and to a certain extent will 
enable us, eventually, to dispense with the old style of 
medication. 
It must be conceded, upon a little reflection, that 
current medical science does not answer the require- 
ments of the age. Its scope is too narrow-it does not 
attempt to supply the most pressing wants of a civilized 
community. For the chief want is, not some mighty 
much less the faltering, unsatisfactory attempts 
at curing, so exhausting to the limited vital resources 
-but to be kept well. In spite of the antiquity and 
respectability of the medical art, the community is 
not restrained through its influence from wasting 
in the most prodigal manner its precious boon of 
health. 
The popularity of the received medical practice de- 
pends on the common belief, that there really exists a 
connecfion, yet not well understood, between the drug 
and certain curative results. It is plain that the im- 
plied promise to cure thus furnished, so far as credence 
is given it, in effect lessens the fear of the pain, which 
is the penalty of physiological misdeeds ; and thus the 
barrier to the perpetration of such acts is taken away 
Such credence is palpably demoralizing in its influence, 
for it not only countenances the infringement of physio- 
logical law, but discourages the desire to understand, 
and to practice according to the dictates of a correct 
physiology. 
It behooves us to look more closely than is the gene- 
ral habit, to the principles involved in drug-practice. 
Suppose all the expectations and hope held out by the 26 
INTRODUCTORY 
administrator of this means of cure to be completely 
fulfilled, would it not discourage inquiry in regard to 
physiological relations, and really offer a premium to 
indulgence and the consequent physiological crime? 
Does not the assurance of delivery from danger anni- 
hilate the fear of it, and are not men ready to rush in- 
to danger in proportion to their belief in speedy and 
complete delivery ? To what else are we to refer the 
general ignorance and misunderstanding of the laws 
of health, but the indifference to such knowledge, 
which medicine, indirectly, to be sure, but powerfully, 
inculcates ? 
Let us contrast this principle with its opposite, viz,, 
that there is no scape-offering for physiological s.in, but 
that suffering and diminished power are its due, direct, 
and inevitable consequences. Must not this stimulate 
to such inquiry as would lead to exact knowledge, 
rigid care, and correct practice ? Self-preservation 
and self-interest, which it is impossible to despise, 
would tend directly to this result. 
It is apparent that the true physician has a higher 
duty resting upon him than those who bear that name 
are accustomed to acknowledge, namely, that of carry- 
ing instruction to the popular mind in regard to the 
natural capabilities and requirements of the body, so as 
to enable men to preserve their powers, and to repel 
the first insidious approaches of disease. There is 
scarcely any discreet physician or we.l-informed person 
who will not admit that the department of hygiene that 
is here advocated and rendered practical, is the most 
powerful of agencies in securing this desirable result. 
Upon the physician rests plainly a duty in this matter, 
because the duty confessedly exists, and it can fall to 
no one else. Here is opened a broader field for his INTRODUCTORY. 
27 
labor than he now enjoys, and one compatible with the 
dictates of a noble and generous mind. 
7. The importance of the special hygienic system of 
movements, for the recovering invalid, for the weakly, 
for those whose position requires too little or improper 
kinds of exercise, for youth of both sexes, and for pre- 
venting disease, must be manifest to all. But that the 
subject is invested with an interest which is strictly 
medical, in the highest sense of that term, will not be 
so readily admitted. It is conceived by the author, that 
the importance of movements as a curative resource is 
hardly second to that of any other heretofore brought 
before the public. 
It is the purpose of the present treatise only to 
supply some hints toward a practice based on the 
phenomena of motion in the body. And in order to 
render it useful for the purposes above indicated, it is 
restricted to what I have denominated single move- 
ments. This limitation, while it fits the treatise for the 
use of a larger number of individuals in the commu- 
nity, renders it, at the same time, imperfect as a medical 
guide, and confines its applications to a limited number 
of diseased conditions. In short, the work aims to do 
nothing more than to introduce the idea of the remedial 
application of movements, which, to be complete, must 
employ also, and perhaps chiefly, the duplicated move- 
ments, of which there is an account here included. 
Movements have incontrovertible remedial effects, 
and may therefore be considered a legitimate remedial 
agent. The application of this system has been 
known and practiced to a limited extent in all ages; 
and in modern times it has been much extended, and 
has received the appellation of the Movement-Cure. 28 
INTRODUCTORY. 
This practice is not pretended in any quarter to be a 
universal panacea, nor to include all that is valuable 
in the present domain of medical art. It is an in 
valuable contribution to a system of practice based on 
physiology, which, to be complete, will embrace, by 
separate and distinct methods, every avenue through 
which the health of the body is influenced, either from 
external or internal causes. The tendency of current 
medical practice is to narrow down medical means to 
the use of drugs; whereas these are but one of the 
many kinds of agents that affect the health of the 
body. All the variations and perturbations of the 
health are a true record of the effects of the slighter 
variations in the use of the materials and of the forces 
that are adapted by nature to functional employment, 
and that, acting together in appropriate adjustment, 
produce that condition which is termed health. 
An enumeration of these elements available to the 
restoration as well as to the maintenance of the health 
would include many forces and agents that have to do 
mainly with man as an animal, such as heat, cold, 
food, drink, labor, recreation, rest, and all the inter-re- 
lations and adjustments of these, considered both in 
reference to their effect upon the vegetative life, and 
the animal functions of the body. 
This system regards man as a spiritual being-recog- 
nizes all the various influences that operate upon his 
intellectual and moral life flowing from physical 
causes, and the power of the mind over the exercise 
of functional acts of the body, of every kind. The fact 
that man is subject to these relations, and that they 
directly modify and control his health, is undoubted. 
How this control is to be exercised as a remedial means 
has not yet been shown; except, perhaps, in such a INTRODUCTORY. 
29 
fragmentary way as does not admit of any organic 
construction. The practice of duplicated movements, 
wherein the mental powers of both the invalid and 
friend co-operate to the production of certain effects, 
affords many new facts and interesting illustrations of 
the control of the mental and nervous states over those 
functional acts of the body that constitute the health; 
and such as may lead to higher results than have yet 
been conceived-in building up, indeed, what may be 
called a system of moral medicine. 
But the Movement-Cure, as a specialty of medical 
practice, depends entirely on purely physiological 
means for the accomplishment of its purposes. It may 
be considered as a means of enabling the natural ten- 
dencies of the system toward health to act more power- 
fully and effectually. It points out the means of di- 
recting the corporeal energies into just those channels 
in which they are most needed, in order to perfect the 
balance of the physiological processes. It enables the 
system to develop and maintain its forces in greater 
amount, because it employs them naturally and with- 
out undue waste. And because the Movement-Cure 
thus limits itself to a realm of facts concerning which 
there is no question, it has a right to expect the ap- 
proval of physicians of all the different schools, even 
of those advocating opposing theories. It requires as- 
sent only to the plainest and most obvious facts and in- 
ferences of physiology. In the Movement-Cure, all 
physicians meet on common ground and blend their 
differences. This proves, we hold, that the practice is 
founded in common sense, as well as upon the rigorous 
deductions of science and experience; and that the 
rapid dissemination of its principles and practice may 
be prophesied with a degree of certainty. 30 
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF 
Off. 
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE PRACTICE OF MOVE- 
MENTS. 
The desire of men to become more complete, 
comely, vigorous, and healthy-to approach as nearly 
as possible to the ideal man-has existed in all ages, 
and has impelled them to make special efforts to 
secure these ends. The suggestion of the necessary 
means would seem to arise from an instinct of our 
nature; and these evidently consist in simply calling 
into action the power whose improvement we desire-or 
in giving direction to the capabilities of which we are 
in conscious possession. Such a process is based 
on anatomy and physiology, and is limited by these 
sciences; and it deals with the very instruments and 
laws of vitality. 
In recent times, the term "movements" has been 
employed to designate the processes by which this 
control of the bodily powers is secured. Theoretically, 
then, movements are capable of being reduced, to an art, 
hygienic and remedial, as perfect as the principles upon 
which the natural operations of the body are based ; 
and though, as a training or healing art, it may always 
have been successfully practiced, yet that success be- 
comes necessarily more perfect, as less empirical, when 
rt employs the facts and principles developed by mod- 
ern research in physiology. THE PRACTICE OF MOVEMENTS. 
31 
In glancing at the history of movements, the reader will 
wonder why an art so easily practiced, the elements of, 
and the demand for, which exist in the constitution of 
every one, while its principles are so fundamental and 
leave so little room for improvement, snould not in 
modern times have come more generally into populai" 
favor. The answer to this inquiry will be found in the 
fact of the maze of obscurity that has prevailed in the 
general mind in regard to the true curative value of 
drugs. But while all possible things have been both 
asserted and denied in regard to drugs, the value of 
movements has never been denied or questioned, but 
only at times neglected, in the general interest with 
which the popular mind has invested the other ques- 
tions. In the last few centuries, chemistry has at each 
of the successive epochs of its development, furnished 
medicine with the means of toying with the credulity, 
the hopes and fears of the suffering public; and it 
requires all of the present amount of knowledge, and 
more time than has elapsed, to enable the scientific, 
supported by the popular mind, to turn the influence 
of the full-fledged science into its proper channels, to 
consummate a revolution that may be delayed, but 
must eventually be realized. 
The employment of movements for hygienic and 
medical purposes is by no means a new thing, but is, 
on the contrary, older than any other means proposed 
for the same purpose. Movements have been employ- 
ed in every age, and if not suggested by the natural 
instincts of the rude mind, their imperfect use is very 
soon suggested by experience. Among Indian and 
African tribes, various manipulations, flagellations, etc., 
have been practiced, generally connected with super- 
stitious rites, incantations, prayers, etc., to which more 32 
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF 
enlightened people attribute the least portion of the 
benefit that is obtained. It is well known that certain 
movements produce vertigo, nausea, palpitations of the 
heart, and various other effects corresponding to actions 
that are brought about by chemical means. And so a 
primitive people, even, would make a beginning that 
would soon become extended with their extending 
experience, till checked by their ignorance of the gen- 
eral scientific principles underlying what they rudely 
practice. 
Such primitive people, who know nothing of the 
brain wear, the confinement, and the defective exercise 
connected with the in-door and sedentary occupations 
of civilized society, have no need of other physical 
training than results from the chase and the dance, 
to which they are always devoted. But as civilization is 
developed, which always implies training, the physical 
powers must also be trained to maintain the general 
harmony, and if not by accident, then by design; or 
the constitution suffers in the way we see it so apt to 
do in old and enfeebled nations. 
Thus it happens that there is developed from causes 
naturally and inevitably operating, a system of regu- 
lating the health, and overcoming diseases by the em 
ployment of movements. But this system has, with 
but few exceptions, been practiced in an incomplete 
manner, owing to the imperfect development of chem- 
ical and physiological science, upon which such a prac- 
tice is necessarily founded. 
Movements among the Chinese. - The traditional 
history of this people affords us many instructive exam- 
ples of the employment of various exercises to preserve 
and restore the health. This history informs us that the 33 
THE PRACTICE OT MOVEMENTS. 
humidity of the atmosphere and the stagnant waters 
were considered a prolific source of epidemic and en- 
demic diseases, and that the efficient means of prevent- 
ing these consisted in regular exercises of the body, 
by a kind of gymnastic dance. These movements tend 
to produce action from the center to the circunihr-- 
ence of the body, or centrifugal - an action 
appropriate for the renewal of the functions of the 
liver, and to give tone and vigor to the whole economy. 
This matter was considered so important as to be under 
governmental regulation. 
The Chinese writers support this practice with the 
tradition that the life of man depends on a union of 
earth and heaven, together with the use that the crea- 
ture makes of these. A subtile material, they think, 
circulates in the body; if then the body is not in 
action, the material accumulates; and, according 
to their theory, all diseases come of such obstruc- 
tion. 
The devotion of the Chinese to bodily exercises 
suggested the fundamental principle, which in China 
has always been considered the basis of progress and 
moral development, viz., that of self-development. 
It appears that the Chinese have long practiced an 
art of medical movements, which they denominate the 
Cong Fou. The meaning of this term is, simply, the 
art of exercising the body, and its application to the 
treatment of disease. Says P. Amiot, a missionary, 
" Volumes might be written of the traditions, stories, 
and extravagant virtues of the Cong Fou, which are 
implicitly believed; even the majesty of the throne not 
exempting many emperors from a stupid credulity. 
Notwithstanding the priestly superstitions connected 
with it (for the priests persuade the people that it is a 34 
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF 
true exercise of religion), it is really a very ancient prae 
tice of medicine, founded on principles, and potent ii 
many diseases." 
From the statements of the learned missionary and 
others are deduced these conclusions : 
1st. That this art is founded on a genuine experience 
and original scientific principles, and may be freed from 
the superstitions and charlatanry that at the present day 
surround it-that it dates back to Hoang-Fi, 2698 years 
before the Christian Era. 
2d. It consists of three essential particulars, to wit: 
a. Various positions of the body. 
5. Rules for varying these attitudes. 
c. During these exercises and attitudes, a manage- 
ment of the respiration according to certain rules of 
inspiration and expiration. 
3d. This method has its own proper technical lan- 
guage. 
4th. It does really effect the cure and relief of many 
diseases. 
5th. The Chinese of every rank eagerly resort to this 
remedy when every other means of cure has been tried 
in vain. 
Thus it is affirmed that the Cong Fou has really all 
the characters and pretensions of an ancient scientific 
mode of medical practice. 
" The priests (who are the physicians) enter into an 
extensive detail of the positions of the body in all their 
shades of variation. These are so numerous, that we 
do not fear to say that all the postures and attitudes 
of comedians, dancers, tumblers, and artistic figures 
are but a small portion of those which have been in- 
troduced into this practice. The different modes of 
folding, raising, falling, bending and THE PRACTICE OF MOVEMENTS. 
35 
tending, separating and approaching, the arms and 
legs, in the standing, sitting, and lying positions, form 
a prodigious variety." 
M. Amiot proceeds, at considerable length, to ex- 
plain the methods and principles of this Chinese sys- 
tem of medical movements, and the diseases and symp- 
toms for which it is applicable ; and from this account 
the following is extracted : 
" The Cong Fou consists in certain positions in 
which the body is placed a certain length of time, in 
which the patient breathes in peculiar methods. 
These methods must be chosen and combined accord- 
ing to the disease that is treated. 
"The morning is the proper time for the treatment; 
after the night's repose the circulation is more equable, 
the secretions more balanced and uniform. Persons 
plethoric or charged with humors are always profited 
by fasting in the evening; and this is absolutely neces- 
sary in certain diseases. 
"In practicing the movements, the body is either com- 
pletely or partially clothed, and has weights upon the 
head and shoulders, according to the complaint; and 
in the respiration, the mouth should be half full of 
saliva or water. 
"Thephysical and physiological principles concerned 
seem to be these: 
" 1. The mechansim of the body being entirely hy- 
draulic, with a free circulation of the fluids, health con- 
sists only with the proper equipoise of these fluids in 
their reciprocal relations; and to restore health, this 
equilibrum must be established. 
" 2. As the air constantly enters into the blood and 
vital fluids through the lungs, tempers and purifies it 
and preserves its fluidity, these last qualities can only 36 
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF 
be maintained through respiration, and of course are 
restored by the same instrumentality. 
"From these two principles they draw conclusions 
after their own fashion, which we will give for what 
they are worth. 
" 1. As the circulation of the fluids of the body has 
to overcome the two great obstacles of weight and fric- 
tion, all that tends to diminish these, aids to establish 
the circulation which is disturbed. 
" 2. As the motion and impetus of the air increases 
the fluidity of liquids, and thus facilitates their move- 
ments, therefore all that tends to increase or diminish 
the force of the air in the body must increase or re- 
tard the circulation. 
"These principles and deductions being understood, 
the disciples of the Cong Fou enter into very lengthy 
details in order to show the sympathetic correspond- 
ence of the different parts of the human the 
action and reaction of the great organs of the cir- 
culation, of the secretion, and of Xhe digestion of 
food. 
" Theory.-The Chinese physicians make use of 
reasoning like the following, after the principles and 
consequences above expressed. There are two essen- 
tial parts of the Cong Fou-the first embraces the po- 
sitions and attitudes that are given to the body, the 
second the manner in which the respiration is accel- 
erated, retarded, or modified. 
" 1. If we regard the circulation of the blood and 
fluids as being opposed by their gravity or their fric- 
tion, which tends to retard the flow, it is evident that 
the degree in which the body is straight or bent, lying 
or raised, the feet and hands stretched or folded, raised, 
lowered, or bent, eught, in the hydraulic mechanism, to 37 
effect a physical change, either to retai 1 or to facilitate 
the circulation. 
" The horizontal position being that which diminishes 
the weight most, is therefore most favorable to the 
circulation; while the ere°t position, on the contrary, 
augments the weight to its utmost, and must, neces- 
sarily, render the circulation most difficult; for the same 
reason, the position, according as the arms, the feet, or 
the head are raised, inclined, bent, etc., ought to af- 
fect the circulation more or less. 
" This is not all; that which hinders the circulation 
in one part, gives more force in the direction in which 
the obstacle does not exist; and hence the fluids are 
made to overcome the engorgements that obstruct its 
passage. 
" Another fact is this, that when the circulation has 
been hindered in a part, the greater is the force and 
impetuosity of the current when the obstacle is re- 
moved. 
" It follows that the different postures of the Cong 
Fou, jvell directed, ought to produce a salutary relief 
in affections that arise from an embarrassed, retarded, 
or interrupted circulation. Now what are the affec- 
tions that have other causes ? Except fractures, bruises, 
etc., it is difficult to find other than these causes to de- 
range, the organization of the human l)ody. 
"2. It is certain that the heart is the grand power 
concerned in the circulation, and the force it. exhibits 
ji producing and maintaining it is one of the wonders 
of the universe. 
" It is also certain that there is an obvious connec- 
tion, continually existing, between the movements of 
the heart, in filling and emptying itself of blood, and 
the movements of dilatation and contraction of the 
THE PRACTICE OF MOVEMENTS. 38 
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF 
lungs, which fill and empty themselves of air by in 
spiration and expiration. Their connection is so inti* 
mate, that the beats of the heart increase and diminish 
directly in proportion to the increasing and retarding of 
respiration. 
"Now, if more air is inspired than is expired, or the 
contrary, its volume should increase or diminish the 
total mass of the fluids of the body, and recruit or cur- 
tail more or less the blood of the lungs; if the respira- 
tion is hastened or retarded, the result should be a 
quickening or retarding of the heart's action, so that 
both the mode of the circulation in the different parts 
of the body and the volume of the fluids of the body 
are controlled by the respiration," etc.* 
It would appear from the above extract, that the 
Chinese were acquainted at an early day with the cir- 
culation of the blood, and tolerably versed in the 
mechanism of the body. And although, in the light 
of modern science, their reasoning in medical matters 
appears to a degree fallacious, one can not but be per- 
suaded that their practice of the movements must have 
been salutary and efficient; and that this primitive 
practice, suggested by the most obvious facts pertaining 
to the constitution, when improved upon and modified 
by modern science, would be infinitely more salutary 
and efficient. The effect of increased respiration would 
now be explained by the well-known oxydizing power 
of the air upon the blood, and its consequent elimina- 
tory effect upon the system oppressed with incom- 
pletely oxydized matters. 
The patrons and priests of the Cong Fou, let it be 
said to their credit, seem to have had in mind the 
higher ends of existence-the good of the soul. 
• CuiEBioLOGis : ou, Science du Mouvement. Pa* N Dallt. the practice of movements. 
39 
They believed the true mode of ministering to it to 
be primarily through the body. P. Amiot says that 
the Chinese "regarded the Cong Fou as a true exercise 
of religion, which, by curing the body of its infirmities, 
liberates the soul from the servitude of the senses, and 
gives it power of accomplishing its wishes on earth, 
and of freely elevating itself to the perfection and 
perpetuity of its spiritual nature in the Tao, the realm 
of the great creative Power." 
Movements in India.-Intermingled with the super- 
stitious religious practices of the ancient Indians there 
were also many bodily exercises, bearing a great re- 
semblance to those of the Chinese. The most promi- 
nent among them was the retention of the air in 
respiration. They insisted that air produced the same 
effect in the body that fire produces upon metals ex- 
posed to its influence, namely, to purify it. The Greek 
physicians entertained similar ideas, and had rules for 
the application of a similar practice. The retention 
of the 'air, said they, will increase the heat of the in- 
ternal parts, dilate the capacity of the chest, strengthen 
the organs of respiration, clear the chest of its impuri- 
ties, enlarge the pores, attenuate the skin, and drive 
out moisture through that membrane. 
It was from these well-known powers of this move- 
ment, that it was employed to purify the mouth, throat, 
stomach, chest, intestines, and to remedy yawning, 
hiccough, laryngitis, cough, asthma, gastritis, and en- 
teritis ; while in the intervals of movements, and after 
each series of exercises, friction was employed as an 
auxiliary means. 
A Greek historian who was on a mission to India, in 
the third century before our era, relates that " among 40 
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF 
the Brahmins there is an order of physicians who rely 
chiefly upon diet and regimen, together with external 
processes, having great distrust of any more powerful 
means. For this reason it was said that they called 
charms to their aid. Probably these external pro- 
cesses were a system of therapeutic movements. An 
order of Brahminites exists at present whose chief 
medical recourse is hygienic shampooing. 
The English who reside in India frequently give ac- 
counts of the shampooing and friction, which they find 
a great source of delight as well as of health. The 
person receiving the operation is extended on a seat, 
while the operator manipulates his members, as he 
would knead dough for bread. He then strikes him 
lightly with the side of the hand, applies perfume and 
friction, and terminates by cracking the joints of the 
fingers, toes, and neck. After this operation, the sub- 
ject experiences a sensation of ineffable happiness and 
energy. It is said that the Indian ladies seldom pass 
a day without being thus shampooed by their slaves. 
In India, the best qualified practitioners belong to 
Brahminic families, with whom the art of treating dis- 
ease was hereditary ; and there is every indication that 
the sacerdotal orders, who were faithful observers of 
primitive traditions, secretly possessed some Vedic 
treatise upon the art, of which the preceding is the 
substance of fragments that have come down to us. 
Thus it is seen, that the oldest nations of the world 
fully believed in and practiced various external me- 
chanical operations upon the body, both as a luxury, 
and to relieve them of their chronic ailments. And 
whatever superstition of a religious nature was con- 
nected with these operations, by these or other and 
ruder people, no one is prepared to assert that they THE PRACTICE OF MOVEMENTS. 
41 
were inefficacious. AL that was required was a larger 
amount of the science of physiology with which to 
direct and extend the application, to render this re- 
source legitimate and complete. 
Movements among the Greeks and Romans.-In 
the remains of statuary that have descended to us, we 
have ample demonstration of the appreciation the 
ancient Greeks had of perfectly developed and beautiful 
physical forms. These representations in marble are 
enduring monuments of the perfection of the phys- 
ical education of that people. Even without these 
evidences, we feel from the character of their literature 
that such must have been the case; for it is impossible 
to connect the idea of physical weakness and deformity 
with such sound philosophical and poetical genius as 
they possessed. At the very mention of Greek, there 
arises in the imagination of the student a robust and 
beautiful human form, as near to perfection as it is 
possible for any child of Adam to approach. 
The Gymnasium was, with the Greeks, the place for 
both physical and intellectual culture. The training 
of body and mind went hand in hand. It was in the 
gymnasium that persons of all ages daily congregated; 
and while some were reciting poetry or delivering lec- 
tures on philosophy, others were performing, or criti- 
cising the performance of, various exercises adapted to 
develop all their physical parts and powers, or to qual- 
ify them especially for arms. Probably no Greek town 
of any importance was destitute of these schools of 
exercise. 
The education commenced at the seventh year, and 
consisted of music, grammar, and physical training. 
Some authors assert that as much time was employed 42 
historical sketch of 
in the culture of the body, as in that of the mind. In 
Sparta, the idea of physical culture overtopped every 
other, and the excess t.) which it was carried excluded 
that attention to letters which obtained at Athens and 
the other Grecian states. 
Even the women were subjected to treatment simi- 
lar to that which men received. For, said the law- 
givers, " female slaves are good enough to stay at 
home and spin; but who can expect a splendid off- 
spring, the appropriate gift of a free Spartan woman 
to her country, from mothers brought up in such occu- 
pations ?" 
The Olympic games were a perversion of the ob- 
jects of exercise, and produced effects in opposition 
to those contemplated by rational movements; for they 
stimulated to excess single faculties for the purpose 
of winning a prize, instead of producing general excel- 
lence and power. Neither true health nor power are 
possessed by athletes, no matter what astonishing feats 
they may be able to perform. 
The Romans were less appreciative in regard to 
movements as an educational or as a curative means. 
The genius of that people was eminently warlike, and 
they slighted everything that did not look directly to 
the promotion of physical force for warlike purposes. 
No soldiers were better developed by educational drill 
than the Roman, both for feats of arms and for en- 
durance. 
The Romans had gymnasiums also; but these were 
perverted, especially in the later days of the empire, 
to exhibitions of the most brutal and degrading sort, 
such as pugilistic shows, and encounters with wild and 
ferocious animals. 
To the preceding accounts we may add tho fol- THE PRACTICE OK MOVEMENTS. 
43 
lowing extract, relating to ancient " movements," 
mainly derived from Oribasius, a Greek physician of 
the fourth century. 
" By the term exercise the ancients understood phys- 
iological movements pursued according to determined 
rules. They prepared for exercise by special frictions 
They divided movements according to their effects 
into three kinds: 
a 1st. Movements which proceed from within, having 
their origin in the depths of the body, and depending; 
on the will of those that produce them; these are ao 
tive movements. 
" Of these there are several kinds. One requires the 
exertion of force, as using the spade, driving four 
horses at once, raising a weight and holding it at arm's 
length, walking up a steep ascent, climbing a rope, 
clinching the fists close, stretching the arms, and main- 
taining them in this position for a long time, resisting 
the efforts of one trying to lower the extended arms. 
" There was also used in the palestra (part of the 
gymnasium) many other movements that required the 
exertion of power, but all were directed by the pedo~ 
tribe, or director of movements, a person as different 
from the gymnast as a cook is from a physician. 
" Other movements were rapid, but neither intense 
nor violent; as the mock combat, gesticulation, the 
play with the corycos and the little ball; running in a 
circle that constantly diminished till a point was 
reached; walking upon the points of the toes, raising 
the arms and causing them to move very rapidly, 
alternately forward and backward. Other rapid 
movements not requiring exertion, performed in the 
palestra, consisted in rolling, either together oi 
alone. 44 
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF 
" A third kind are violent movements, consisting of 
such exercises as unite force with rapidity of execu 
tion. 
" The following may be classed as violent: using ths 
spade, the lance, leaping constantly without resting, 
throwing heavy projectiles, or working rapidly in 
heavy armor. 
" 2d. Movements that proceed from exterior causes, 
or passive. Among these, in general, are sailing, the 
motion of horse and carriage riding, movement in beds 
suspended, or with foot supports; in the cradle or their 
nurse's arms, for infants. 
" Friction may also be classed among exercises that 
come from exterior sources. Pressures and pinchings 
also belong to the same class. Many other movements 
are included in the kneadings that the ancients em- 
ployed so frequently. 
" 3d. movements, or those which proceed partly 
from exterior and partly from interior sources. Riding 
is given as an example, for while one is shaken by the 
vehicle, he must also maintain his posture and his 
form erect by his own exertions. 
" They mention also other kinds of movements, such 
as speaking, hallooing, breathing, retention of breath, 
dancing, slow walking with stretching the legs, upon 
the feet, toes, or heels, up or down an artificial hill, in 
the sand or soft earth, the play of grace-hoops, swim- 
ming, jumping, etc. All these are of the active 
kind. 
" Wrestling, in which there is established an action 
and reaction between two persons, appertains to mixed 
movements. There should be reckoned in this class 
friction, with retention of the breath to stretch the 
muscles of the chest, and to relax those of the abdo- THE PRACTICE OK MOVEMENTS. 
45 
men, 01 conversely, and the effect of the applica- 
tion of a ligature, which causes the part to become dis- 
tended, or when the same effect is produced by certain 
movements. 
" It is evident that these movements are of a mixed 
kind, both concentric and eccentric; and that the 
ancients, to have made applications so ingenious to 
each particular organ of the body, as well as to the 
entire organism, must have had a knowledge of the 
different physiological effects of movements. 
" We are reminded every day, in our more intelligent 
applications of these principles, of our indebtedness to 
the sagacity and patient efforts of the ancients. 
" Each of these kinds and species of movements, we 
see, had its distinct rules and its supposed physiological 
effects. These effects were modified according to posi- 
tion of the body, upright sitting, lying, or as bent 
in different ways, forward, backward, or to either side. 
They were sometimes slow, sometimes quick, sometimes 
moderate, but always regular. The movements being 
general oT partial, precise in their quantity, quality, 
duration, rhythm, etc., and the director of the ancient 
exercises being a skillful physician, knew how to 
adapt them to the age, constitution, or disease of the 
individual." 
In modern times, the literature pertaining to the 
science of movements in its various branches has been 
very abundant. But most of it has either related to 
special topics, or its applicability in special cases and 
forms of disease or exigencies of the system; or else 
it has been of too general and philosophical a char- 
acter to be of popular use, and has not included such 
practical directions as are demanded for successful 
general application. There has heretofore been sc 46 
HISTORICAL SKETCH CF 
great an intermixture of error in the prevailing physio 
logical systems, as to prevent the simple, obvious, ano 
eminently practical truth from shining clearly out and 
exerting its due influence. 
The philosophical reader will readily appreciate the 
causes that have prevented so manifestly true and suc- 
cessful a practice as the movement from becoming para- 
mount. Men are ever inquiring. As the reward of 
these struggles of the growing mind of man, new 
truths and new ways leading to truth are constantly 
disclosed. Each of these naturally Alls the mind 
with high hopes in regard to the ultimate results of 
present knowledge and effort. Inorganic chemistry 
yielded its riches to the modern physician; and as its 
facts preceded those of vital chemistry, he naturally 
made a misapplication of them; for his practice is an 
outgrowth of, and is limited by, his knowledge. Neither 
the chemist nor the metaphysician could form a correct 
statement of physiological truth, and so practice must 
necessarily remain empirical to a great extent, waiting 
for the new light that shall bring out those elemental 
truths that are instinctively seized upon by all primi- 
tive people. 
The current medical practice has for its foundation 
these scattered, incongruous, and shifting facts; but so 
greatly modified is it, however, by the additions of 
more modern science, that now it seriously threatens tc 
lead us back at last, to the first principles of physiology 
as the only reliable basis after all. 
The system of Lvng, though probably invented by 
him, is really but the collecting together, on a philo- 
sophical plan, of the fragments that had long existed. 
It comprehended, as it were, by an instinctive grasp, 
all the truth that had been previously realized at vari- THE PRACTICE OF MOVEMENTS. 
47 
ous times and places. What in China, Hindoostan, 
and Greece had been but empiricism, he put upon the 
ground on which his successors and followers may hope 
to build a system of philosophical accuracy. 
Biography of Ling.*-The present state of the 
science of remedial treatment by movements, and the 
development of this doctrine, is intimately connected 
with the life of Ling, so that his biography is necessa- 
rily a part of its history. 
Peter Henry Ling was born on the 15th of Novem 
ber, 1766, at Smaland. His father, who was a curate, 
died soon after his son's birth, and his mother, who 
married again, died a short time afterward. Possessing 
no remembrancer of his father, except a small portrait, 
which he received from his mother, as a souvenir of 
love and reverence, the growing boy passed the days 
of his childhood under the too severe training of a 
capricious tutor. The young Ling was afterward sent 
to the schools of Wexio for further instruction. Here 
he soon distinguished himself for his great talents, and 
his energy and devotion to study. 
When Ling left the schools, he saw life open before 
him in its roughest aspects; he found himself exposed 
to incessant vicissitudes, reduced at times to absolute 
poverty and want. During this period he resided for 
the most part in Upsala, Stockholm, Berlin, anc 
Copenhagen; but it is not knowm in what manner he 
was employed. All we know is, that he studied at 
Upsala, and passed his theological examinations at 
Smsland, in December, 1797; afterward he was tutor 
in several families; at one time at Stockholm, at an- 
• Extracted from Rothatei*. 48 
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF 
other in the country. Suddenly he left Germany, 
and went to Denmark. In 1800 he studied in Copen- 
hagen, and the following year took part in the naval 
battle against Nelson, as a volunteer in a Danish ship. 
He afterward returned to Germany, and passed on to 
France and England, whence he returned to Copen- 
hagen, with a perfect knowledge of the languages of 
these different countries. 
During this period he received on different occa- 
sions military appointments, the character of which are 
unknown to us. It is said that during his travels he 
was frequently reduced to the most trying circum- 
stances, even suffering the pangs of hunger. At one 
time he was glad to shelter himself in a miserable 
lodging in a garret at Hamburgh ; he was even forced 
to wash, with his own hands, his only shirt. 
These privations, however, did not depress him; 
although without means, Jlie desire of continuing his 
travels, to develop and improve his knowledge, buoyed 
him up, and enabled him to surmount all difficulties. 
He was proud of his ability to endure privations, and 
to do without what are thought by most to be indis- 
pensable necessaries. 
The same impulsive energy which previously in- 
duced him to take part in a sea-light, determined him 
to study the art of fencing during his second sojourn 
at Stockholm. Two fencing-masters, French refugees, 
had founded there at this time a fencing-school. Ling 
was there every day, and his great skill in this art soon 
became notorious, and his passion for it grew with his 
skill. He was now only at the commencement of that 
career which was already providentially marked out 
for him, and which from deliberate choice, and with 
characteristic energy, he steadily pursued. His reflec- THE PRACTICE OF MOVEMENTS. 
49 
tions upon fencing, and his own experience (for he suf- 
ered then from gout in his arm), taught him to infer 
the wholesome effects which may be produced on the 
body, as well as the mind, by movements based on 
rational principles; and he began to realize that fenc- 
ing, however valuable as an exercise, could not accom- 
plish all that was desirable. 
About this time the idea struck him that an harmo- 
nious development of the body, of its powers and capa- 
bilities, by suitable systematized exercises, ought to 
constitute an essential part in the education of a people. 
The realization of this idea now became his grand 
aim, the more so as he pictured to himself the bril- 
liant image of mankind restored to health, strength, 
and beauty. Ling thought not, like his predecessors, 
of merely imitating the gymnastic treatment of the 
ancients, but he aimed at its reformation and improve- 
ment. 
At this period of Ling's life begins that part of his 
history which for us possesses the deepest interest. 
Quite unknown, but attracting the attention of every 
one by his appearance, he made his debut at Lund in 
the spring of 1805. Versed in several modern lan- 
guages, and a thorough master of fencing, he began to 
teach them both, and being proud of all that con- 
cerned his fatherland, he lectured with enthusiasm on 
the old Norse poetry, history, and mythology. 
Tn the same year he was appointed professor of fenc- 
ing at the University, and began at once to re-fit the 
fencing saloon connected with it, and prepare it for 
several gymnastic exercises, which were commenced 
without delay. He soon excited the attention not only 
of the inhabitants of Lund, but of the other towns in 
the kingdom. 50 
HT8T0BICAL SKETCH OF 
Ling wished to put gymnastics in harmony with na- 
ture, and began in 1805 to study anatomy, physiology, 
and the other natural sciences. The high value he set 
on these studies, and the enthusiasm with which he 
pursued them, are forcibly expressed in his own words. 
" Anatomy, that sacred genesis, which shows us the 
masterpiece of the Creator, and which teaches us how 
little and how great man is, ought to form the con- 
stant study of the gymnast. But we ought not to con- 
sider the organs of the body as the lifeless forms of a 
mechanical mass, but as the living, active instruments 
of the soul." 
Ling looked on anatomy and physiology as the essen- 
tial and necessary basis of gymnastics. But according 
to his idea, these and other natural sciences were not at 
all sufficient for the gymnast, whose aim is the eleva- 
tion of man, in his corporeal and mental nature, to the 
ancient beau-ideal. He must, therefore, know what 
effects movements produce upon the bodily and psycho- 
logical condition of man, a knowledge which can be 
obtained only by investigating human nature as a 
whole, and by the most careful and untiring analysis 
of details. 
Not only to himself, but to others also, must the 
gymnast be able to give an account of the application 
of his art. Ling opened a new field for physical inves- 
tigation, hitherto untried, and almost unknown, even 
to the most learned physicians and naturalists. He 
conducted his researches with the most scrupulous 
exactness, and in the most earnest manner frequently 
recommended his companions to do the same. He did 
not acknowledge a new movement to be a good one 
until he was able to render an exact account of its 
effects. His intention was not merely to make gym- THE PRACTICE OK MUVE5IENT8. 
51 
nasties a branch of education for healthy persons, but 
to demonstrate it to be a remedy for disease. 
Herein we find the explanation of the strong public 
interest taken in Ling's ideas. Laymen who had al- 
ways looked upon bodily movements as a deception, 
in their sickness, anxious for the re-establishment of 
then- health, were easily induced to seek relief for their 
ailments by the new method, and were not disappointed. 
The curative movements were first practiced in 1813, 
while Ling remained at Stockholm; but before this 
time they were neither disregarded nor treated with 
neglect at Lund. 
During his stay at Stockholm, a change fortunate for 
Ling's usefulness took place, which, in the improve- 
ment of his circumstances, extended itself rapidly. At 
first he was appointed master of fencing at the military 
academy in Carlberg, near the Swedish capital. Soon 
afterward he became the director of the Central Insti- 
tution, founded at his own suggestion. He projected 
such an establishment at Lund, and addressed, in 1812, 
the Minister of Public Instruction, soliciting the sup- 
port" of the Government. He received the following 
answer:-"There are enough of jugglers and rope- 
dancers, without exacting any further charge from the 
public treasury." This did not at all diminish his zeal, 
for after his arrival at Stockholm he had the happiness 
(in consequence of the propositions he personally made, 
which were examined by a royal commission) to be 
appointed by a royal ordinance, with a regular salary 
of 500 rix-dollars, as the founder and director of this 
Institution, for the setting out and preparation of which 
not more than 200 rix-dollars were voted. 
The royal ordinance, issued in the year 1814, states 
that the statutes proposed by Ling, and presented to 52 
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF 
the commission, were confirmed and legally established. 
Active and indefatigable, Ling continued his attempts 
at realizing his great ideas with these scanty facilities, 
and pursued his philanthropic efforts with a disinter- 
estedness and self-denial which can be attributed only 
to his enthusiasm for the cause, and to his noble patri- 
otism and humanity. Not only by the zeal and cir- 
cumspection with which he performed his duty as 
director, but by the manner in which he taught and 
practiced his art, the public were at last forced to 
acknowledge his merits, and its importance. Although 
in the last days of his life he may have seen his task 
still incomplete, he was yet able to enjoy a feeling of 
satisfaction, in comparing the degree of perfection his 
art had already attained with the state in which he 
found it at the beginning of his gymnastic career. 
The important increase of public support which was 
accorded to the Institution in the year 1834, was a 
mark of the increasing general favor conferred on 
him and it by his country. His sovereign raised 
him to the dignity of a Professor, and Knight of the 
Order of the North Star. He thankfully accepted 
both, but used neither the title of the first nor the in- 
signia of the latter. He was much gratified by the 
proof of the love of his friends and pupils, when on a 
festive occasion they presented him with a silver 
medal. He had the deeper gratification of seeing at 
length his ideas realized, his art established in Sweden, 
made use of in every grade of society, and incorporated, 
as an important element, in the education of the people. 
Ling's gymnastics were introduced many years ago, 
not only into all the military academies of Sweden, 
but into all town schools, colleges, and universities, 
even into the orphan institutions, and into all country THE PRACTICE OF MOVEMENTS. 
53 
schools. In the rooms of the Central Establishment at 
Stockholm, persons of every condition and age, the 
healthy as well as the sick, executed, or were subjected 
to, the prescribed movements. The number of those 
who adopted their use increased every year, and among 
them were physicians who, in the beginning, had been 
the most opposed to Ling. 
In the Central Institution clever teachers are edu- 
cated, and no one obtains a diploma, or an official 
license to act as a practical teacher, without having 
finished the course, and passed an examination in anat- 
omy, physiology, and the bodily movements. 
Ling being convinced of the unity of the organism, 
and of the importance of the mechanical and physical 
laws to be observed in its education and remedial treat- 
ment, based his system on these truths. He says: 
" It is perhaps not readily understood that a move- 
ment, or a mechanical action, is competent to affect 
interior portions of the organism. It is necessary first 
to understand that the human system is a unit, com- 
plete and indivisible. It can not exist in distinct parts, 
for then it would not be one organism, but several. 
All that we find in the body, whether inherent, or for- 
eign matter, tn any movement, to whatever extent, 
engages in each displacement of any one part, and this 
implies a corresponding change in neighboring parts, 
according to the extent of the primary action. 
"Every little act of changing the attitude, or the re- 
lation of the members of the body, an exterior press- 
ure upon a nerve, a vein, or muscle, must necessarily 
produce a displacement of neighboring parts, and pro- 
duce an action more or less sensible upon organs, in tie 
proportion of their distance and intensity, resembling 
those wave-circles we notice on the surface of water. 54 
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF 
"Experience shows that the different professions 
affect differently the physical and moral stamina of 
those engaged in them. It shows us that a very slight 
pressure upon a nerve irritates it, that a greater press- 
ure produces pain, and if we add still to the pressure, 
engorgement, and at last paralysis is produced. It is 
well known that a certain position is more convenient 
than all others for the ease of the body and the tran- 
quillity of sleep. Do not persons affected with inter- 
nal maladies find that they are more comfortable in 
some positions than in others, and therefore seek those 
positions 
Ling arrived at these results by repeated experi- 
ments and by direct observation, being nearly always 
himself the subject of his trials. Still young, and af- 
fected with a grave disease of the lungs, and already 
given up by physicians, he noticed the favorable in- 
fluence that the movements produced upon his health. 
In the course of these experiments he succeeded in 
curing himself of a disease that had been deemed in- 
curable. lie was thus enabled to corroborate the ob- 
servations he had made upon the effect of movements 
of the body in general, and so to progress in the estab- 
lishment of his system. 
Observation and experiment soon led him to the 
following law: 
" Nutrition, or muscular development of any part 
of the l)ody, occurs in direct relation with the active 
movements to which the part has been subjected." 
His researches and persevering studies upon the 
skeleton, muscular attachments, etc., led him at last to 
a great law, and enabled him to draw the correct in- 
ference therefrom. Hence the discovery of a series of 
movements capable of provoking muscular contrac- THE PRACTICE OF MOVEMENTS. 
55 
tions wherever the hygenic or therapeutic needs indi- 
cate them. 
He gives the following definition of movement: 
Every exercise of which the direction and duration 
are determined, is a movement. 
Each movement, according to Ling, is an idea ex- 
pressed by the body. 
Ling contended that mechanical agencies could be 
employed therapeutically as well as chemical and gal- 
vanic agencies, as it is an established fact that the 
"living fiber equally reacts from mechanic as from 
chemical or galvanic excitation." 
He summed up his experiments on the motory phe- 
nomena of the human organization in this formula: 
"To render any movement definite and exact, a point 
of departure, a point of termination, and a line 
through which the body or any portion of it must 
pass, are to be clearly and severally determined as 
well as the velocity and rhythm of the motory act 
itself." 
The following are the general laws which Ling has 
laid down in his treatise on physical development: 
1. Every just attempt to develop the powers of the 
human being-mental or corporeal-is properly educa- 
tion 
2. Every movement should have proper relation to 
the organization of the body; whatever transgresses 
the laws of that organism is irrational. 
3. The sphere of the activity of the muscles and the 
.aws of gravitation determine the limits of a move- 
ment of the body. 
4. Every movement, however simple and slight it 
may appear to be, acquires its character from the na- 
ture of the whole organism, and each part of the body, 56 
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF 
within the limits of its own function and office, ought 
to participate in that movement. 
5. To arrive at a healthful development of the body, 
it is necessary to begin at the primitive type of each 
movement; this study should be exact, and can never 
be considered trifling or unimportant by any one who 
knows that every movement is either simple or com- 
posite. 
6. In physical order, as in moral order, simple things 
are the most difficult to apprehend, thence one can not 
too zealously study simple movements. 
7. A movement is nothing worth if it is not correct, 
that is, if it is not in conformity with the laws of the 
organism. 
8. The body, wfliose different parts are not in 
harmony, is not in harmonious accord with the 
mind. 
9. The aim of movements as a science is the proper 
development of the human organism. 
10. Correct movements are such as are founded on 
the character and temperament of the individual to be 
developed thereby. 
11. The organism can only be said to be perfectly 
developed when its several parts are in mutual har- 
mony, corresponding to the different individual pre- 
dispositions. 
12. The possible development of the human 
must be limited by the faculties, mental and bodily, 
belonging to the individual. 
13. A faculty may be blunted by want of exercise, 
but. can never be utterly annihilated. 
14. An incorrect and misapplied movement may 
pervert the development of such a faculty. Conse- 
quently an incorrect movement tends rather to the dis- 57 
advantage than to the gain of the harmonious devel- 
opment of the body. 
15. All one-sided development impedes the practice 
of corporeal exercise; general and harmonious devel- 
opment, on the contrary, facilitates it. 
16. Stiffness or immobility, in any part of the or- 
ganism, is, in most instances, only an over-development, 
which is always attended by corresponding weakness 
in other parts. 
17. The over-development of one part may be di- 
minished, and the weakness of other parts remedied, 
by equally distributed movements. 
18. It is not the greater or lesser power of any part 
that determines the strength or weakness of an indi- 
vidual, so much as the proportion and harmony of the 
several parts. Congenital and accidental disorders are 
not considered here, of course. 
19. A real and healthful power consists in a simul- 
taneous action of the several parts (or in action and re- 
action). In order that motion and power may be 
developed to their highest point, they must co-operate 
simultaneously in all parts. 
20. Perfect health and physical power are conse- 
quently correlative terms; both are dependent on the 
harmony of the several parts. 
21. In corporeal development, commencing with the 
simplest, you may gradually.advance to the most com- 
plicated and powerful movements; and this without 
danger, inasmuch as the pupil has acquired the instinct- 
ive knowledge of what he is or is not capable. 
Some of Ling's physiological and therapeutic views 
are contained in the following statements : 
"The vital phenomena may be arranged in three 
principal or fundamental orders: 1st, Dynamical 
THE PRACTICE OF MOVEMENTS. 58 
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF 
phenomena, manifestations of the mind, moral and in- 
tellectual powers. 2d, Chemical phenomena, assimi- 
lation, sanguification, secretion, nutrition, etc. 3d, 
hLe chemical phenomena, voluntary and organic; respi- 
ration, mastication, deglutition, circulation, etc. 
"The union and harmony of these three orders of 
phenomena characterize a perfect organization, and 
every vital act is accomplished under their combined 
influence. 
"The shares these phenomena take in a certain vital 
act give it its peculiar character. If any serious de- 
rangement occurs in any of the phenomena, the result 
is always a disturbance of the vital functions, which 
we call disease. 
"The state of the health depends, accordingly, on 
the degree of equilibrium and harmony existing be- 
tween the functions of those tissues or organs in which 
these three orders of phenomena occur. 
" When this harmony is deranged, in order to re-es- 
tablish it, we should endeavor to increase the vital ac- 
tivity of those organs whose functions have a relation 
to that order of phenomena whose manifestation is de- 
creased or weakened." 
In accordance with these views, he includes among 
therapeutic means three different kinds of influence 
on the human organism. 1st, Chemical agencies; 2d, 
Physical and mechanical agencies', 3d, Dynamical 
agencies. And he observes that the physician has ac- 
cordingly to regulate, not only the food and medicine 
requisite for the sick, but also position during resting, 
and the manner in which the irritable mind is to be 
calmed. Due attention to these matters is necessary 
to constitute a rational treatment of disease. 
Ling was a man of unwearied energy and unceasing 59 
THE PRACTICE OF MOVEMENTS. 
activity. He had but few hours to spare for the ei joy- 
ment of domestic life, for which no man had a keener 
relish. It was with reluctance that he wrote on the 
subject of his art; he preferred to practice and teach 
it. He was a poet of eminence, of whose genius his 
nation may well be proud. His poetical writings have 
been collected in five volumes, consisting of epic, 
dramatic, and lyrical pieces; the latter are very popu- 
lar at this day. He took pleasure in dictating verses 
to his young friends; and it is recorded of him that his 
flow of verse was so rapid that they often could not 
keep up with him, a thing which not seldom provoked 
an outbreak of impatience from the poet. During his 
last years he suffered much bodily pain, but habitually 
walked from his country seat, Annelund, to Stockholm, 
through the last summer of his life, besides performing 
his fatiguing professional labors. He conversed on his 
death-bed till the last hour, and gave instructions re- 
garding the science to which he had so nobly devoted 
himself through a long life. He died on the 3d of 
May, 1839. 
A fine cast of Ling's head may be seen in the cabi- 
net of Prof. Rezius, of Stockholm, the celebrated 
Swedish ethnologist. It is remarkable for its great 
length and height, as well as for its general intellectual 
expression. 
The Movement System in Stockholm.-The Swedish 
capital contains about 95,000 inhabitants, and it has 
several public institutions for the practice of move- 
ments. Having resided there for some time for the 
purpose of studying the system at its fountain-head, I 
will give a brief account of the most prominent of these 
institutions as 1 found them. 60 
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF 
The Central Gymnastic Institute.-This is the orig 
inal establishment founded by Ling in 1813 under the 
royal patronage. Professor Branting, the present di- 
rector, is the immediate successor of Ling. He has 
lived at the institution as patient, pupil, and director 
for forty-four years. Lie is a man of extensive med- 
ical reading, a profound anatomist and physiologist, 
conversing easily in nearly all the European languages, 
and of a bountiful and sympathetic nature. Ling's 
widow also resides there, and two or three of his 
children assist at different responsible posts in the 
institution. 
This establishment consist of several buildings, 
adapted to the different purposes in view, on a large 
plot of ground, in a central portion of the city. The 
locale, originally an armory, belongs to the govern- 
ment, and the director and teachers are salaried from 
the same source. 
The especial objects contemplated at this institution 
are the following: 
1. The training of boys to health and the perfecting 
of their physical powers. 
2. The instruction of teachers of the schools, 
throughout the kingdom, in the modes of physical de- 
velopment by movements. 
3. The instruction of youths in sword and bayonet 
exercise. 
4. The instruction of officers and teachers in practi- 
cal anatomy and in physiology, as connected with 
the application of movements for the purposes of their 
professions. 
5. The treatment of the sick by the exclusive means 
of movements. 
This latter department, in both the male and female 61 
THE PRACTICE OF MOVEMENTS. 
divisions, is under Professor Branting's personal super- 
vision. A yearly report is made to the government, 
setting forth the progress of the institution in each of 
its departments. The total number of persons that 
avail themselves of the advantages of the institution 
is about fifteen hundred each year, of whom about 350 
are invalids. The number of patrons is constantly vary- 
ing, but is much greater in winter, when about twenty 
teachers are required for all the different departments. 
Dr. H. Satherburg's institution enjoys a medical 
reputation equal, if not superior, to that of the Cen- 
tral Institute; and it receives more patients, its purposes 
being entirely medical. It maintains a free clinique 
for a limited number of patients, in consideration of 
which it receives a large governmental stipend. 
Orthopedic surgery is the branch to which Dr. Sather- 
burg makes application of the movements, and with ex- 
traordinary success. This institution requires about 
the same number of assistants as the Central. 
There are generally one or two other institutions of 
the same kind, but on a smaller scale, in Stockholm. 
There_is scarcely any chronic disease known that is 
not successfully treated at these institutions. I might 
mention a case that I witnessed of blindness, from 
a/maurosis, to all appearance completely restored 
Numbers of cases of deformity are constantly under 
treatment, which are in general quite restored before 
leaving. Pulmonary catarrh, chlorosis, and all diseases 
of weakness are treated with eminent success. 
Institutions of a similar kind, but generally without 
governmental support, are scattered throughout north- 
ern Europe. The one at St. Petersburg is on a magnifi- 
cent scale, far excelling anything else of the kind, 
and is patronized by the wal family. The director 62 
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF 
receives a salary of 10,000 roubles. The whole num- 
ber of institutions in Europe based on Ling's system is 
about thirty. 
To these historical statements we may append the 
corroborative testimony of several distinguished philos- 
ophers, physicians, and others, of both ancient and 
modern times, in regard to the utility and efficacy of 
this system. 
Dally.-" Physical and mechanical agents excite, 
augment, or diminish in organic bodies, as in inorganic 
bodies, light, heat, electricity, and magnetism. 
" The intimate relation of these fluids, still too slightly 
appreciated, has given occasion to partial and incom- 
plete applications of mesmerism, electro-vitalism, elec- 
tro-therapeutics, and, quite recently, to odic-force and 
tellurism. 
" Artificial movements, deduced from a knowledge 
of physics and mechanics on the one hand, and physi- 
ology and pathology on the other, are certainly, of all 
agents, the most rational and the most powerful for 
controlling by their action in the interior of the organs, 
in the gases, the fluids, and the tissues, the development 
of the so-called imponderable fluids essential to life. 
" Movement is one of the primordial products of life 
and the regulator of all vital conditions. Artificial 
movements are the agents most specially adapted to 
excite natural, physiological, vital, 
action, by which the human machine performs its 
functions, is developed, preserved, and repaired. 
"These are the ordinary bases of physical education, 
of hygiene and therapeutics-bases at once traditional 
and established by modern experience in a man- 
ner the most thorough and positive, and which, in THE PRACTICE OF MOVEMENTS. 
63 
their essentially medical point of view, M. Bonnet dis- 
tinguishes by that beautiful and legitimate title, 
' treatment of diseases by the exercise of functions.' " 
Hoffman.-"We can not perfect the art of healing 
till we learn to apply mechanics and hydraulics to 
medicine. 
" Experience furnishes materials, but they ought to 
be worked up according to the rules of mechanical 
science, and the only way to introduce exactitude in 
medicine is not to admit as proved that which does not 
rest upon irrefutable principles. It is thus medicine 
may be raised, as well as geometry, to the rank of the 
exact sciences, and it is not less susceptible of a logi- 
cal or geometrical precision than any branch whatever 
of the mathematics." 
J. J. Rousseau.-" It is a pitiable error to suppose 
that exercise of the body is injurious to the operations 
of the mind, as though the two actions were not in- 
tended to go together, and that the one ought not to 
direct the other. 
" Do you wish to cultivate the intelligence of your 
pupils, cultivate the power that controls it. Exercise 
the body continually, make it rbbust and healthy, to 
make a wise and rational individual." 
Pliny.-" The mind is stimulated by movements of 
the body." 
Galen.-" All the powers of the soul are increased 
and renewed by exercise. 
" It is necessary to place health under the auspices 
of labor. 
" The greatest danger to health results from complete 
inactivity. In the same manner the greatest benefit 
results from moderate exercise." 
Speaking of his own manner of life, and which he 64 
HISTORICAL SKETCH OK 
had caused to be -adopted also by one of his friends, 
he thus discourses of movements: "We make it a 
duty to take exercise and to avoid improper food, and 
in this manner we have been very many years, even to 
this time, exempt from diseases." 
Aristotle.-A long time before Galen, Aristotle, re- 
plying to this question, "Why is it good hygiene to di- 
minish the quantity of food and increase exercise?" says, 
" The cause of disease is the excess of excretions which 
result from the excess of nourishment, or from the 
want of exercise." 
The great and venerable Hippocrates remarks: " He 
who eats without taking exercise can not be well." 
And adds, "Perfect health results from a just and 
constant equilibrium between alimentation and exer 
cise." 
This illustrious author also says, " Those wdio do not 
eat to satiety, and are diligent in labor, preserve excel- 
lent health." 
Vegece informs us, that military men consider that 
the daily exercises contribute more than medicines to 
the maintenance of health in the soldiers. 
Of the good Abbe Saint Pierre, author of the Projet 
de pair perpetuelle, member of the Acadbnie Franqais, 
and the inventor of a kind of elastic fauteuil which he 
names Tremousoir (movement apparatus), upon which 
one may perform hygienic movements similar to 
those of equitation, Maupertuis, his successor in the 
Academie, relates the following anecdote: "A geome- 
ter proposed, on one occasion, to relieve certain organs 
where the blood accumulated, for the purpose of 
causing it to flow into other organs, to make use of 
centrifugal force, which he proposed to secure by means 
of a whirling machine." THE PRACTICE OK MOVEMENTS. 
65 
Tt was a very rational idea, that of thus exciting in 
the human organization the centrifugal and centripetal 
forces for the purpose of modifying at will that organi- 
zation which Ruysch, in his enthusiasm as an anato- 
mist, declared to be only a tissue of vessels. 
Plato.-"A good education is that which assures to 
the body all the beauty, all the perfection, of which it 
is capable. 
"To secure tnis beauty, it is only necessary that the 
body should be developed, with perfect symmetry, 
from the earliest infancy. 
"The first stages of development are always most 
controlling and most enduring. 
"If the exercise does not keep pace with the growth 
of the body, it becomes subject to I know not how 
many infirmities." 
This is all very well; but, to obtain this result, it is 
necessary to know precisely the means; it is necessary, 
in the first place, to study hygienic movements, as re- 
lated to the anatomy and physiology of the body; 
otherwise all is uncertainty and ignorance, and the 
experimenter is blind to the true mature of the means 
which he puts in practice, as of the result which he 
wishes to obtain. 
Bacon.-"The human organization, so delicate and 
so varied, is like a musical instrument of complicated 
and exquisite workmanship, and easily loses its har- 
mony. Thus it is with much reason that the poets 
unite in Apollo the arts of music and of medicine, per- 
ceiving that the genius of the two arts is almost iden- 
tical, and that the proper office of the physician con- 
sists in tuning and touching in such a manner the 
lyre of the human body as that it shall give forth only 
sweet and harmonious sounds.' 66 
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF 
While discussing the means of prolonging the ordi« 
nary term of human life, he thus writes: 
"The living man wastes continually, and continu- 
ally also repairs his loss. But this reparative power 
becomes exhausted, and the man dies. To diminish 
the activity of the forces which weaken and destroy, 
to maintain the power which repairs, to soften the in- 
durated parts, which are opposed to the reparative 
powers, this is to prolong human life, as far as the 
organization of the body will permit." 
As to the different kinds of exercises which con- 
tribute most to preserve or restore health, no physician 
has yet been sufficiently specific. Although there is 
scarcely any predisposition to any disease which may 
not be corrected by certain well-adapted exercises, it 
may be mentioned, by way of example, that bowling 
is valuable for diseases of the kidneys; archery, for 
those of the lungs; exercise in the open air, whether 
on foot or in a carriage, for a weak stomach, et cetera. 
"Everything in its own turn," to the end of the long 
list of ills to which our flesh is heir. A random, indis- 
criminate application of these means is rather hurtful 
than beneficial. Quackery is as injurious here as in 
any other department of practice. 
Georgii.-" The education of the mind and that of 
the body are alike in this, that they both demand a 
special method, founded upon the physiological action 
of their respective organs. 
" Hence, as education, moral or intellectual, should 
have for its object the exercise of those faculties whose 
action is deficient, so physical education should con- 
stantly tend to produce and maintain an equilibrium 
between the functions of the body, and to have for ita 
end the harmony of all its operations. THE PRACTICE OF MOVEMENTS. 
67 
" Having, then, need of a perfect body, let us try to 
secure that blessing by keeping up the equilibrium of 
the functions; let us multiply in ourselves the points 
of intelligent contact with the whole of nature, and 
we shall see the princely powers of the soul displayed 
in all their magnitude and dignity. 
" The actual state of man may be considered as the 
product of the educational discipline to which the 
species has been submitted, from the most remote 
period, and also as a lamentable proof of his departure 
from the line of rectitude, and of the degree of it thus 
far." 68 
PHILOSOPHY OF MOVEMENTS. 
THE RELATIONS OF CHEMICAL AND MOLECULAR 
CHANGES TO THE ORIGIN OF FORCE IN THE 
BODY. 
Importance of First Principles.-It is needful to 
study the nature, origin, and relations of the powers 
of the body in order to become properly qualified to 
direct them healthward. For it is evident that the 
kind of health we possess must be determined by the 
kinds of actions that are going on in the elementary 
constituents of our physical being; since it is on these 
actions that the development of the powers of the 
body depends. In other words, bodily health is refer- 
able to conditions back of those symptoms, or good or 
ill feelings which we superficially regard as constitu- 
ting the health; namely, to those primary motions of 
elementary matter that are concerned in organic 
growth and physiological manifestation; the sensorial 
indications being the last result of a series of actions, 
of which health and happiness constitute the result. 
Hence, all medical control of the health, of whatever 
name or origin, essentially consists in a control of these 
elementary actions, inasmuch as the causes of good or 
ill health, as we have seen, reside in these. Such med- 
ical practice as does not recognize the changes induced 
by its agency on these primary actions, as the basis and 
explanation of its power, is empirical. It appeals 
chiefly to the sensations, which are ever to be dis- PHILC SOPHY OF MOVEMENTS. 
69 
trusted in the invalid, and in the end always prove un- 
worthy of reliance. While the invalid is made com- 
fortable by means of a drug, he is to be satisfied that 
its effects are good, and is disinclined to investigate 
further. Medical science must remain untrustworthy, 
and continue incompetent to command the regard of the 
philosophic mind, so long as it overlooks scientific prin- 
ciples in its search for remedies, and is not ashamed to 
ignore the first truths of physiology, or pour contempt 
upon the simplest dictates of enlightened reason. 
To establish and maintain two great forces is the 
main object of all the operations of the human system. 
These are the mechanical and nervous forces. All the 
corporeal functions and actions, of whatever kind, are 
subservient to these chief purposes; and in the muscu- 
lar and nervous systems it provides organs or instru- 
ments through which these powers are manifested. 
The one set of organs includes the great mass of the 
flesh of the body covering the skeleton, while the other 
set is, by its filaments, extensively and minutely dis- 
tributed-to the muscles, as well as to all other parts, 
besides existing in distinct local masses, in the head 
and central portions of the body. The nervous forces 
are of several distinct kinds or classes, each sustaining 
peculiar relationships to the organism, but all asso- 
ciated in one grand unit. These classes are, the senso- 
rial and intellectual, relating to the mind; the reflex, 
connecting the mind and senses with the muscles, the 
medium of mechanical powei ; and the organic, relat- 
ing to the various agencies concerned in the processes 
of growth. 
These powerful instruments are evidently the means 
intended for the manifestation of the individuality and 
distinctive character of the man, the grade and quality 70 
PHILOSOPHY OF MOVEMENTS. 
of his being. It is through these that he impresses 
surrounding things, acts upon them in a thousand 
ways, modifies their relations to assist his purposes, 
and secures through their use the objects of his own de- 
sires. It is through the use of these agents, also, that 
he fathoms the designs of nature and of God, discover- 
ing the laws that appertain to surrounding things and 
to his own spiritual nature. The possession of these 
powers fulfills in him his utmost desires, and he can 
covet nothing more as respects the quality of these 
powers. They are capable of a progressive and al- 
most limitless expansion, at least this may be said of 
those belonging to the nervous system. But they may 
act inharmoniously, feebly, painfully, or antagonist- 
ically. 
The latter condition constitutes disease. As a man's 
possibilities of power in this mortal state can not be 
realized without instruments, so will they find imper- 
fect expression through imperfect instruments. Hence 
we must go to the source of these manifestations, if we 
would correct or improve them whenever they are im- 
perfect or defective. 
To improve these capabilities, and to train them to 
their proper uses, is, in short, to put an individual in 
possession of himself. Ill health is evidence of loss of 
such control; medical efforts are merely endeavors to 
restore this control, 
In order to acquire balance and perfection in the 
powers of the mind, the necessity of training them by 
due exercise, we have seen, has been acknowledged in 
society in all its grades, from the most rudimentai up 
to the most civilized. This is everywhere the burden 
of the precept, and is taught in the examples of the 
most advanced minds. This principle is the basis of PHILOSOPHY OF MOVEMENTS. 
71 
all wise education; it is that which raises men from the 
condition of the savage, who knows only to supply his 
immediate animal wants by the most simple and direct 
means, to that of civilized society, with its manifold 
resources for, and high appreciation of, intellectual en- 
joyments-to that, indeed, of philosophers, and ex- 
pounders of the most important truths of life and 
nature. 
The importance of this training by exercises is also 
conceded by most men-it is, indeed, so generally ad- 
mitted as to make any argument in its favor apparently 
unnecessary for the purpose of arousing a proper sense 
of its value as a means of cure. The obligation to 
labor, in some sphere of genial activity, was kindly 
imposed on all men by nature at the beginning, and a 
sufficient penalty is sure to be visited upon all who 
transgress this primal law. Men in all states of so- 
ciety fully understand this principle; but they recog- 
nize it only in a general way, and scarcely ever in- 
quire as to the laws of exercise, its bounds, and its 
special applications. 
The physical exercise imposed by the necessity of 
supplying food and shelter, and of compassing the 
various ends of ambition, has served very tolerably 
the coincident but incidental purpose of developing 
both the physical and moral manhood of the race. 
Yet the laws respecting the effects upon the instru- 
ments of these powers themselves, and upon the con- 
nected and dependent functions produced by the dif- 
ferent modes of manifesting the bodily powers, are 
generally too imperfectly understood to be made avail- 
able. 
These Forces a Product of Vital Action.-Though 72 
PHILOSOPHY OF MOVEMENTS. 
we may not define correctly what life is, yet we may 
understand what it does, and what are the conditions 
of its highest development. The powers above de- 
scribed are the last products of a series of operations 
referable to this principle. These operations are con- 
ducted through material agencies, are chemical in a 
certain phase of their effects, and are influenced by 
the chemical nature of the agents that take part in 
them. The development of life and of the forces 
here considered is inseparably connected with ele- 
mental changes that are continuously going on in the 
system. These changes are kept in continuance by 
constant supplies of new material, which enjoys only a 
temporary residence in the body, being excluded from 
it in connection with the evolution of the above-named 
forces, giving pla<te to fresh material of a similar kind 
that is as constantly provided. Vitality is an endow- 
ment of matter of the most transient kind; it is little 
more than the expression of the changes matter under- 
goes while in the body, both in regard to form and 
chemical composition. Hence it is apparent that what- 
ever influence modifies the health, whether for good 
or for ill, effects this result by modifying in some 
way those elementary changes whereby vital power is 
evolved. 
The vital acts through which animal power is mani- 
fested may be included under the general term, nutri- 
tion. The term nutrition covers the total process 
whereby the integrity of-the organism is preserved, 
during its interstitial changes. It consists of many dis- 
tinct actions, whether chemically or physiologically 
considered; but these are resolvable into two genera] 
classes, which, in health, are nicely balanced. These 
acts are variously named construction and destruction PHILOSOPHY OF MOVEMENTS. 
73 
of organic forms; assimilation and disintegration 
composition and decomposition, etc., etc. 
In effecting these functional acts two distinct 
classes of materials are employed in the body, both of 
which are conveyed to the scene of vital activity by 
the blood. These are food and oxygen j one entering 
the blood through the stomach, by means of digestion, 
the other through the lungs, by respiration. 
The general office of these materials is to maintain 
the actions that produce the two classes of effects 
under consideration, the food to build up, and the 
oxygen to change, by its chemical power, the composi- 
tion of organic bodies, and to reduce them, at last, to 
the state in which they find their exit from the body. 
We may be able better to appreciate the extent of 
these operations by estimating the quantity of the 
materials that are employed in conducting them. Ac- 
cording to Draper, the water taken into the system of 
a man weighing 140 pounds, in the course of the 
twenty-four hours amounts to 4.1 lbs.; the dry food, 
2.25 lbs?; the oxygen, 2.19 lbs.; the whole amounting to 
about eight and a half pounds of material every day, 
furnished the system to sustain its powers. A propor- 
tionate amount, we discover, is discharged from tho 
body in the same time, there being no increase of its 
weight. But in the mean time these materials have 
become greatly changed in consequence of chemical 
combinations with each othel. About a pound and 
a half of water has been produced in the course of 
these combinations, half a pound of carbon has been 
dismissed through the lungs, and a great variety of or- 
ganic and earthy salts have been concocted in the sys- 
tem and drained off by the kidneys. To convey oxy- 
gen and nutriment to the changing structures, about 74 
PHILOSOPHY OF MOVEMENTS. 
twenty-five pounds of blood have been kept in unceas- 
ing circulation through all, even to the minutest 
channels of the body; and about twenty-one pounds 
of solvent juices have been poured into the digestive 
canal to effect the solution of the food, to be again 'ab- 
sorbed into the blood. 
But a view of the results and the means of transforma- 
tion in the body conveys but a very inadequate concep- 
tion of the amount and extent of the change produced. 
For the final eliminatory product is generally the last 
result of a series of changes that must occur in regu- 
lar order. So the food and oxygen received into the 
system enter into many distinct states of union, dur- 
ing their residence in the system, each of which is 
necessary to the advancement of the vital interests, 
while it forms a step toward their final dismissal from 
the body. At each of these stages of progress, malign 
influences will cause a deviation of the action, as well 
as of the product of action, from the physiological 
standard; the healthful process will be arrested, and 
other actions are substituted, which defeat the great 
end of evolving the forces mentioned; the perfect evo- 
lution of which it is the aim of all physiological actions 
to accomplish. Disease is a deviation from the usual 
and prescribed processes of atomic change. 
Since the chief intention of the processes within the 
body is either to build up or to demolish, it follows 
that all the influences brought into relation with the 
organism must tend to promote one or the other of 
these results. Such is the normal intention of food and 
oxygen, both of which are received into the system in 
about equal quantities by weight. The product of the 
digestion of food is employed in the organizing pro- 
cesses, while the oxygen aids in dissolving the organ- PHILOSOPHY OF MOVEMENTS. 
75 
ized molecule into a soluble or volatile form, whereby 
its egress from the system is determined. According 
to the physiological plan of the system, such matters 
are applied to these specific purposes, and thus fulfill 
the intentions of Nature in respect to the development 
of the forces of which we are treating. 
When the influences exerted upon the physiological 
processes are such as to promote equally and properly 
these actions of waste and renewal, through the use of 
the legitimate materials prescribed by the laws of or- 
ganization, health is the necessary consequence. The 
theory and practice of the principles concerned in the 
maintenance of health are included in the term Hy- 
giene. 
By Remedial Hygiene is understood the intelligent 
application of certain principles and agents for the 
restoration of lost or impaired health. The employ- 
ment of Movements is a powerful means of directing or 
enforcing nutrition. Movements are a device for aid- 
ing the organism in its efforts to derive sustenance from 
suitable materials, and for assisting the exit of waste 
matters ; and they thus constitute a special application 
of hygiene; while hygiene, in general, embraces the 
means that in health are influential to control the waste 
and renewal of the body. 
All substances incapable of supporting the growth 
of the vital parts, if not absolutely neutral in their re- 
lations to them, will modify and generally accelerate 
the wasting processes of the body. Such, indisputably, 
are the effects of drugs. When the living molecule is 
forced into unwilling contact with a drug which has 
been introduced into the system, one of two effects 
must ensue: the natural affinity of the molecule for 
oxygen is increased, or else it is impressed by the 76 
PULLOSOPITS OF MOVEMENTS. 
chemical or mechanical power of the foreign and un- 
friendly substance. The peculiar symptoms that appear 
are either the result of the unusual waste and of the 
consequent rapid evolution of the reserve powers of the 
organ, or the quality of the intermediate forms of wast- 
ing matter is made to differ more or less widely from 
that of the normal and usual series of products ; thus 
rendering the ejection of these matters less easy, dis- 
tending, as a consequence, the capillaries of the part, 
and impressing both its organic and sensitive nerves in 
a peculiar and painful manner. The cases of spon- 
taneous or accidental disease, and the artificial effects 
produced by drugs, are admitted to be very similar. 
Hence, drugs are classed accordingly as their effects 
correspond with certain pathological conditions ; but 
they may be considered as in general favoring the 
chemical changes in the body, sometimes accelerating, 
sometimes impeding the manifestation of power, but 
never promoting any conditions calculated to induce 
the production of that power, by contributing to the 
primary organizing processes. But this organic growth 
is the first condition for the manifestation of vital 
power, and, indeed, one without which such power 
can not be manifested in any degree. 
To the securing of health, then, it appears to be in- 
dispensable that the interstitial changes taking place in 
the body shall be those which can proceed only in a 
normal condition of the organism. To effect this pur- 
pose, the incentives to the changes must be physio- 
logical in their nature. 
The existence of the profession of medicine rests upon 
the general belief in or on the tacit consent of the world 
to the notion that the operations of the human system 
can be favorably excited or controlled by the employ- PHILOSOPHY OF MOVEMENTS. 
77 
ment of various agents ; and accordingly the ingenuity 
of man has always been severely tasked for the discov- 
ery of such agents ; but to this day the toil and search 
have been unrewarded by any result universally satis- 
factory. These remedial means have generally been 
of a character calculated either to promote, as their 
primary effect, the disorganizing operations of the 
body, or else to produce certain chemical effects with- 
out necessarily effecting the desired elimination of the 
refuse products, carbonic acid, water, and urea ; afford- 
ing also no assistance to the organized agencies. 
Better results must be attained when the means em- 
ployed shall directly evolve the proper product, which 
shall be at once liberated from the system, and in the 
same act shall promote in the highest practicable de- 
gree the activity of the organizing or reproducing 
forces. We must confine our researches, in pursuance 
of this purpose, to an investigation of the conditions of 
perfect health, instead of vainly searching for some won- 
derful specific, or panacea, or divine balsam among sub- 
stances whose demonstrable effect on vitalized matter 
is only and forever to deteriorate and destroy. 
Different Kinds of Motion.-The chemical changes, 
or changes of quality in the organic tissues of the body, 
always imply change of place or motion. By motion, 
all vital phenomena are accomplished. But this mo- 
tion consists of many kinds, or is presented to us in 
different phases, each bearing its individual relation, 
and being equally indispensable to the welfare of the 
vital whole.* 
* Beclard gives the following summary of the natural internal movements of ths 
body, a careful perusal of which will be advantageous to the studious reader: 
Cerebrospinal aane in the region of the neck: movement of alternate raMfi* 
and falling ; a kind of oscillation of the encephalic mass. 78 
PHILOSOPHY OF MOVEMENTS. 
1. The first variety of these motions is that already 
described as being conducted among the elementary 
constituents of the body, and involving changes in the 
composition of organized parts; this is chemical action. 
Here motion' occurs through the displacement of the 
ultimate atoms, and, as we have said, it is the inevita- 
ble consequence of such displacement. 
Chemical action proceeds within the system on a 
scale of magnitude of which the sensible products af- 
ford us but an imperfect indication, since we can know 
only the last of a series of actions of which chemical 
power is the first cause. Some of these actions are but 
the concomitants of vital changes, of which vitality 
only supplies the conditions, the action itself being, 
meanwhile, independent of vitality. We might in- 
stance the metamorphosis of tissues, on the one hand, 
and the oxydation of hydro-carbons on the other, as 
Spinal and sympathetic movement of the nervous fibers from the circumference 
to the center, and from the center to the circumference; movements reflex and 
sympathetic ; movements of undulation and vibration, of quivering, of shuddering. 
Respiration, inspiration, and expiration. 
Related with inspiration: inhaling, expanding. 
Related with expiration : voice, speech, singing, crying, whistling, explosion 
vt breath in excretory efforts, yawning, coughing, laughing, sneezing, sighing, sob- 
oing, hiccough. 
Peristaltic movements of the stomach, commencing at the large curve, and Anti- 
peristaltic a1 the small. The revolution is completed in two or three minutes. 
Concentric movement is that which takes place in the circular fibers of the lesser 
end of this organ. 
Small Intestine.-Progressive movement of the alimentary mass, conducted by 
the longitudinal and circular fibers of the intestine. The contraction is local, and 
moderate in force. The movements of the large intestines resemble those of the 
small, but are slower. 
Organ of the Circulation. Heart: movement of systole and of diastole. These 
movemen's are correlative, and resemble those of a forcing-pump, the contraction 
of the walls of the heart answering to the operations of the piston, and plugged by 
Its valves. 
Movements of tension and distention; of torsion, pulsation ; of shock, palpitation, 
Arteries and capillaries: eccentric circulation. 
Veins: concentric circulation. 
Movements of electricity, contraction, compression, tension, distention, resist- 
ance, remjttenoe, intermittence, rubbing, etc. PHILOSOPHY OF MOVEMENTS. 
79 
interesting examples of these varieties of chemical 
action. 
2. Growth, or the reproduction of the wasting parts 
of the body, under the inspiration of vitality, may also 
be regarded as a peculiar kind of action, involving 
unceasing motion. In this action, the materials of 
growth, existing in a soluble state in the blood, arc 
discharged through the membranes of the vessels, and 
the elementary constituents rearranged in a new form, 
generally without a very material change in their pro- 
portions. The matter in this instance assumes, under 
certain mysterious laws, the primary organic forms 
which, by repetition, build up or reproduce the various 
organs. 
3. Muscular action, it has been discovered, results 
from a motion of contractility peculiar to the cells com 
stituting muscular fibrillae. These motions are found to 
be merely results of a change in their shape, by flat- 
tening of the little cells in such a way that while their 
length is diminished, their diameter is augmented. 
4. The above motion, so inconsiderable in itself, re- 
sults at last in that most conspicuous of corporeal mo- 
tions, namely, that of a change of place effected by the 
whole body or of one or more of its members. When 
a muscle contracts, we know it carries the whole mass 
of bones, nerves, vessels, areolar tissue, fluids, etc., of 
which the moving part is composed, along with it 
through space, besides changing, in some degree, the 
relations of these parts to each other. 
5. To the fluids of the body is imparted a motion by 
this muscular action. This motion of the blood is in 
fact required as a means of inducing this very muscular 
action. And the circulation of the blood throughout 
tire system is supported by the joint action of the 80 
PHILOSOPHY OF MOVEMENTS. 
countless and constant motions taking place in the 
substance of the various tissues. 
6. By means of the force communicated by the mus- 
cular action of their walls, the contents of the canals 
of the body are caused to flow in regular tides through 
hese organs in the direction of the outlets. In this 
vay those matters for which the system has no use are 
ejected. 
7. The walls of the chest and of the arterial blood- 
vessels have an established and rythmical motion in 
health. The one is designed to refresh the blood, and 
the other mainly to assist the circulation of this fluid 
throughout the body. 
Reciprocity oe Actions.-The different motions of 
which the body is the sphere, constitute that connected 
series of activities which it is the function of Physiol- 
ogy to explain. Their action is wonderfully compli- 
cated, and they all have a part to play in the develop- 
ment of that grand mechanical force, the countless 
muscles and nerves with which our bodies are supplied. 
An impediment to the fulfillment of any one of these 
actions necessarily vitiates them all, j ust as one defect- 
ive link weakens the whole chain. In one respect 
these simultaneous motions resemble the successive 
elemental actions of the chemical state, before alluded 
to. All interference with the regular vital processes 
renders imperfect those several conditions of organic 
growth upon which all power absolutely depends. 
An important principle is now to be noticed, to wit, 
that the expenditure of power is necessary to its very 
evolution. This expenditure is the phenomenon con- 
templated in the entire train of actions above alluded 
to, and without this there can be no mechanical mo PHILOSOPHY OF MOVEMENTS. 
81 
tion, no molecular motion, no organic and no chemical 
action ; and no demand, therefore, made upon the di- 
gestive organs, or upon the respiratory function. 
The reader must not infer from this statement that 
all function ceases with the cessation of voluntary mo- 
tion, or with the suspension of the will. Provision is 
made against any such fatal accident. In the economy 
of the system it so happens that a large amount of its 
muscular action is carried on involuntarily for the 
special furtherance of its organic operations. This is 
particularly true of all the rythmical motions, such as 
the movements of the chest, diaphragm, and abdom- 
inal muscles in respiration ; of the heart and arteries ; 
of the alimentary tube, etc. 
While, then, the living body may be regarded as an 
admirably arranged theater in which these various 
motor forces have their full and harmonious play, mus- 
cular motion must be considered as the great main- 
spring of all the others. It certainly sets in operation 
many kinds of action ; many seem to depend on it as 
their chief stimulant, and others appear to radiate from 
it as from a central force. By this far-reaching power 
of its own it controls to a good extent all the motions 
of the alimentary atoms, and disposes of them to the 
highest advantage of the whole system. 
Nature, in her arrangements for the welfare of her 
children, saw fit to select motion as a chief means for 
the maintenance of the physiological harmonies of the 
body, and for the restoration of these harmonies and 
the health they confer, in cases in which the latter have 
been lost through accident or imprudence.* 
• Leehmann corroborates this view of the influence of motion in the following 
passage: " Albinus ok no superficial view of the organic activity in 
when he established die axiom, that the essence of vital force consisted in motioa. 82 
PHILOSOPHY OF MOVEMENTS. 
The System as a Reservoir of Force.-The system, 
in health, is capable of supplying force at a certain 
rate, determined by the degree of perfection in which 
its organic processes are conducted. These processes 
are always, with more or less effect, engaged in pro- 
ducing force. Now, if this force be expended in a 
single channel, the production will probably about 
equal the expenditure; but if in several channels at 
the same time, the expenditure must not only exceed 
the production, but will even exhaust the reserved sup- 
ply which the healthy system always possesses. This 
state of things is denoted by the feeling we call far 
tigue. 
In the invalid, the force production is more or less 
limited. This is a necessary result of disease. Hence, 
such exercises as involve a large portion of the system 
at one time are harmful, because they are sure to ex- 
haust the reserve fund of force, which is not readily 
restored by the defective organic processes, and so the 
disease will be increased in our very efforts perhaps to 
quell it. But if the exertion be confined to a single 
instrument or organ, or to a single set of muscles, the 
expenditure of force is made to correspond more nearly 
with its production ; the system is not fatigued, but is 
refreshed, because the movements have helped to sup- 
Even if this expression be far too general for organic action, it can not be denied that 
we assume life to exist wherever we perceive a constant alternation of phenomena 
and incessant changes induced by the constant motion of the molecules of the or- 
ganized body, as well as of the organs themselves. ♦ * * * * 
" Metamorphoses are continually developed in the material substrata of the body. 
Physical forces continue to act upon matter after it has attained its position of equi- 
librium, for it is only by opposite actions that equilibrium exists. 
The case is very different when motion occurs in organized bodies, for here we find 
a tendency to persistence; everything that is brought into the line of the direction 
of these concurrent forces is impelled to a similar motion, and equilibrium will not 
be produced, for equilibrium is rest, and in rest there is no life, and in equilibrium 
there is death."-Vol. ii, pp. 210, 21b 83 
PHILOSOPHY OF MOVEMENTS. 
ply the true and proper conditions for the production 
or augmentation of the life-power. 
Description of Muscle.-The mere fact of muscle 
entering so largely into the composition of the system, 
would indicate to any mind its importance in the 
physical economy. This tissue constitutes more than 
half of the weight and bulk of the body. It has but a 
single function, and that is, as it is technically termed, 
or the approximation of the extremities; 
for experiments show that the bulk is unvarying. By 
contracting, and in proportion to the vigor of the con- 
traction, muscle is capable of moving the bones and 
other appendages with which it is connected. It alsc 
terms the walls of the hollow organs, and, by contract- 
ing, lessens the caliber of such organs, and impels their 
contents onward. The muscles are crowded with blood- 
vessels, the larger trunks of which pass through, and 
the smaller are distributed within them for the supply 
of nutrient matter. They are connected together by 
an areolar structure, consisting of elastic filaments, 
forming a network around them, which serves the 
double purpose of at once binding them together and 
keeping them separate. 
Fig. 1. 
Muscular fiber, showing the cells; a a a, the 
waves of contraction, showing the flattening 
of the cells; b b b, similar waves, engaged in 
still stronger contraction, traveling along the 
fiber, and causing it to be thicker at the con. 
tracting portions. 
Muscle is visibly distin- 
guished from other structures 
by its red color. Masses of 
muscle are divided longitudi* 
nally into parallel fibers, visi« 84 
PHILOSOPHY OF MOVEMENTS. 
ble to the naked eye, which are again divided into 
exceedingly minute fibrillae ; and these fibrillae are 
crossed by transverse stripes which seem to divide each 
of them into microscopic dimensions. These cubes are 
the ultimate muscle-cells. In the act of contraction 
these cubes are flattened, and at the same time become 
proportionably broader. 
The contraction of a muscle is effected by the con- 
traction separately of the fibers of which it is com- 
posed. These fibers act through only a portion of 
their length at the same moment; the contractions 
seeming to travel from one portion to another of the 
fibrils, jeach portion becoming relaxed as the action 
travels beyond it. This becomes an important fact in 
the curative application of movements, as we shall see. 
Muscular contraction never takes place independ- 
ently of an exciting cause or stimulus. The power 
effecting this act is derived from the nerves distributed 
to the muscular structure. These nerves for the volun- 
tary muscles have their origin in the spinal axis, and 
are also generally connected with the seat of the will. 
So that impressions received from without the 
body by the sensitive nerves, and those originating in 
the mind, are capable of directly inducing muscular 
action, and consequently motion, in all the organs that 
are connected with them. 
M. Beclard gives thus, with much clearness, the 
chemical phenomena which attend muscular contrac- 
tion : 
" The muscles develop a certain quantity of heat at 
the moment of contracting. The researches of MM. 
Bequerel and Breschet, and those more recent of M. 
Helmholtz, have placed the fact beyond doubt, that the 
muscles during their contraction, as also during their PHILOSOPHY OF MOVEMENTS. 
85 
state of repose, absorb oxygen and form carbonic acid 
During contraction, the absorption of oxygen and ex- 
halation of carbonic acid is doubled." 
MM. Du Bois-Raymond, Liebig, Valentine, and 
Matteueci have demonstrated satisfactorily the fact 
by placing the members of an animal in a space ex- 
posed to a known gaseous composition. The chemical 
phenomena of oxydation are then manifested in the 
muscles, and these phenomena increase during contrac- 
tion. M Helmholtz caused a musclar group to contract 
by aid of a powerful induction-current for a long time, 
till exhaustion occurred ; he then examined the chemi- 
cal constitution of the muscular fiber, and found that 
the soluble materials contained in the muscle (creatin, 
creatnine, and inosic acid) had increased in proportion 
when compared ■with other muscles that had been in 
repose of the same animal. Du Bois-Raymond 
proved, on the other hand, that when a muscle remains 
for a long time at rest, it has a neutral reaction, and 
that its reaction becomes acid after repeated contrac- 
tions. The absorption of oxygen increases in a con- 
tracting muscle, and the action has the effect of trans- 
forming a part of the muscle into an oxydized product, 
and this oxydation is the cause of the elevation of tem- 
perature observed. 
In muscular action, generally, the products of com- 
bustion formed in the muscles pass toward the blood, 
and are carried off by the excretory passages; we have 
also seen that, in exercise, the products of expiration 
and the products of urinary secretion are increased. 
Physiological Effects of Exercise.-It will be 
necessary to particularize at some length the more di- 
rect and distinct effects of muscular contraction, in or- 86 
PHILOSOPHY OF MOVEMENTS. 
der to bring out more clearly to the mind its claims to 
attention as an important hygenic and remedial agent. 
Effects of Muscular Contraction on the Local 
Circulation.-Muscular Contraction affords powerful 
aid to the local circulation of the parts in which it takes 
place, in several distinct ways. 1st. Materials pass 
from the arterial to the venous side of the circulation 
according to a law common to all vital tissues. This 
occurs at a rate directly proportionate to the vital ac- 
tivity. 2d. The effect of the pressure of the con- 
tracting muscle upon the blood-vessels that penetrate 
it, or that are contiguous, is to hasten the flow of the 
contents of these vessels. The tendency to displace- 
ment of these contents can only operate in the direc- 
tion allowed by the valves of the veins ; that is, in the 
heart-ward direction. At the moment the contraction 
ceases, the vessels of the part contain less blood ; but 
the pressure from the arterial side instantly supplies 
the part more abundantly, so as to distend the vessels. 
This is the condition favorable for the effusion of the 
vital plasma of the blood for the nutrition of the acting 
part; thus providing for a repetition of the act. 3d. 
Not only the blood, but the intermuscular juices are 
renewed by the act of muscular contraction, for the com. 
pression to which these organs have been subjected com- 
pels all the fluids to change place like the contents of a 
wetted sponge ; and the previously mentioned circum- 
stances give direction to the fluids thus set in motion. 
The benefit derived from these effects on the circu- 
lation is by no means confined to the muscles. All 
other organs connected with the blood-vessels that 
supply the muscles participate freely in the same 
advantages and it would seem that this is the ap- PHILOSOPHY OF MOVEMENTS. 
87 
pointed way in which to secure the nutritive supply in 
its perfection to the tissues generally. 
The mucous membrane, skin, intervening areolar 
structure, nerves, and other anatomical constituents of 
the body, share equally in the advantages thus at- 
tained. It would seem to be the province of the mus- 
cles, numerous and powerful as they are, not only to 
secure their own health by the exercise of their func- 
tion, but to minister to the good of all other structures; 
for all depend alike for their nourishment upon a 
common reservoir, whose distribution could not be 
efficiently maintained without the assistance so largely 
rendered by the muscles. 
Effect on Respiration.-Increased respiration oc- 
curs simultaneously with every muscular effort. This 
follows from the fact that arterial of which oxy- 
gen is an important ingredient, is essential in every 
muscular contraction; for in each contraction oxygen 
is required probably, as a second result, to effect the 
destruction of the acting muscular molecule; hence 
the necessity of a continual supply of this principle 
through respiration. It will be noticed that an in- 
creased inspiratory effort does not succeed, but imme- 
diately precedes the muscular exertion, and is simul- 
taneous with the suggestion of the will, which it seems 
to render more vehement and energetic. As the arm 
is raised to strike, the breath*is drawn in; and if a 
strong blow is contemplated, the glottis is for a mo- 
ment closed, and a strong pressure is exerted upon the 
contained air of the chest, to force, as it were, the blood 
to take in an increased quantity of the power-liberating 
element. This involuntary "holding the breath" is 
Without doubt a very important aid to the respiratory 88 
PHILOSOPHY OF MOVEMENTS. 
act. It at the same time expands the chest, and aids, 
by pressure of the respired air, the solution of the 
oxygen. 
In respiration there are two things to be considered: 
the mobility of the walls of the chest, and the nervous 
arrangement by which this mobility is controlled. 
The nerves of respiration act independently of the con- 
sciousness in their ordinary operation ; but every effort 
of the will increases their action by the stimulus it 
affords the muscles of the chest. Whether the effort 
of the will be directed to the muscles of any part of 
the body, or is confined to mental operations-in each 
case waste is produced, and the employment of an 
amount of oxygen is implied proportionate to the mag- 
nitude of the exertion. It may be remarked-that there 
are other circumstances that influence respiration, as 
diet; but this is true of temperatare especially, and 
respiration is deep just in proportion to the rapidity 
with which the body loses its heat. 
But respiration is entirely a mechanical action. It 
is performed by the muscles of the chest and abdomen, 
and the degree of perfection with which it is performed 
is determined by the condition and habits of the organs 
performing it. If these muscles are badly nourished 
and imperfectly used, oxygen can be supplied to the 
blood to support the bodily need only in limited quan- 
tities. So it turns out that the amount of work a man 
can do is not so much dependent on his muscle as 
on his breathing capacity. If he can breathe well he 
can generally work well; if short-winded, though he 
may have the muscles of an Ajax, he will be left be- 
hind to a certainty in the race of life. 
Effect on the Seceetions.-Anything that pro PHILOSOPHY OF MOVEMENTS. 
89 
motes renewal of the blood of the capillaries, j romotes 
secretions ; for whatever be the nature of the secreted 
product, or its origin, it is derived primarily from the 
blood of the capillaries, distributed to the membrane 
whose involutions form the secreting gland. The qual- 
ity of the secretion will greatly depend, of course, on 
that of the blood whence it is derived, which, again, is 
subject to variation from many causes under the con- 
trol of motion or exercise. 
Effect on the Excretions.-Muscular action power- 
fully urges the blood into the skin and lungs, the two 
principal excretory organs, w'hence its excretory pro- 
ducts are readily eliminated. The same action results 
in the production of an important element of the uri- 
nary excretion, without which this fluid can not be of 
normal quality. The channels for the egress of this 
principle are also kept free and open by exercise. 
It is now well understood that the most common 
cause of constipation of the bowels is want of general 
muscular tone, and especially want of action in the tube 
through which the alvine discharges are conveyed. 
The expulsion of the contents of the bowels is only 
effected by muscular action, to induce which, the tube 
and the abdominal wralls work conjointly, and too 
frequently tug in vain. 
Effect on Absorption.-Nutritive matters, after 
being reduced to a fluid state by digestion, are pre- 
pared to pass the digestive boundaries into the blood. 
But there must first be a demand in the tissues for the 
materials. The unceasing wastes caused by muscular 
action, and the expenditure of the blood constantly 
taking place, must be made good with materials from 90 
PHILOSOPHY OF MOVEMENTS. 
the digesti re surface. The connection between mu sen- 
lar action and absorption is direct. 
But local action is also required of the digestive 
membrane. Hence nature causes the whole alimentary 
tube to take on a sort of rythmical, vermicular motion. 
The ordinary avocations of life accelerate this motion 
of the canal. But in sedentery occupations the causes 
of motion from without are lessened, and the health is 
sure to suffer as a consequence. Absorption from the 
digestive canal is incomplete, and the digestive organs 
become clogged, and soon diseased. 
Physiologists have compared absorption to the passage 
of fluids of different kinds through membranes, known 
as osmosis. The conditions for maintaining this physical 
phenomenon are, that the fluids on the opposite sides 
of the membrane shall be of different kinds. Now the 
renewal of the fluids of either side of the membrane of 
the alimentary canal by motion preserves this difference. 
Effect on the Quality of the Blood.-All the above 
enumerated processes, namely, nutrition, respiration, 
secretion, excretion, absorption, are the means whereby 
the blood itself, the great fountain from which life is 
supplied to the whole body, is maintained in its purity 
and fitness for its several purposes. Nutrition itself, 
so far as the blood is concerned, is an excretory act. 
The very matters destined to supply muscular powei 
and bulk can not be retained in the blood without in- 
jury to its quality and damage to the health. The 
force-imparting properties of the blood can not long be 
maintained therein unless it gives them up as readily 
as it receives them. 
Effect on the Digestive Pbocess.-Digestion is the PHILOSOPHY OF MOVEMENTS. 
91 
means whereby food is furnished to the system, as 
respiration is the means for supplying oxygen. It is 
not enough that good food be swallowed. Food is not 
only inert, but positively injurious, unless rendered 
fluid and made to proceed in the series of changes it is 
appointed to undergo. At the natural temperature of 
the body, food must zrom its nature, undergo some 
change ; and if this change is not digestive, it will be 
chemical, with the formation of poisonous products. 
Many persons are habitually poisoned with food taken 
even in small quantities, when the conditions for its 
digestion are wanting or imperfect. 
Digestion is dependent on the ~blood, its quality and 
distribution, and on the demand arising in the system 
for the digested product. If the demand is small, and 
the amount of food taken be not also proportionably 
small, the function is injured, and repeated injuries in- 
flict permanent disease. Exercise, in proper modes, is 
capable of preventing and of remedying such condi- 
tions, as is proved by the almost universally good 
digestive power of the habitual laborer, even when 
placed under the most unfavorable circumstances. 
Effect on the Organizing Process.-All mani- 
festations of force, muscular or nervous, are directly 
proportionate to the vigor of their instruments, the 
muscles and nerves; and it is no exaggeration of the 
truth to say that we may consider all other functions 
of the system as contributing to their increase and sup- 
port. The organization or growth of these instruments 
is evidently a most essential link in the chain of actions 
between the digestion of food and the manifestation of 
force. Organization, or growth of organic forms, is to 
a great degree a vegetative act, and takes its character 92 
PHILOSOPHY OF MOVEMENTS. 
very much from the character of the nutriment afford* 
ed and the manner of its appropriations. Atomic ab- 
sorption is necessarily preliminary to the process of 
renovation ; the destruction of the organized form and 
the elimination of the effete material must precede 
growth, and muscular exertion is requisite in order to 
insure the vitalization of the material elements from 
which nature collects what she needs for the continu- 
ance of her renovating processes. 
Movements Stimulate the Vitalizing Processes.- 
The modes in which movements, by their mechanical 
and chemical effects, contribute to the corporeal wel- 
fare, has been described, but the last result is of a 
higher order than any included in these effects. This 
consists, if we may use the expression, in an aug- 
mentation of the control exercised by vitality in the 
system. The body we have considered as the theater 
of two opposing actions, the organizing, and the disor- 
ganizing, and chemical actions. In the healthy body, 
those influences which promote the former prepon- 
derate, secured as they are by voluntary and involun- 
tary movements habitually conducted, while the inac- 
tive body becomes diseased, for the simple reason that 
therein actions must transpire among its elementary 
particles which are purely chemical in their nature, 
and which must have the effect to deteriorate the or- 
ganizing vital forces, and consequently vitiate the gen- 
eral health and sap the strength of the constitution. 
By means of rational movements, vital action is made 
to predominate over all opposing or simply chemical 
actions, and health follows as naturally and inevitably 
as night the day. 
The part played by drug chemicals in the vital 93 
PHILOSOPHY OF MOVEMENTS. 
domain may be easily understood. The presence of 
such substances is never uninfluential. They increase 
to a certainty the amount of chemical change going on 
in the system ; and notwithstanding the impulse to- 
ward health that is oftentimes thought to be given, and 
which is the result of a temporary vital reaction, yet it 
remains true that the real tendency of the system, under 
their sway, is necessarily downward, because chemical, 
and consequently injurious, changes are thereby pro- 
moted. 
Co-ordination of Motions by the Nerves.-Every 
organ and member of the body performs a distinct 
office, and its individuality is never merged in that of 
others. But it is also true that all the diverse parts are 
connected in an individual whole by means of the 
nervous system. The nerves, we know, pervade all 
vital parts, and not only preside over the peculiar func- 
tion of every local element and member, but also cause 
each to act with reference to, and harmoniously with, 
all other organs, and with the whole economy. We 
are well aware, through our sensations, of many things 
that are going forward in the body ; for the conscious 
ness and intellectual functions are influenced through 
the nerves. The great majority of the operations of the 
system proceed without the consciousness, and are soon 
interrupted by it when it is brought to bear on them ; 
but there is, so to speak, a kind bf organic understand- 
ing maintained between the functions of the different 
parts harmonizing their motions. Some of the mani- 
festations of this principle are termed reflex action. A 
person instinctively draws back from a danger that he 
sees, hears, and feels. The stomach and bowels also 
reject food which it would be harmful to tolerate; a 94 
PHILOSOPHY OF MOVEMENTS. 
limb retracts unconsciously if even a fly alights upon 
it, and the eyelid winks if a mote sails by it; the pulse 
is quickened not more readily from the effects of a 
drug than by a passing thought of the mind or emotion 
of the heart. These results are automatic, that is, not 
connected necessarily with the consciousness and the 
will. Hence, on the same occult principle, during the 
natural performance of every organic act, there occurs 
a response of organ to organ, of part to part, through- 
out the system, in every direction along the nervous 
network. One sees a luscious peach, and the whole 
gustatory apparatus takes on a gentle excitement; the 
circulation of the part is' instantly affected and the 
saliva commences to flow. 
If now the fruit be taken into the mouth, not only is 
an abundance of saliva poured forth, but the stomach 
also enters upon a state of preparation; the gastric and 
other fluids are secreted, and the whole system expe- 
riences a sense of satisfaction and enjoyment. The 
explanation of all this is, that the ultimate organic 
actions of the body have been impressed and brought 
into vigorous and harmonious play in accordance with 
natural and beautiful, though mysterious law. 
The effect of muscular contraction upon the organs 
of the body, through the nerves, is perfectly analogous 
to that just noted. Whenever a great muscle acts 
energetically, the nerve-filaments distributed therein are 
powerfully affected, the terminal loops or extremities 
are suddenly approximated, and its sensibility is in- 
creased. The immediate effect of the flow of blood 
which takes place from other parts Io the acting part, 
even the heaving of the chest semetimes, and the 
change of expression of the whole man, are very ap- 
parent. This consentaneousness in the anticn of the PHILOSOPHY OF MOVEMENTS. 
95 
whole person is effected by the nerves ; but these 
visible effects, great and striking as they are, are a 
mere representation of invisible, internal action still 
more important and wonderful. These actions may be 
made to supply special needs of the organism, and then 
they become remedial. We are unconscious of the 
intervening or connecting changes till we see their out' 
ward phenomena produced. 
Another important influence that we may mention 
here, is that exerted upon organic motions through the 
medium of the consciousness. 
When one notices the effects of the exertion of his 
muscles, and appreciates the consequences, the system 
becomes infused, with a wholesome energy, the con- 
sciousness of the possession of power. This principle 
is understood by comparing the influence upon the 
mind, and through it upon the organic system of the 
successful with the unsuccessful effort. If one makes 
an exertion that is inadequate to overcome the resist- 
ance, discouragement results, and a general depression 
of all'the organic forces is the consequence. Such is 
the influence of mental impressions upon the nutrient 
processes. A few unsuccessful attempts to do what 
ought perhaps never to have been attempted, will 
sometimes make an invalid for life ; for the system is 
thus deprived of the stimulus of that nervous vim 
requisite for vigorous and healthful organic action. 
Now if in such a case exercise be prescribed so as to 
adapt nicely the quality and quantity to the condition 
of the invalid, the encouragement afforded to the 
failing forces imparts new energy to the whole man, 
and we often see him in a few days brought up out of 
his slough of despond and enjoying the sunshine :»f 
hope and renovated feeling. 96 
PHILOSOPHY OF MOVEMENTS. 
The Foregoing Effects.-What are ever content 
plated as the ultimate results of medical prescription 
other than those here enumerated ? Not that perfect 
health will always be secured by attending to these 
particulars, even if attended to in the best manner that 
a patient's opportunities, amount of knowledge and 
experience and constitutional capacity will allow ; but 
we do say, and insist strenuously, that the mode here 
indicated of securing healthful effects is direct and ra- 
tional, and more efficacious than those usually em- 
ployed by medical practitioners ; and that it is in 
many cases attended with the most satisfactory results. 
And when from causes already intimated imperfect re- 
sults follow, we insist that it is less the fault of the 
means than of the mode of their application. 97 
PRINCIPLES CONSIDERED. 
Gfpphr four. 
MOVEMENTS, AND THE PRINCIPLES GOVERNING 
THEIR APPLICATION. 
Definition.-It is necessary for the reader to bear in 
mind the distinction between movements, gymnastics, 
and exercises, as these words are here employed. By 
exercises, is understood all voluntary motions of the 
body whatsoever, without any reference to the object 
or objects had in view. Thus labor and recreation, 
practiced by either body or mind, whether general or 
partial, are exercise. The word gymnastics is used ex- 
clusively to indicate the means of developing the corpo- 
real frame, whereby it is fitted for the business of life, or 
for any special purpose, by means of certain exercises. 
Gymnastics are employed by the well, and are recog- 
nized universally as a useful means of developing the 
healthy body into its due proportions, which, w'ithout 
exercise, it fails to acquire. Gymnastics, in its techni- 
cal meaning, may indicate very many kinds and de- 
grees of exercise, and it is only necessary that they 
should have this end in view in order to deserve this 
title. 
The term exercises, however, does not include, by any 
means, all that is implied by movements. Movements 
are not limited to muscular action, instigated by the 
will, but include other motions also, employed accord- 
ing to certain rules, for certain specific, rational pur- 
poses. Movements, in short, are simply motions of 98 
PRINCIPLES CONSIDERED. 
specific kinds, having specific effects, practiced for spe- 
cific purposes, and intended to secure definite results. 
Movements are mechanical agencies, directed either 
upon the whole system or a part of it, for the purpose 
of inducing determinate effects upon its vital actions, 
and generally having reference to its pathological state* 
Hence, the kind of movements proper in a given 
case are determined by the condition of the system, and 
will vary with its variations, so as to correspond with 
its special as well as general needs, at the particular 
time when they are employed. Movements admit of 
extensive variation in regard to kind, degree, and 
place. 
Different Kinds of Movements, Active and Pas 
sive.-The division of movements into active and pas- 
sive relates to the sources whence the moving power is 
derived. The motion of riding, for instance, is passive, 
if the body be supported. So also are the clappings, 
knockings, strokings, kneadings, pullings, shakings, vi- 
bratings, etc., the duplicated movements, because 
both the motion and the will that gives it energy are 
derived from another person. 
♦ Dally gives the following definition of movements: 
A movement is a product of life, and is impressed with its essence; the natural 
interior invisible action which unceasingly creates the vital forces ; which at the 
tame time engenders other exterior visible vital manifestations-in a word, it is 
that by which the united organic individual manifests its intellectual and moral, 
physical and chemical life, whereby life is developed, maintained, deteriorated, 
repaired, or resolved into its elements. 
If we carry this definition into the domain of animal mechanism, we shall b« 
obliged to modify it thus: A movement is the most direct and proper means for 
provoking naturally, or in harmony with, physiological laws, vital or biological 
motions, by virtue of which last the human machine, in all its multiform organs 
and functions, is developed, maintained, and repaired. 
This philosophical idea of movements furnishes the grand basis of true physical 
education, rational hygiene, and scientific therapeutics; the at first despised tradi- 
tional basis that the progress of modern science more and more confirms as the 
true one. PRINCIPLES CONSIDERED. 
99 
Among the single movements there are none that are 
wholly passive. While the muscles of some portion ot 
the body are acting, they act upon other structures, 
which, in relation to the acting muscles, are of course 
passive. But the antagonizing muscles are also acted 
upon-compressed and distended, and are relatively 
passive. The condition of the will is an important ele- 
ment in determining whether the movement be active 
or passive. 
Whenever the contractile power of a muscle is en- 
gaged in overcoming resistance, the resulting move- 
ment is active, whether the effort be successful or not. 
Single and Duplicated Movements.-A movement 
is called single when but a single person is engaged in 
its execution; duplicated, when more than one is en- 
gaged. In single movements the weight of the whole 
or of some portion of the body is overcome by muscu- 
lar action; as when in a standing posture the feet are 
extended, or a leg or arm is raised. The movement is 
also single if the resistance of antagonizing muscles is 
overcome, as in twisting a limb or the ttunk; or when 
a burden is added to the weight of the body, or of the 
extremity or part moved. The movements described 
in this treatise are of the variety termed Single Move- 
ments. But as frequent reference is made to the du 
plicated variety of movements, it is necessary to de- 
scribe here their genera] qualities and purposes. 
Duplicated Movements are of two kinds. In one, 
the movement is received by the patient, who is quite 
passive, while motion of some particular variety is 
given to some portion of the body, or to the whole of 
it, generally by a physician, or by an operator under 
Lis immediate direction. In the other kind the patient 100 
PRINCIPLES CONSIDERED. 
is required to bring into action some particular part 
designated in the prescription; while the quality) 
amount) and duration of the action is entirely con- 
trolled by the physician. This action is, of course, 
varied according to the therapeutical indications of 
the case, partly judged of by the physical symptoms 
brought to light by the ordinary modes of diagnosis, 
partly determined by the cultivated and delicate per- 
ception and experience of the operator. The operator, 
in manipulating, usually affords a certain kind and de- 
gree of resistance) which aids in effecting the desired 
physiological action of the part concerned in the move- 
ment. Even in the same movement, the resistance 
should be carefully varied in the different stages, and 
with all the nicety of manipulation that is required of 
the musician for giving expression and effect in an in- 
strumental performance. 
The range and variety of effects capable of being pro- 
duced by the duplicated movements, when directed by 
tact and intelligence, are very great, meeting most of 
the indications of chronic disease, probably quite all 
that present 'themselves in ordinary cases. These 
effects may be realized either in interior organs or the 
extremities, and may be made general or local. They 
may be confined mainly to any particular anatomical 
division or physiological function, to the nerves, the 
muscles, or may influence all together. They are 
adapted to the most enfeebled invalid or to the stout- 
est persons, and never need produce effects beyond the 
requirements of the invalid or the intention of the 
physician. 
A most important element in the treatment by du- 
plicated movements is that of the co-operation, both by 
will and action, of the patient with the physician or PRINCIPLES CONSIDERED. 
101 
operator; by which the superior power of the one be- 
comes a source of strength to the other.* 
Nothing, for a plain reason, so encourages a person 
to act, as the consciousness of abundant ability; and 
this is fully supplied to the mind by the auxiliary 
power afforded. So that, in addition to the control 
obtained over the chemical and vito-chemical actions, 
we secure in this way the favorable influence of the 
healthful play of the nerves, whose function it is to 
control organic operations. All medical systems ac- 
knowledge the immense value of this assistance in the 
treatment of invalids; but what can secure it in so high 
a degree as an intelligent and patient application of the 
duplicated movements ? 
But the employment of duplicated movements, it 
must be confessed, is attended with difficulties that will 
prevent their general use as a medical resource. An 
ordinary course of medical instruction does not confer 
the necessary qualifications for their successful applica- 
tion ; the tact necessary to prescribe and apply them 
properly is only acquired by long and patient practice, 
and the labor is excessively severe. 
♦ Some of the German practitioners of the Movement-Care, adopting Reichen- 
bach's theory of the odic force, contend that an influence of this kind is concerned 
in the production of the effects of this treatment; the nervous energy of the patient 
being thereby exalted, and the system consequently enabled to overcome disease. 
Dally gives a fine drawing of the human hand, in its minute anatomy, arguing 
therefrom that it is an instrument eminently adapted to perform the office, as a part 
of its physiological functions, of conveying something like vital electricity to another 
person; and that an important advantage is derived by the invalid from such a 
transference. The reader will perceive the similarity, if not the identity, of the 
ideas underlying these statements with those concerning animal magnetism, with 
which every one is familiar. But it is not necessary, in order to prove or explain 
the hygienic and the medical effects of the Movement-Cure, to resort to any state- 
ments outside of its own well-demonstrated facts, and the easily understood laws 
of physiology. Especially must it be injurious to the reputation of this practice to 
resort to any theory in explanation of its effects that involves anything, to the com- 
mon mind, mysteri or equivocal; and such is confessedly the character of the th* 
oriea alluded to. 102 
PRINCIPLES CONSIDERED. 
Single Movements, on the other hand, being com- 
paratively few in number and simple in character, are 
much more readily learned and practiced ; and they 
are found very efficacious in combating the lighter 
forms of disease and in opposing the first approaches 
of graver maladies. 
Concentric and Eccentric Movements.-When the 
extremities of the muscle are approximated, the mus- 
cular contraction steadily increasing, the movement is 
said to be concentric. When the muscle is stretched, 
its contraction steadily decreasing, the movement is 
said to be eccentric. Thus, the raising of a weight, as 
a book, by the hand, requires a concentric movement; 
while in permitting the same object to fall gradually 
by the side, an eccentric movement is effected. In both 
cases the same muscles have been employed ; but often 
the effect upon the circulation, and especially upon the 
innervation of the part, is entirely different. The ad- 
vantages of this distention are however only imper- 
fectly available in the single movements, because both 
the concentric and eccentric are necessarily used indis- 
criminately in many of them. In practicing dupli- 
cated movements, it is easy to render a given move- 
ment either wholly concentric or wholly eccentric, and 
thus to obtain whatever advantages may be derivable 
from this distinction.* 
* Dr. Neuman, and some other writers on the Movement-Cure, insiston the great 
importance in practice of the distinction of eccentric and concentric movements. 
They suppose that not only the muscles, but also all vital cells, have the two quali- 
ties of contraction and relaxation, as inseparable from their nature. These two 
qualities, it is supposed, just balance each other in health, but in disease one or the 
other of them preponderates. In other words, they think that all diseases may be 
classed either as those in which the contractility of the primary cell of the organic 
•tructures prevails, or else as those in which relaxation prevails. The one case, 
according to this theory is to be treated by conce/niric moveuents, and the othet PRINCIPLES CONSIDERED. 
103 
The accompanying cuts* will serve to illustrate con- 
centric and eccentric movements. Fig. 2 represents 
the arm bent at the elbow. To accomplish this, it is 
necessary for the muscles of the upper arm, toward 
which the forearm is drawn in the action, and which 
are attached to the forearm near the elbow, to con- 
tract, or shorten the distance between the extremities. 
This mass of muscles is shown at a b in the cut. This 
is concentric action. But the muscles of the opposite 
side of the arm are, meantime, by no means passive. 
If they were, the bending would be accomplished with 
a sudden jerk ; this is prevented by the contraction of 
the opposing muscles. But this contraction is not suf- 
ficient to prevent the shortening of a b, and the conse- 
quent motion of the forearm. At the same time the 
Fig. 2. 
Bending of the arm at the elbow showing that while the contracting muscle, a b 
shortens itself, its antagonist, c d, is drawn out 
by eccentric. Oftentimes the symptoms are supposed to indicate that concm- 
tr/c movements are appropriate to one organ or region of the body, while the eccen- 
tric are required for the other, and they are to be combined accordingly in the 
prescription. 
* From " Theory and Practice of the Movement-'Cure." By C. F. Tayloi 
M.D. 104 
PRINCIPLES CONSIDERED. 
muscular mass, c d, is steadily extended, in opposition 
co its efforts, and its contraction is called eccentric. 
Fig. 8. 
Stretching of the arm at the elbow, showing the action of the same muscles re 
versed. 
If, while the muscle d' c' is contracting, there be re- 
sistance applied at the hand, then a' b' will not contract 
during the movement, for its opposing force is already- 
supplied by the resistance from without, and though 
drawn out, it remains relaxed during the movement, 
having neither the physiological nor mechanical con- 
ditions requiring an influx of arterial blood. The 
whole effect of the movement is experienced in the 
contracting part. 
Again, if force be applied to the hand, and a' b' is 
drawn out by means of that force, instead of c'd' act- 
ing, then the muscle d d' will not contract, and it will 
possess neither the physiological nor mechanical con- 
ditions for propelling forward the venous blood, but 
will remain entirely inactive. The only result of the 
movement is the contraction of a' b' with the resulting 
influx of arterial blood. Furthermore, if the move- 
ment be made with resistance both ways, from 1 to 2 
and from 2 to 1, the contraction would be first concen- 
tric in c'd, then also in a' b', without any eccentric 
action. But if force be used to move the limb in the 105 
PRINCIPLES CONSIDERED. 
directions specified, while the muscles oppose the force 
which overcomes them, then both actions are 
and there are no concentric actions. The understanding 
of these principles is of the first importance in the ap- 
plication of movements for the removal of disease. 
In fig. 3 it is plain that the action of the muscles 
d' c' overcomes that of a' t>'; hence the action of the 
former is concentric, while that of the latter is eccentric. 
In either case both sets of muscle act, but with differ- 
ent effects. 
The difference in the physiological effects of these 
two modes of muscular contraction is thus explained : 
The pressure resulting from the contraction of a' 1)' 
forces the contained blood into the venous capillaries, 
while at the same instant the drawing out of the mus- 
cles c' d! extends the arteries, relieves them of pressure, 
and admits more arterial blood into the capillaries 
than before. In both cases the conditions are supplied 
for a new'contraction ; in the one case, by excluding 
w'aste matter, and in the other, by bringing arterial 
blood to the acting organ, while by the conjoint action 
the blood is hastened in its progress through the part. 
General and Localized Movements.-One of the 
most potent causes of disease is the habitual employ- 
ment of the powers of the system in a partial or inhar- 
monious manner. A person who constantly uses his 
brain to the neglect of his whole body; his senses, 
Hither than his muscles; his hands and arms in prefer- 
ence to his legs: or his legs, and forgets his abdom- 
inal muscles, has no right to anticipate the enjoyment 
of continued good health. It is apparent that in these 
cases nutrition progresses inordinately in the acting 
parts, while other and as important portions of the 106 
PRINCIPLES CONSIDERED. 
frame are suffering for the want of it. The effect aftei 
a time-and in individuals of feeble constitutions that 
period is soon reached-is a total prostration of the 
general physical energies. 
These instances (and they are, alasI too numerous 
in all communities) illustrate a principle too apt to be 
ignored by individuals, and neglected by physicians, 
to wit, that even a moderate use of a part, while other 
parts are in a state of quiescence, not only stimulates 
the nutrient actions therein, but also causes the general 
current of the circulation to set in toward them to an 
abnormal extent. In other words, an undue and contin- 
ued use of an organ induces a tendency to congestion 
of its tissues. It also generally heightens its nervous 
sensibility, frequently carrying it to the point of irri- 
tability • for evidently if an organ be set vigorously at 
work, while all other parts are at rest, it is made to ex- 
press the whole available vital force of the system. 
Any organ may be compelled to do this, and they may 
all be so compelled in succession by sufficient stimula- 
tion. If the organs of the body be employed in union 
or in proper succession, the current of the circulation 
thus actively set in motion in them, instead of pro- 
ducing congestion and irritation, only affords the proper 
conditions for the high degree of nutrition necessary 
for their healthful functional activity. It is only by 
too long continued use, preventing at the same time 
the healthful employment of other parts, that the most 
vascular and delicate organs come to be injured. 
The state of congestion, and the opposite one of shrunk 
capillaries, coexist in different parts of the same body 
in nearly all cases of chronic disease. The capillaries 
of some portions, generally situated centrally, are dis- 
tended and are too weak to push forward their con 107 
PRINCIPLES CONSIDERED. 
tents, and the stagnant blood soon becomes deteriorated 
in quality and incapable of affording nutrition; while 
at the same time other capillaries, generally those be* 
longing to the skin and extremities, do not receive 
enough of blood to answer the general nutrient pur- 
poses of those parts. The rate of the circulation is 
unequal, for the blood is arrested in the congested or- 
gan, whatever may be the state of the pulse. The last 
cause of the trouble may be a poor quality of blood; 
but back of this there are causes connected with the 
blood-making operations of the body, previously de- 
scribed, which the movements are competent to correct. 
The removal of congestion is one of the important 
objects of partial movements. The principles con- 
cerned in this practice are easily understood. A con- 
gested organ is one in which the capillaries have lost 
their contractility, and are therefore distended with 
blood, with a tendency to effusion of its serum, to re- 
lieve the oppressed walls. Microscopists inform us 
that gelatinous corpuscles are also present, which must 
afford further impediment to the onward flow. Most 
of the local, passive, duplicated movements assist very 
materially in our efforts to remove this condition. But 
permanent effects are secured by rousing vital action in, 
and consequently drawing the r congested fluid to, con- 
tiguous organs, and even organs remote from the seat 
of disease, but needing the supply. Thus the affected 
part is emptied and relieved, and consequently soon 
acquires a healthy tone again in its capillary circula- 
tion ; while at the same time the other organs that were 
suffering from deficient nutrition are supplied in a 
healthful manner. If tolerable tact be employed in 
the selection and arrangement of the movements in 
the prescription, no more efficient means than those 108 
PRINCIPLES CONSIDERED. 
here considered are to be found within the limits of 
the remedial art for relieving congestion, the constant 
concomitant of all chronic disease. 
A similar principle is concerned in the treatment of 
cases of disordered innervation. If a single organ be 
the chief medium of nervous action, or even if it be 
the seat of great pain, other organs are proportionably 
wanting in sensibility. Nervous power is dependent on 
the same general conditions of nutritive supply or mus- 
cular power, and the nervous equilibrium is restored by 
agencies that harmonize the general nutrient actions 
of the body. From these statements, the broad, prac- 
tical inference may be deduced, that congestion and 
morbid innervation may be removed from any locality 
by employing, in other portions of the system, the ma- 
terials and actions that are concerned in producing 
them. 
The attempts to accomplish these objects by ordi- 
nary medical means are less successful than by move- 
ments, because the control of the circulation thus ob- 
tained is less direct and perfect. 
It is evident that these principles furnish important, 
and, indeed, invaluable suggestions for the manage- 
ment of the sick. It is a process of reversing those 
secret and subtile operations of the system whereby 
diseases are originally produced. And these principles 
are capable of the most easy, satisfactory, and beautiful 
demonstration in every-day practice. 
The curative employment of movements is by no 
means confined to their local application. Those in- 
volving the whole body are often used to excellent 
advantage. Such movements urge the blood into the 
superficial capillaries, and increase thereby the pe- 
ripheral circulation. But they need to be employed PRINCIPLES CONSIDERED. 
109 
with much discretion, in order to avoid fatigue and the 
consequent defeat of the very purposes for which they 
are applied. 
Influence of Movements in Regulating the Fokces 
of the Body.-It is already understood that, in accord- 
ance with the view of physiology and pathology taken 
in this work, the muscles and the nerves are regarded 
as the two great channels through which the available 
powers of the system are made to work. 
In health, the muscles and nerves exercise co-ordinate 
functions. The muscles, we know, act only in response 
to nervous stimuli; but this involves both mental and 
sensorial action, for the cause or origin of the impulses 
imparted to the muscles resides in the intellect and 
sensorium. The voluntary muscles ordinarily obey 
only the mandates of the will and of the feelings. The 
muscles should be the obedient servants of these 
higher powers. Indeed, it is the whole aim and end 
of our corporeal nature to minister to the higher and 
spiritual; and when it fails to do this, nature fails to 
accomplish what she undertook in the creation of 
man. ♦ 
The laws of nature can not be broken with impunity. 
Every attempt to work the intellect independently of 
the forces allied to it, must end in a miserable and dis- 
graceful defeat. But when these are harnessed to- 
gether and made to draw in concord, there is nothing 
within the limits of the possible that we do not see men 
accomplishing and enjoying. 
Now in disease, arising from -whatever cause, there 
is a disturbance in the operation of these two classes of 
powers. Musculai power is partially or wholly sub* 
pended, while the sensorial powers are generally in- 110 
PRINCIPLES CONSIDERED. 
creased, frequently to the production of pain. None 
will dispute this, and most will be ready to admit the 
truth of the following proposition, to wit, that if the 
proper relations between these two sets of powers be ha- 
bitually disregarded, disease in some form must be the 
inevitable consequence. An appeal to common obser- 
vation would abundantly confirm these statements. 
Every one knows how the chronic invalid is tor- 
mented with sensations, and often with such as seem 
to bear but very slight relation to his apparent disease. 
The imagination in these cases is stimulated to ex- 
cess ; the consciousness is subjugated, and the strong- 
est volition of such an invalid is incapable of resisting 
the power of feelings and fancies that accumulate with 
the advancement of the malady and threaten at times 
utterly to overwhelm their victim. 
It is an indisputable fact that much of the disease of 
our modern civilization has its origin in this partial 
functional action, which in turn produces partial de- 
velopment, and which is another name for deformity. 
The nervous system is, in multitudes of cases in civil- 
ized life, compelled to act constantly with a force 
greatly disproportioned to the muscular-and to a de- 
gree frequently that renders the healthful nutrition of 
their organs an utter impossibility. Every physician's 
practice affords him numerous and lamentable illus- 
trations of this sad truth. 
If the constitution is defective from hereditary 
causes, the proclivity to disease of this kind is propor- 
tionally stronger, and the necessity for intelligent train- 
ing of the system to a condition above the liability to 
this subjugation to the nerve-power becomes all the 
more imperative. For if this nervous habit be pro- 
longed, and the muscles continue for any length of 111 
PRINCIPLES CONSIDERED. 
time to be deprived of their nutrition, the general nu- 
trient actions throughout the body are enfeebled, and 
general impairment of the strength results. 
Abuse of the nervous system usually operates, as we 
have hinted, through two channels, the mental and the 
sensorial. Examples of the latter class are much more 
numerous than those of the former; indeed, it may be 
doubted if those of the first often occur uncomplicated 
with the second. The sensorial faculties, besides being 
purveyors to the mind, are appointed also to minister 
to the material welfare and gratification of the body. 
But whenever the nerves belonging to this class are in 
ordinately stimulated-that is, when stimulated with- 
out reference to nutritive ends-they become over- 
strained, the nutrition of the parts is perverted, their 
powers debilitated, and their action becomes uncon- 
trollable. 
Civilized life furnishes abundant and ingenious de- 
vices in the habits of eating, of drinking, and of living 
generally, eminently calculated to contribute to this 
end. For this are used spirits, tobacco, condiments, 
and confections, and the domestic beverages which are 
said to cheer but not inebriate; and the arts of cook- 
ery furnish too often the means of corrupting the taste, 
while they poison the food. 
The habit, so rife with us, of permitting the emo- 
tional nature to bear undue sway, operates in a similar 
and hardly less injurious way, and is therefore equally 
reprehensible. The excitements of extensive or preca- 
rious business or of domestic infelicities are well known 
to produce the effects here pointed out; and not unfre- 
quently the disproportionate degree with which the 
feelings become engaged in questions of politics and 
of religion bring the same unhappy results to the 112 
PRINCIPLES CONSIDERED. 
health. In these cases, bad hygiene and habits sow 
broadcast the seeds which other influences and circum- 
stances afterward arouse into disastrous and fatal ao 
tivity. 
In all-cases of this kind, arising from whatever cause, 
the use of movements furnishes a direct, safe, powerful, 
.nd philosophical means of restoring these interrupted 
harmonies, and of correcting the ill health that is 
dependent thereon ; provided, of course, that the influ- 
ence of the causes leading to such results, and which 
have been here pointed out, are withdrawn. 
Relations of the Action of the Will and of the 
Muscles in Movements.-Much error prevails on this 
subject. Most persons seem to think that the degree 
of fatigue one experiences indicates the amount of exer- 
cise taken, but it really only shows the amount of exer- 
tion put forth, and which depends on the will. The 
degree of fatigue and the amount of exercise do not 
necessarily bear a direct relation to each other; but 
the degree of fatigue indicates the greater or less time 
in which a movement was being performed. As evi- 
dence that fatigue is inseparably connected with the 
exercise of the will, it is only necessary to refer to 
numerous physiological operations that proceed without 
our attention and without fatigue, some of which, in- 
deed, are capable of being brought by an effort into 
relation to the will, and thereby immediately become 
fatiguing. The heart's action, though powerful and in- 
cessant, is unaccompanied by any sense of fatigue. The 
internal organs generally, as the stomach and intestinal 
canal, are in constant motion, but never grow weary. 
In itself, the motion of riding by rail-cars or carriages 
is not fatiguing. Many of the ordinary avocations of 113 
PRINCIPLES CONSIDERED. 
life are habitual, and are performed automatically, and 
without fatigue. In all these movements the volitions 
are in abeyance, and the actions are carried forward 
under the control of the involuntary or cerebrospinal 
system of nerves. 
The function of respiration affords an excellent illus- 
tration of the relations of the will and the involuntary 
nerves in movements. In ordinary respiration there is 
no fatigue, because it proceeds without consciousness, 
that is, it is involuntary. But we may control this 
function by the will, and its performance is imme- 
diately followed by exhaustion. The reader will infer 
from this the impropriety, and in some cases the un- 
qualified harmfulness, of employing instruments de- 
vised to modify respiration. These contrivances direct 
the attention to the respiratory act, and thereby em- 
barrass its performance, rendering it no longer invol- 
untary. 
A careful analysis of these facts leads us readily to 
the principle, that fatigue is in proportion to the 
amount of menial and nervous, rather than to the 
amount of muscular action employed. 
Into active movements, the two kinds of action, mus- 
cular and nervous, enter in different proportions. And 
this proportion seems to be determined chiefly by the 
time occupied in executing the movement, the quick 
movement requiring within a given period the greatest 
expenditure of nervous power. The principle here is 
analogous to that in mechanics, with which every 
school-boy is acquainted, viz., that velocity is obtained 
at the expense of power. 
But if a movement be prolonged, the amount of mus- 
cular exercise is greater in proportion to the time occu- 
pied. This principle is made evident by the physiology 114 
PRINCIPLES CONSIDERED. 
of muscular contraction, explained in the second chap- 
ter, where it is shown that the longer the action of the 
muscle is continued, the greater the number of its ulti- 
mate elements that participate in the action. 
The principle in movements relative to time may be 
tated thus: 
Rapid movements necessitate most nervous action ; 
slow and sustained movements, the most muscular 
action. If the principle be stated with reference to the 
limit of the capabilities of these powers, it might be said 
that the one exhausts the most nervous, and the other 
the most muscular power. If with reference to the 
effects on nutrition, the statement would be, the one 
stimulates to the most nervous, and the other to the 
most muscular action and development. These state- 
ments will, of course, apply only within certain limits 
in the healthy state, but which in daily life are being 
constantly exceeded in respect to the nervous func- 
tion particularly; so that the proper relation of these 
two powers is destroyed, and the whole system becomes 
disordered. 
This principle is well illustrated in common experi- 
ence. If a person runs a few rods briskly, he will pant 
with fatigue ; while if he walk the same distance, he is 
refreshed and invigorated, although it is a demon- 
strated fact that the aggregate amount of mechanical 
resistance that he has overcome is greater in the lattex 
case than in the former. In the first instance the object 
was accomplished by means of a greater effort than in 
the second ; but in the second, a larger number of 
muscle-cells had taken part in the contraction than in 
the first. In the one case, also, a larger amount of 
blood was conveyed to the nerve-centers to sustain the 
action; while in the other case, the muscles have re- PRINCIPLES CONSIDERED. 
115 
ceived the larger quantity to replenish the waste occa- 
sioned by their action. 
This principle meets also with abundant confirma- 
tion in all departments of pathology. The paralytic 
walks with great difficulty, because though the mus- 
cles are really unaffected, the will is transmitted to them 
imperfectly and only by great effort on account of the 
vitiated state of the nerve-conductors. 
The effect of poisons whose influence is exerted upon 
the nerves, presents a pathological state corroborative 
of this principle. Strychnine produces violent muscu- 
lar contortion, exhibiting evidence of the excited and 
rapid action and finally the exhaustion of the nerve- 
centers ; while spirits and most other stimulants pro- 
duce theii- deceptive effect by evolving rapidly at first 
the nerve-power by exciting in the nerve-centers an 
action which the deluded victim attempts to maintain 
by repeating the doses. No lasting power is really 
gained in any of these ways, because the action is 
essentially of thev and not of the construc- 
tive kind. 
The Movement-Cure makes direct application of the 
general principles here set forth ; hence its value as a 
therapeutic means. It employs slow movements in 
preference to the more rapid, because chronic invalids 
need to have their nervous powers husbanded,' and 
their general muscular and nutritive increased. 
Such invalids have suffered enough already from un- 
natural and irregular nervous activity. The muscles 
of such patients not only fail to execute the promptings 
of the will, but also to control in a proper manner those 
vegetative actions of the system that so directly depend 
upon a full supply of nervous energy in the muscular 
system. 116 
PRINCIPLES CONSIDERED. 
The true principles concerned in the therapeutic ap- 
plication of movements being plain, we only need to 
be careful that our practice in making remedial appli 
cation of these principles be made thoroughly to corre- 
spond with them. Not only the application of the move- 
ments, but the general habits of the body (which, too, 
are of the nature of movements), must be made to ac- 
cord with the same principles. The tendency to spas- 
modic haste, especially, that characterizes the invalid, 
must be broken up; otherwise this of itself will be 
likely to perpetuate the troubles under which he labors, 
in spite of any remedial means he may have been led 
to institute. 
Movements as a Specific Medical Agency.-The 
single movements only approximate the duplicated 
movements in importance as a therapeutic means. 
These latter answer all the distinct purposes indicated 
in chronic disease. Their effects may be local as well 
as general, and in this respect they quite equal those 
of drugs, difficult as some may find it to believe this. 
The primary impression made by a drug is essentially 
pathological; while that of a movement is in the direc- 
tion of the desired physiological action, and conse- 
quently and surely toward health. Movements are also 
superior to drugs in the extent to which the physiolog- 
ical actions may be influenced by them, especially in the 
control obtained by their application over the circula- 
tion of the blood, and the directness with which respira- 
tion and nutrition are influenced; which last results are 
scarcely expected even as the indirect effect of drugs. 
The grand difference between movements and drugs 
exists in all their relations to the system. The one 
changes physiological action to pathological, the other PRINCIPLES CONSIDERED. 
117 
carries pathological action toward physiological. The 
drug accomplishes specific objects by pervading the 
whole organism, including every structure within it, 
and leaving thereon its morbid impression. It has no 
power to encourage or stimulate, primarily, the great 
life-forces of the system. 
Movements, on the contrary, secure or restore unity 
and a just balance to the various functions, and from 
disorder and discord tend to bring out that blissful 
order and harmony which it was doubtless the inten- 
tion of the all-wise and good Creator should character- 
ize the physical nature of his favored children. 
Movements as Reliable Means of Securing thb 
Object of Nutritive Medication.-Much is said at the 
present day in regard to supplying, directly to the 
blood, its deficient saline ingredients. Certain forms 
of disease are assumed certainly to indicate this want in 
the blood, and these diseases are supposed to be cured 
by treatment of this sort. Of the faulty quality of the 
blood in cases of defective nutrition there can be no 
doubt; but it is far from being a settled point that its 
normal quality can be restored to it in this way. It so 
happens that our ordinary food furnishes an abundance 
of organizable nutritive matters. The trouble is not in 
the lack of the material. The power to make use of it 
is what is wanted chiefly; and this can never be im- 
parted by ever so free an administration of saline, 
earthy, or ferruginous preparations. It is insisted that 
the structures require these materials; but the first 
question to be settled is: Are these structures in a state 
of prepa/ration and fitness to receive and appropriate 
such supplies ? It is contrary to all we know of physi- 
ological law to conclude that nitritive actions, or in- 118 
PRINCIPLES CONSIDEREL. 
deed any action, should proceed in the absence of th« 
conditions necessary for the supply of oxygen. 
The truth is that the supply of the materials above 
mentioned is supererogatory. If we examine by chem- 
ical tests any proper and wholesome foods, we shall find 
the saline and earthy matters needed in the system to 
be present in quantities positively above the demands 
of the system. These matters are constituents of all 
common food, and whether they become appropriated 
or are cast off depends entirely upon the needs of the 
organism and its appropriating ability. This need ex- 
ists in direct and uniform ratio to the waste; and 
though the blood and tissues be ever so deficient in re 
gard to the substances in question, they can never be- 
come richer in them in the absence of the imperative 
and effectual demand created by action. Movements, 
it has been found, are the true and reliable means for 
bringing nutritive materials in general, and the saline 
elements of the blood in particular, from the cavity of 
the stomach into the inner chambers of the svstem, 
where they are wanted. 
But the mode of administering these materials in 
vogue with our medical friends of the present day is 
much less satisfactory than the more ancient and natu- 
ral method. The saline elements of food are in the 
state of preparation effected by the organs of the plant 
expressly for nutritive purposes. As here found, they 
bear an analogy to organic materials, if, indeed, they 
are not essentially such. The iron, lime, phosphorous, 
etc., are not in the food as crude substances, but are 
incorporated with other elements or matters in organic 
combination, and are thus fitted to accompany them in 
their errand and mission of good io every nec'/dy tissue 
of the frame. PRINCIPLES CONSIDERED. 
119 
Movements as Related to Nerve Stimulants.-But 
few persons fully understand the impropriety, in a phy- 
siological point of view, of subjecting their nerves to 
the habitual influence of sedatives and stimulants for 
the purpose of quieting troublesome sensations, or of 
allaying unpleasant brain-action. The principles and 
facts above stated must demonstrate the inutility, to 
say the least, of such habits. These agents conduce to 
the act of what is technically termed retrograde meta- 
morphosis in the body, in an improper manner. They 
debase the system, and render its actions habitually 
vicious, and ultimately overthrow the mental powers. 
They interfere with the method nature has appointed 
for the due production of morphological changes in the 
system. 
There is no doubt of the existence of a real needy 
though artificially induced, the consciousness of which 
impels its subject to resort to these injurious methods of 
relief. But they flo this in ignorance of a simpler and 
far more trustworthy recourse. A careful study of the 
principles involved in the Movement-Cure suggests 
a ready way of securing quietude to the nerves by the 
simplest of means; for experience has taught us that 
when irritability or pain exists, the nerves are only de- 
manding to be rescued from the effects of a bad circu- 
lation and an irregular distribution of nervous power. 
It has already been shown that the movements furnish 
a far more reliable means for attaining these ends than 
can be mustered in all the drug shops or chemical 
laboratories on the planet. We believe-and every day 
see what we believe-that the vexed brain may be re- 
lieved by drawing off* its surcharged vessels; that the 
stomach and blood need not be fired by a stimulant in 
order to warm the skin and excite action in the extrem- 120 
PRINCIPLES CONSIDERED. 
ities. We have learned that distressful sensations gen- 
erally only indicate that dead matter needs to be ejected 
from the system ; that pain, even severe pain, is quieted 
by employing, in contiguous and even in remote por- 
tions of the body, the actions that supply the perverted 
nerve-power. Destroy thus, by the continuous and 
thorough use of suitable movements, the hankering 
(which is seated in the irritable nerve-fiber) for innutri- 
tions and inflaming stimulants, and soon the destructive 
habit will die out, and the sufferer be relieved from a 
despotism worse than that which merely puts chains 
upon the body, and has no more that it can do. 
Movements as Related to Pathology.-Pathology 
wears a greatly changed aspect from the point of view 
furnished by the Movement-Cure. Disease is no longer 
hidden to us among inscrutable causes, nor its cure 
among unintelligible operations or more mysterious 
mixtures. Pain need now no longer be confounded 
with disease, nor the cure deemed completed when the 
consciousness has become oblivious to suffering. 
On the contrary, disease is proved, beyond dispute, 
to depend on disturbed physiological action, and it only 
waits for correct and equable physiological action to be 
restored, in order that disease shall disappear. The 
special conditions upon which the symptoms of disease 
are based are easily and speedily removable when they 
exist in moderate degree, and often when they exist to 
a degree quite beyond the reach of ordinary medical 
art, providing, only, that we are master of the instru- 
mentalities within our reach. 
Several of these removable causes or conditions usu- 
ally co-exist in the same case, but with different de- 
grees of intensity or development. In every effort to PRINCIPLES CONSIDERED. 
121 
remove them, the Movement-Cure seeks to recover the 
impaired harmony of the system; never, like drugs, 
develops symptoms of its own worse than the disease ; 
but, by bringing all tne forces of the organism into due 
co-relation, assists the system to glide, naturally, into 
a state of health, with all its available forces unim- 
paired, and ready to fulfill the behests of the will. 
Those invisible, vito-chemical actions are capable, 
we see, of producing results that may agree or not with 
the standard of health. The nature of the product is 
of but little consequence compared with the productive 
causes. Morbid materials can never exist without mis- 
chievous antecedents. We are not accomplishing much 
when we apply antidotes to effects, while the causes are 
busily at work out of sight and out of reach. 
The inter-relations of physiological and pathological 
agencies are so involved, that to look for the first of 
morbid causes is like seeking the end of a circle, or a 
needle in a hay-stack. But to the practical inquirer 
the few essential phenomena that most demand his at- 
tention are readily recognized ; such as defective res- 
piration, congestion or mat-circulation, imperfect nu- 
trition, morbid innervation. These are the conditions 
that chiefly interest us, and to obtain the control over 
which it is the aim of all our practice and endeavor. 
Province oe Movements.-Whether movements are 
hygienic or remedial in their effects, depends on the 
character of the case for which they are used. They 
are hygienic when their influences are such as to main- 
tain the already existing healthy relations of the physi- 
ological man-when they give healthy scope to all 
vital powers in spite of the deteriorating tendencies of 
sedentary or intellectual occupations; or of such h its 122 
PRINCIPLES CONSIDERED. 
of labor as employ some portions of the body too much 
and other portions too little. Movements thus applied 
may be called the natural means of counteracting the 
evil tendencies of an artificial mode of life, whose name 
is legion. 
Movements become medical when their effects arc 
to improve imperfect physiological relations, or break 
up pathological states habitually existing; as, for in- 
stance, w'hen they permanently increase the circulation 
and nutrition of a part previously defective, increase 
the respiration, diminish morbid innervation, restrain 
morbid discharges, or incite any defective function to a 
healthful and satisfactory play. 
Morale of Movements.-Invalids are gaining in- 
struction all the time through their experience in the 
daily use of movements in regard to the causes of their 
troubles, and thus are often enabled to rise superior to 
the depressing influences of the disease. As a thorough 
system of movements involves a general hygienic treat- 
ment, the invalid no longer pursues the preposterous 
plan of employing a remedy for difficulties that he is 
continually reproducing in himself. Vicious practices 
cease to be seductive when he is alive to their proba- 
ble effects. His faith in the wonderful and reputed 
powers of medicme, which forever offers its premium 
to vice and folly, collapses, and he, by so doing, re- 
solves to try, at least, to do right. 
But the influence of this sentiment does not stop 
here. The physiological and the spiritual are co-ordi- 
nate departments of our being, sustain relations of 
mutual ministry, and conspire to mutual elevation of 
function. But the physiological system is anterior in 
development, though temporary in function; and its 123 
1-Kra'CIPLES CONSIDERED. 
obvious office and essential purpose is that of instructor 
of the spiritual nature in fundamental truths. 
The same law of development resulting from the ex- 
perience of good and evil, pleasure and pain, disobedi' 
ence and penalty, is common to both departments, but 
being first apprehended on the physiological plane 
meets with a ready transfer to the spiritual. In the 
body these laws are of temporary application, but ap- 
plied to the higher life, become fundamental and per- 
manent. Generations of men cast away the weary 
experiences of life as of no profit, because it has not 
yet taught their meaning;-even in a physiological 
sense it has not been comprehended. 124 
MOVEMENTS COMP ABED WITH GYMNASTICS. 
MOVEMENTS COMPARED WITH GYMNASTICS. 
One evil has grown out of the recent interest that 
the Movement-Cure has awakened, and this is the 
adoption by invalids of those ill-considered and hetero- 
geneous exercises embraced under the general name of 
Gymnastics. The very great danger to the weakly 
and the invalid from the mistake of confounding the 
two things, renders it a duty to explain the difference 
in their effects. 
The man who, feeling himself sick, should rush into 
the first drug-shop in his way and there seize and swal- 
low whatever he might lay hands on, would be con- 
sidered a madman, whose life would most likely pay 
the forfeit of his want of consideration. If a physi- 
cian, who ought to know that drugs are potent sub- 
stances, should recommend this procedure to his patient, 
he would be designated by some not very mild term. 
And yet essentially the same thing is practiced with 
reference to exercises. Like dosing, exercising, it is 
assumed, is useful for the sick in a general way, and so 
the sick are advised to " take exercise," without desig- 
nating what. when, where, or how. Upon this loose prin- 
ciple ten thousand doctors are daily prescribing and 
many more invalids practicing, until aggravating their 
old complaints, or contracting new, the latter become 
disgusted with both advice and adviser, and, fancying MOVEMENTS COMPARED WITH GYMNASTICS. 
125 
there can be no help for them, give up to hypochon- 
dria, with all its woes. All this comes from not con- 
sidering lAAt exercise is a most potent means of affect- 
ing the hody, whether for good or for ill, and that it 
necessarily Lad laws, and must be practiced in obe- 
dience therous, or it will be quite as likely to do harm 
as good. 
The very fa<-v that a person needs exercise distinct 
from his usual a rotations, whatever these may be, im- 
plies-as one win see if a moment's thought be given 
the subject-that he needs it of a particular kind or 
quality, in particiaar amount, or affecting particular 
portions of the body. If one receives it in such parts 
and of such form as will serve to dissipate the con- 
gestion of over-workv»d or diseased organs, and vivify 
and set in normal action the parts that are suffering 
from inaction, he is refreshed, strengthened, and rein- 
stated in health and power. Otherwise, or if the exer- 
cise be indiscriminately employed, he has no ground 
for assurance that undesirable effects will not be pro- 
duced, that the congestion, the anemia, the want of 
power, or whatever the trouble may be, may not be 
aggravated by the same agency that, scientifically em- 
ployed, would have produced the happiest results. 
Such a person, indeed, has reason to become discour- 
aged, and can hardly be blamed for arriving at the 
conclusion, after such an experience, that exercise is not 
the thing he requires. 
The distinction between Gymnastics and Movements 
is so plain that it must be readily appreciated if a little 
consideration be bestowed upon the subject. While 
the one results mainly in the expenditure of power, 
both nervous and muscular, indiscriminately, without 
reference to the particular conditions of the system, 126 
MO YEMENI 8 COMPARED WITH GYMNASTICS. 
either in its original conformation, its idiosyncrasies, 
its diseases, or its temporary states, the other not only 
takes all these into full consideration, but also by the 
aid of a severe, thorough, and systematic analysis of 
all the modifications of motion applied to the body 01 
produced by it in all its varied conditions, is able to 
adapt itself nicely to the needs of the individual case. 
While Gymnastics may be practiced by any one who 
is accomplished enough to turn a somerset, Movements 
require the discipline furnished by the schools, by 
which only can be acquired that knowledge of the na- 
ture of diseases, the nicety of tact and quickness of 
perception which are essential to insure a nice adapta- 
tion of the means to the ends contemplated. Move- 
ments further require for their greatest success certain 
mental and moral qualities in the practitioner calcu- 
lated to gain and keep the confidence of the patient. 
This is a great point, as might be supposed, d priori. 
In comparing the effects of Gymnastics with the 
a German writer makes the following sen- 
sible remarks: 
" It is not denied that gymnastics may serve to de- 
velop the parts that execute the movements-muscle, 
tendon, ligament, and bone; but in doing this they 
will give a heavy and too concentrated a form, espe- 
cially to the superior portions of the body. If we ex- 
amine a gymnast, we find the upper portion of the 
body much more largely developed than the lower, 
because it is the general fault of gymnastics that the 
great proportion of the exercise consists in overcoming 
either the weight of the body or that of some other 
object by the arms, while the legs only sustain the 
weight of the trunk, as on ordinary occasions. Thia 
effect, of course, is detrimental to the system as a 127 
MOVEMENTS COMPARED WITH GYMNASTICS. 
whole. The subject of any special excessive develop- 
ment, instead of being benefited thereby, is absolutely 
incapacitated by it for the performance of life's ordi- 
nary duties to some extent. 
Gymnasts, also, in case of the existence of a predis- 
position to it, are liable to fasten upon themselves a 
dangerous disease. It is well known that by these 
violent exercises the veins are rendered full and turgid. 
This condition is always followed by a general relaxa- 
tion of the body and mind, a disposition to somno- 
lence, and one can conceive that if this state is fre- 
quently reproduced, very injurious physical and moral 
effects will ensue. If it can be demonstrated that 
gymnastic exercises produce a predominance of venous 
blood in the body, it follows, of course, that it is by 
this means seriously vitiated in all its parts, and we 
have no need of other facts to assure us that the veins, 
of which the walls are naturally soft and easily dis- 
tended, may be readily broken down under the press- 
ure of the accelerated blood, and that there will be a 
resultant tendency to hemorrhage. 
The circulatory system is necessarily oftentimes 
much disordered by gymnastic exercises performed 
without rule or measure. Gymnastics, we know, can 
only excite the functions through the medium of the 
circulation. The irregular flow thus induced is not 
advantageous, but quite the contrary, to the diseased 
or enfeebled parts. The common gymnast labors in 
vain to relieve tendencies to pulmonary disease. For 
this class of cases all violent exercises are injurious, 
and for an obvious reason; the passage of blood as 
well as air is impeded in the lungs; the exercises of 
the rack and bars force the blood violently into these 
delicate or diseased structures, causing sometimes a 128 
MOVEMENTS COMPARED WITH GYMNASTICS. 
rupture, and frequently congestion therein. And 
where disease already exists, an aggravation of it must 
ensue, and the poor invalid, by his rashness, is sud- 
denly put beyond a chance of cure. 
It will also be noticed that every violent effort at 
inspiration not only calls air into the lungs, but exer- 
cises an equal power over the return flow of venous 
blood. The effect, then, of these repeated violent move- 
ments of the walls of the chest produced by gymnastic 
feats, is accumulation of the blood, or congestion, in one 
of the most delicate and fragile portions of the organ- 
ism, from which not seldom the most serious results 
have been known to follow. 
Whatever of profit may be gotten from these exer- 
cises, it is to be feared, is more than balanced by the 
loss of nervous energy experienced. The invalid feels 
this, and is soon inclined to desist. Those compara- 
tively well, however, are not apt to notice this declen- 
sion of nervous force till a serious inroad has been made 
upon their constitution. 
In striking contrast to this are the effects of wisely 
conducted movements. By these exercises, the nervous 
power is conserved to the greatest possible degree com- 
patible with its continuous development. The willing 
power is husbanded and re-enforced, the superior force 
of the operator energizing the relaxed system of the 
patient. 
These serious objections that we have raised against 
gymnastics equally apply to calisthenics. This kind 
of exercise chiefly tasks the nerves, especially the cere- 
bro-spinal axis, upon which all motive power depends. 
In the practice of this class of exercises, not even the 
whole weight of the members is to be overcome; but 
all available power is expended in the production of 129 
MOVEMENTS COMPARED WITH GYMNASTICS. 
cderity in the motions, an effort that greatly draws 
upon the nerves. No wonder that feeble ladies, who 
are directed to use this kind of exercises (for the gym- 
nasium is virtually closed to ladies), experiment with re- 
luctance, and soon give over, conscious of their inj urious 
effect on their already morbidly active nervous systems. 
It must be manifest, by this time, to the reader, we 
think, that there exists an important difference between 
well-ordered and directed exercise, pursued in accord- 
ance with true physiological principles, and that sort 
which practically ignores all these principles. 
The Muscles a Medium of Language, and of the 
Manifestation of Character.-The muscles have other 
functions besides officiating as agents of the will in the 
manifestation of mechanical power. They also give ex- 
pression to the thoughts and emotions of the soul; na- 
ture employs them in conducting intercourse between 
man and man as their visible sign. Without this means 
we can hardly conceive it possible that society could 
exist, except in the most rudimental and savage way. 
It is through this agency that not only our transient 
moods, but our very characters, are represented to 
others. Not only by the changes that are being inces- 
santly wrought in the lineaments of the face, but in the 
constantly shifting attitudes of the person involuntarily 
assumed, are we forever publishing to the world our 
ever-changing mental and emotional states. 
These statements are amply supported by the expe- 
rience of every living being. We all do involuntarily 
form judgments as to the characters of the persons we 
meet, without receiving any other knowledge in regard 
to them than that derived from this source, and these 
judgments are proverbially more correct than those 130 
MOVEMENTS COMPARED W fl'll gYMNASTICS. 
which we subsequently acquire as the result of an anal 
ysis of their words and deeds. Deeds often lie, we 
know ; and language is as often used, perhaps, to con- 
ceal as to express thought. We are often as much con- 
vinced or moved by the glance of the eye, or gesture, 
or general bearing of a public speaker, as by anything 
he says, as may be proved by allowing another per- 
son to speak or read the discourse that charmed us on 
its first delivery. We all well enough understand the 
power of what is sometimes termed silent eloquence in 
that expression of emotion of fear, for example, or an- 
ger, revenge, jealousy, confidence, which is effected in 
utter silence, and chiefly by muscular play of feature. 
Indeed, the strongest emotions, we well know, are much 
more powerfully rendered by facial expressions than by 
the employment of the most vehement phraseology. 
Who can not call up in imagination or from memory 
these representations of fear, disgust, grief, joy, etc? 
The accomplished actor, by combinations of attitudes, 
look, and gesture, is enabled to enhance a thousand-fold 
the effect of the dramatist's effusions; for by his artistic 
displays he reaches the mind and heart through ave- 
nues that tongue or pen can never travel. One is often 
more strongly impressed by what he knows to be fic- 
tion, when it is empowered in this way, than by abso- 
lute truth conveyed by pen or tongue alone. But the 
feeling conveyed must really ewist, if it only l)efor the 
time, else it can not find expression in the natural lan- 
guage which it is the office of the muscles to furnish. 
The feeling thus expressed can not be simulated; it 
must proceed from interior sources. The merit of a 
public speaker consists mostly in his power to experi- 
ence, for the occasion, the amount of intensity of 
thought and feeling requisite for the production of the MOVEMENTS COMPARED WITH GYMNASTICS. 
131 
effects he desires. The demagogue, the patriot, and 
the preacher alike wield these powerful instruments. 
A gesture, a turn of the head, a lifting of the finger, a 
grand wave of the arm, has doubtless many a time 
given that power to a sentence or a sentiment that has 
decided some great question, perhaps determined the 
fate of a nation or a soul. 
It is because of this universal recognition of a lan' 
guage in the muscular motions and positions of the hu- 
man figure, that the power exists of giving permanency 
to these expressions of ideas in marble and on canvas, 
for the arts of sculpture and painting are nothing more 
than the art of representing by perspective, color, and 
form these natural signs, so that the idea, emotion, or 
event which forms the subject of the work is instantly 
and forcibly impressed upon the beholder's mind. All 
muscular action is dependent on the stimulus of the 
nerves. Destroy the nerves, and muscular power per- 
ishes immediately. This stimulus is received directly 
or indirectly from the will, and by will we simply mean 
mental action. , 
These effects are similar to those we witness in the 
cerebro-spinal system. Here, every sensation, though 
not manifested in the consciousness, is represented by 
the action of that portion of the muscular system that 
is associated with the sensitive nerve. So also any emo- 
tion pervading the mind is a source of a distinct ner- 
vous perception that is immediately reflected upon ap- 
propriate muscles. Certain mental states uniformly ex- 
press themselves through certain nerves, and these, in 
their turn, being connected with appropriate muscles, 
a corresponding outward expression is effected. The 
manner and degree of contraction are the measure of 
the thought or emotion which is represented by it. 132 
MOVEMENTS COMPARED WITH GYMNASTICS. 
These principles will be admitted as eminently true, 
so far as regards the muscular apparatus connected 
with the face. The face, indeed, has several muscles 
for which there is no other known use but that of giv- 
ing visible expression to thought. 
These muscles form-to borrow a phrase from poetry 
--the dial-plate of the soul, on which all may read its 
lessons as in a glass. There are faces, to be sure, that 
are only masks, but these are the exceptions. 
But muscular expression is by no means confined to 
the countenance. All the muscles of the body are 
subservient in various degrees to the same purpose, 
and the variety of their play gives significance to the 
attitudes and gestures, countless and ever changing, 
that contribute so much to the effect of conversation, 
public speaking, and to the charm of the stage. 
Thus far the principles I have advanced are those 
commonly understood and accepted. But it must be 
borne in mind that the different parts and forces of the 
body exert a reciprocal action and influence upon each 
other. Now we say, if mode of mind give character 
to muscular expression, what, arguing from analogy, 
so likely as that a careful attention to the healthful 
and symmetrical development of this wonderful and 
delicate system of muscles, so intimately associated 
with the mind, should confer a reflex advantage upon 
the mind itself, especially when we consider that the 
body, with all its amazing appliances, was made to 
answer the ends and contribute to the comfort and 
welfare of the spiritual resident. The dependence of 
the mind upon the body it is not necessary that we 
should prove as a general proposition. All must con- 
cede that. Mens sana in corpore sano, is the law. A 
vigorous manhood can not be reached save by a prac- MOVEMENTS COMPAKED WITH GYMNASTICS. 
133 
tical obedience to the law that recognizes this mutual 
dependence of the material and the immaterial ele- 
ments of our natnre. It is said that a person can not 
assume for an instant the exterior look and action of 
one in fear without experiencing the emotion. Tliis is 
but one fact of a thousand pointing to the same princi 
pie. One perfectly acquainted with the physiology 
of the frame and its relations to the soul might, we 
think, almost be able to infer the character of a man's 
politics, morality, or religion from his physical habits 
and manifestations. 
If this be so, may it not behoove us to look a little 
more closely than we are apt to do to the physical 
condition and habits of those who assume to be our 
spiritual guides ? May we not reasonably inquire 
whether this dogma, that creed, or the other platform 
may not possibly result from defective reasoning, itself 
the result of vicious digestion or a languid circulation 
- whether the surprising conversion of men to particu- 
lar forms of faith may not have something directly or 
indirectly to do with tine quality of their nerve-power, 
or tire condition of their livers or mucous membranes 134 
DIRECTIONS FOR PRESCRIBING 
SU. 
DIRECTIONS FOR PRESCRIBING AND APPLYING 
MOVEMENTS. 
Movements, whether single or duplicated, become 
remedially valuable only when prescribed with due 
reference to the condition of the system. The pre- 
scription must be based on several principles of physi- 
ology, absolute in their nature and direct in their 
application. If these are not strictly regarded, a given 
movement becomes of no account, but descends to the 
level of the ordinary purposeless actions of the body, 
perhaps harmful; or at best, contributing in but a 
general and unsatisfactory way to the well-being of 
the system. 
It should be further stated, that the efficiency of 
movements, when well prescribed, depends measurably 
upon the tact and energy of the operator if they be of 
the duplicated kind ; and upon the intelligence, par 
tience, and strength of the patient, if single. 
This treatment regards the system as subject to a 
continual though invisible growth, and to further and 
perfect this process is its especial aim and business. 
And as the pulling-down and repairing operations of 
the system in health are gradually and unconsciously 
conducted, so the effects of judicious treatment are 
gradually and imperceptibly produced. The patient, 
indeed, ought to arrive at a knowledge of the effects 
of treatment only by experiencing an abatement of his 135 
pains and a restoration of strength and vivacity. Those 
who expect effects such as follow from the administra 
tion of drugs, will be disappointed, although it may be 
stated that many of these effects may be produced in- 
directly through the agency of movements, but they 
are not regarded as legitimate or desirable. 
Time Considered.-If for hygienic purposes, to coun- 
teract the effects of sedentary habits, of undue mental 
application, or the practice of some kind of labor that 
involves the use of a part of the body only, move- 
ments may be taken at any time when this necessity is 
felt. In cases of positive disease, it is considered de- 
sirable that they be taken in the early part of the day, 
when the system is more plastic, and when, owing to 
the night's rest, there is most power in store within it: 
hence, either before breakfast, or a short time after it, 
the system at this time, owing to the repose of the 
night, being in condition most favorable for the recep- 
tion of curative impressions. 
In general, a prescription of movements should be 
practiced no more than once in the day ; and in dupli- 
cated movements, however moderately used, we must 
guard against the occurrence of crises, headaches, 
febrile symptoms, etc., which frequently occur after a 
short term of treatment. Immediately on the occur- 
rence of crises, we must change the prescription or 
leave off treatment altogether, for the effects in such 
cases are similar to those brought about by the abuse 
of hydropathy or of drugs. 
An auxiliary prescription may sometimes be made 
for another time in the day, repeating perhaps some 
portion of the primary one, but only under the di 
rection of a competent physician. 
AND APPLYING MOVEMENTS. 136 
DIRECTIONS TOR PRESCRIBING 
Manner.- Every movement lias two important ele- 
ments, mechanical and a mental, or mental and moral, 
neither of which may properly be neglected for the. 
other. The correct posture must first be taken, care- 
fully adjusting every member. The part to be moved 
should then be made to pass through the prescribed line 
until it reaches the indicated limit, which is usually 
the limit of the contractile capacity of the chief mus- 
cles employed; and this last position should then be 
retained for a few moments, unless the nature of the 
movement renders it impossible. Generally, the part is 
returned to its first position with comparatively little 
muscular effort. 
In the mean time, the mind or will is intent on the 
mechanical execution of the movement, and the nerves, 
its faithful servants, are busy conveying the needful 
stimuli to the part, without which we are aware the 
execution of the movement, if it be a voluntary one, is 
impossible. The mind is thus engaged in sustaining 
the vital operations of the moving part. Both the ex- 
ternal display of mechanical force, and the internal 
vito-chemical changes upon which it depends, are the 
results of mental action. If the movement be dupli- 
cated, the mental force of the operator is exclusively 
employed, while that of the patient is economized. If 
the movement be inaccurate or faltering ; in other 
words, if to a lack of precision in the prescription there 
be added a want of intelligent determination and force 
in the operator, little, if anything, is effected. 
Rhythm.-This is a highly important element of our 
system, and one that is far too generally overlooked. 
For the general purposes contemplated by movements, 
whether hygienic or curative, they should be performed AND APPLYING MOVEMENTS. 
137 
slowly, much more slowly than are the habitual mo- 
tions of the body. Thus the acting part occupies the 
■attention for a considerable time, and the amount of 
control gained over the changes of the part is conse- 
quently and proportionably great, while the energy of 
will and the expenditure of nerve-power that is re 
quired is small. The absolute time occupied in a 
movement should vary with the size, and especially 
with the length, of the acting muscle or muscles, 
the short muscles doing their work in briefer time. 
The part should retain its extreme position for a short 
period. 
Exertion.-In duplicated movements the assistant is 
responsible for the amount of exertion employed by 
the patient, for it is quite under his control. The effect 
may be perfectly graduated to suit his judgment, as 
notes of music respond to the touch of the master- 
player ; indeed, a nicely executed movement has some- 
thing of the swell and harmonious flow of a musical 
strain. 
The single movements, however, do not admit of this 
precise control. The resistance is supplied by the 
weight of the part which is varied as the positions 
vary, but can be increased only to a limited extent. 
The amount of exertion possible in any position is de- 
pendent upon the degree of mobility of the part con- 
cerned. 
Number.-The number of movements to be taken at 
once should be sufficient to engage all parts of the sys- 
tem (there are some exceptions to this rule, as in cases 
of paralysis and surgical diseases), but not enough to 
occasion fatigue, or only such moderate fatigue as is 138 
DIRECTIONS EOR PRESCRIBING 
quickly recovered from. The number generally re- 
quired in a prescription ranges from ten to twelve. 
Order.-This is a very important matter in dupli- 
cated movements; so much so that by a re-arrange- 
ment of the order quite new effects may often be pro- 
duced on the invalid. The arrangement should be 
such that the movements shall support each other, and 
all work together to the production of the effect. By 
a vicious arrangement they interfere with and neutral- 
ize each other. A proper arrangement is also import- 
ant in the single movements. Too many in succession 
applied to the same organ, if enfeebled, would be likely 
to produce congestion, the usual effect of excessive ex- 
ercise ; if the part is diseased, it would be apt to in- 
crease and extend the disease. All the requirements 
of the system, in any given case, should be considered 
in the prescription, and the order of their importance. 
Professor Branting proposes that the following order be 
generally observed, modifications, of course, being 
made to meet the needs of particular cases. 
1. A respiratory movement. 
2. A movement of the lower extremities. 
3. Of the upper extremities. 
4. Of the abdomen. 
5. Of the lower extremities-terminating with 
6. A respiratory movement. 
The formula, we repeat, is to be varied according to 
the particular circumstances of each case, the part 
affected, the temperament, etc. Whatever the order, 
the movements should always harmonize with each 
other; for it is only from the harmonious union of their 
separate actions that the best results can proceed. AND APPLYING MOVEMENTS. 
139 
Relation to Diseased Paris.-Every formula of 
movements for persons that have local weakness or dis- 
ease, will contain both general and special elements- 
the latter having particular reference to the disease. 
But, in general, active movements must not be applied 
to organs affected with actual disease. The diseased 
part must be approached gradually, beginning at some 
remote part of the body, arousing it to vital activ- 
ity, and augmenting its capacity to receive blood. In 
this way the congestion accompanying the disease is 
gradually removed, and the vital and nutrient power 
of the system increased and established, until finally 
the diseased part is so relieved that it becomes capable 
of receiving advantageously the direct effects of move- 
ment. 
The passive kind of duplicated movements are, how- 
ever, an exception to the above rule. The direct 
effect of many of the passive movements, such as vibra- 
tions, etc., is to move the blood of the congested capil- 
laries toward the veins. The adherent corpuscles are 
thus dislodged, and the current arrested by them is 
allowed again to flow onward. Such movements, in 
this way, greatly assist in the removal of congestion, 
and may, with care, be applied to the diseased mem- 
bers or organs. 
It is needless to say that the general habits of exer- 
cise should be compelled to accord with the tenor of 
the movement prescription. For instance, as in pro- 
portion to the organic disturbance there is always an in- 
crease of nervous excitability, and a decrease of phys- 
ical power, the habitual exercises of the patient should 
be so ordered as to assist in repressing the excitability 
and to invigorate the general nutrition of the body. 
All violent and continued exercises, such as exhaust the 140 
DIRECTIONS FOR PRESCRIBING 
powers and induce lasting fatigue, should be avoided. 
Those that are partly passive, such as riding on horse- 
back or in a carriage, sailing, traveling, etc., are highly 
appropriate, and may be taken most advantageously in 
connection with the course prescribed. 
Regions of the Body.-In their application to the 
body, movements necessarily have special relations to 
its individual parts, which I have familiarly termed 
regions. By this term no definite portion of its mass, 
having distinct boundaries, is intended. The term is 
very general indeed, and a portion of the body thus 
designated generally includes a portion or the whole 
of several anatomical divisions. By thus simplifying 
our terminology, a knowledge of anatomy on the part 
of the person making application of movements to 
himself, is dispensed with; and to such the intelligent 
and successful use of single movements is rendered 
practicable. 
A region generally consists of one or more joints, 
with the bones, ligaments, muscles, vessels, nerves, 
areolar tissues, and whatever other elements may be 
included in the range of the muscles, having their 
points of origin or insertion within the locality thus 
designated. Each joint is considered as not only a cen- 
ter of motion of the sound members, but as involving 
in its motions those invisible physiological or nutritive 
actions indissolubly connected with the health of the 
part. If the impulse to motion proceeds from external 
sources, then the region simply indicates the structures 
thus acted upon. 
We are to understand, then, that any portion of the 
body, however complex in its structure and functions, 
which may be moved en masse and separately from AND APPLYING MOVEMENTS. 
141 
the rest of the framework, constitutes, in the sense here 
indicated, a region. The whole of an extremity, for 
example, or the whole of the trunk, or even a part of 
either, may, if included in a movement, be thus de- 
nominated. 
The reader who is philosophically inclined will re- 
mark this difference between the Movement system 
and the Drug system, in their practical application. 
In the latter, he will observe, the remedy is primarily 
applied to the stomach and alimentary canal, which it 
attacks in full force, while that portion of it which is 
received into the circulation subsequently spends its 
power among the vital structures, generally and indis- 
criminately, wherever the blood circulates, in the well 
quite as much as in the diseased portions. 
In the application of movements, however, the parts 
demanding succor are pointed out in the prescription, 
and such portion's as do not require the applications 
are scrupulously avoided. The practical results of this 
difference are apparent. In the one case there is an 
unavoidable waste of the forces of the system, while in 
the other only the conditions for developing power and 
restoring health are employed. Another object ful- 
filled by the division of the body into regions is, that 
the purposes of the movement are rendered distinct. 
This advantage is in striking contrast with the purpose- 
less and loose method employed in gymnastics. 142 
TERMINOLOGY OF POSITIONS- 
TERMINOLOGY OF POSITIONS. 
Importance of System.-When the facts relating to 
any branch of knowledge become classified according 
to their mutual relations and importance, they come to 
constitute a science. Any science, to be generally use- 
ful, must be capable of being readily communicated. 
Otherwise it is limited in its influence, however exten- 
sive its applicability, or however great the need exist- 
ing for its diffusion. In order to convey any new truth 
or system of truth to the mind of the learner, particular 
forms of expression become necessary; and these ac- 
quire a special and philosophic value almost as great 
as the subject itself of which they treat. This use of 
language of philosophic accuracy is of the highest im- 
portance for the assistance it affords the student in his 
investigations, and in giving method to his style of 
thinking with reference to it; so that discovery and 
classification proceed naturally and properly together; 
and new truths easily take their proper place in the or- 
derly and symmetrical construction of the system. A 
terminology., indeed, becomes an absolutely necessary 
instrument in the progress of a science or art of any 
kind. 
No approach was made to a method of designating 
and classifying the positions and movements of the 
body for the purposes contemplated in the Movement- 
Cure, till the time of Ling. In fact, the truths of phys- TERMINOLOGY OF POSITIONS. 
143 
iology had first to be so far developed as to clear away 
some of the rubbish of the old medical science (so 
called) before such a thing could be even attempted 
with any chance of success. At the present time the 
need of this aid is deeply felt by the student, and the 
writer has thought that an attempt on his part to rep 
resent some of the facts of the Movement-Cure by 
means of a terminology, albeit a crude and imperfect 
one, would be a labor not altogether useless. 
The reader will understand, at the outset, that the 
writer does not consider the terminology of the posi- 
tions, as here presented, completely satisfactory and 
final. Thought and labor will do their work, and per- 
fect, by slow degrees, ■what is here but a rough sketch 
of, or, it may be, even but a hint at, the truth. 
Though the necessity may be felt of conforming to 
the order of nature in regard to wlten her storehouses 
shall be opened to us, yet a regret can not but be ex- 
pressed that some method has not been known of re- 
cording, for our advantage, with the precision neces- 
sary for practical purposes, the observations, facts, and 
experiences of all previous time in relation to this sub- 
ject. But no such method has ever been employed, if 
known, in ancient or in modern times, until now. 
The reader needs no argument to make him realize 
the importance of using some method of this kind. In 
no other way, he must see, can knowledge upon such 
subject be disseminated; and a practice, if such a one 
were possible, not thus reduced to appropriate terms, 
would die with its possessor. And for duplicated 
movements, in aid of the terminology, it will be seen 
that it is also necessary, or at least a matter of the great- 
est convenience, to be able to employ signs instead of 
written words for the purpose of expressing, at a glance 144 
TERMINOLOGY OF POSITIONS. 
of the eye, to the minds of the physician and his assist- 
ant, the precise thing indicated. 
Positions and Movements.-A movement, by a sim 
pie analysis, is resolved into positions ; as, the commenc- 
ing, the terminating, and the intermediate. Each of 
hese is important, as exercising its share of effect in 
determining the nature and effect of the movement. 
The movement, in its execution, consists in the assump- 
tion, by the member, of all positions, successively, as it 
passes through the intermediate space between the 
commencing and terminating positions. Says Ling : 
" To render any movement definite and exact, a 
point of departure, a point of termination, and the line 
through which the body or any of its parts must pass, 
are to be clearly and severally determined, as well as 
the ryhthm of the action itself." 
But the change of place, or motion, of the member, 
though it is all that is visible to the eye, is by no means 
all that is implied by a movement. The muscular con- 
traction and relaxation, with the effects of these actions 
in the substance of the tissues, and which occur out of 
sight, are what is chiefly implied by movements. A 
movement, properly considered, is a mechanico-orgamc 
effect, the result of the contractile power of the mus- 
cle, or muscles, and may be effected while the member 
is resting as well as when it is in motion. The charac- 
ter of a movement, in this sense, is determined by the 
resistance which the muscular contraction tries to over- 
come, which may consist of gra/city, the opposing force 
of antagonizing muscles, or that which is exerted by 
another person. This last may be exactly graduated to 
the amount of effect it is desirable to secure. 
In applying a movement, the commencing and ter TERMINOLOGY OF POSITIONS. 
145 
minating positions must first be determined in the 
mind of the operator; and without intention, on his 
part, no proper movement can take place. Sometimes 
the terminating position coincides with the commencing 
position, and no visible change of place occurs. Such 
a movement is called holding, and consists simply in 
maintaining, for a certain time, one position. 
Commencing Positions.-These relate, first, to the 
trunk', secondly, to the upper extremities thirdly, to 
the lower extremities; fourthly, to the head. In de 
scribing positions, the head is generally neglected, as 
it is assumed to be erect. They are divided into prin- 
cipal and derivative, or sw&-positions. 
These are five, viz., standing, kneeling, sitting, lying, 
hanging. The names of these principal positions are 
sufficiently descriptive of their character, and it is un- 
necessary to refer to illustrations. 
Each of these positions admits of several variations. 
PRINCIPAL POSITIONS OF THE TRUNK. 
I.-STANDING POSITIONS. 
1. Standing, or Erect-Standing.-In this import- 
ant position the body is straight and perpendicular, the 
arms hanging from the shoulders, the legs parallel, the 
heels in contact, the toes about twelve inches asunder. 
The derivative positions are- 
2. Fall-Standing.-The whole body inclines at an 
angle greater or less from the perpendicular; all of the 
members, in the' mean time, retaining their natural 
relative positions. The body in this position must be 
supported at some point by a firm object. An illustra- 
tion of fall-standing may be seen in fig. 19. A slight 146 
TERMINOLOGY OF POSITIONS. 
deviation forward is called inclining; backward, rer 
dining. 
The body may greatly deviate from the perpendicu- 
lar, and the position is then called low fall-standing; or 
but slightly, and then it is high fall-standing. 
It may deviate in any direction; as forward, right 
or left sidewise, or 'backward', and at various points in 
these directions. The position is described with suffi- 
cient accuracy by designating the two cardinal posi- 
tions between which the body falls, as forward-side- 
wise, right or left, and backward-sidewise, right or left. 
3. Bent-Standing.-This indicates that the trunk is 
bent in its middle portion. Deep-bent, means bent to 
the utmost extent. The bending may be either for- 
ward, sidewise, or backward, to any degree. 
II.-KNEELING POSITIONS. 
1. Kneeling, or Erect-Kneeling.-The trunk rests 
on the knees instead of on the feet. A soft cushion 
must be placed under the knees. 
2. Fall-Kneeling.-The trunk may assume the fall- 
ing position, while kneeling, corresponding with this 
form of the standing position. 
The derivatives of this position relate to the disposi- 
tion of the legs as well as of the trunk. 
1. Sitting.-The trunk rests upon the seat, the legs 
at right angles both at the hips and knees, the feet 
resting upon the floor. 
2. Short-Sitting.-The seat rests upon the edge of 
the chair, occupying as little of it as possible, to main 
tain its posture. 
3. Long-Sitting.-The legs are extended horizon 
III.-SITTING POSITIONS. TERMINOLOGY OF POSITIONS. 
147 
tally in the same plane with the seat, while the trunk is 
erect. See fig. 10. 
4. Lie-Sitting, or Half-Lying.-In this position the 
trunk reclines, and is supported by cushions or by a 
movable seat constructed for this purpose. 
5. Fall-Sitting.-The trunk deviates from the per 
pendicular at a certain angle, greater or less; thus it 
may be falling, inclining, or deep-falling. 
Fall-sitting may also be forward, sidewise, backward, 
or at any intermediate point. 
6. Stride-Sitting.-This indicates that the legs are 
placed at right angles apart, and also that the feet are 
widely separated, so as to afford as broad a base as 
possible. 
iv.-lying positions. 
In this position the whole body is horizontal. This 
position is to be varied by changing the points of 
support. 
1. Forward-Lying.-In this position the face is 
down, the body extended on a cushion, its anterior sur- 
face in contact therewith. 
2. Backward-Lying.-Lying extended upon the 
back. 
3. Sidewise-Lying.-Lying upon the right or left 
side. 
4. Trunk-Lying.-In this position the trunk only is 
supported, while the legs project beyond the support- 
ing surface, and are sustained by the force of the 
muscles. The derivatives are- 
(a) Trunk-forwarddying • 
(Z>) Trunk-backwarddying • and- 
(c) Trunk-sidewisedying. 
5. Leg-Lying. - In this position the legs only rest 
upon a suitable couch or seat, while the trunk projects, 148 
TERMINOLOGY OF POSITIONS. 
sustained only by the action of the muscles. It admits 
of the same variations as trunk-lying. 
In leg-lying it is always necessary to employ some 
device, as the weight of another person, or some suit- 
able fixture, to counterbalance the superior weight of 
the trunk. 
This position admits of the same modifications as the 
preceding. 
6. Head-and-Heels-Lying. - In this position the 
head and heels are supported by a cushioned stool, 
while the body is extended horizontally between them, 
back down, sustained by the muscles. Fig. 57 repre- 
sents the position. 
7. Elbows-and-Toes-Lying.-In this position the body 
is sustained only by the elbows and toes. See fig. 58. 
8. Sidewise-Lying.-This also admits of several va 
rieties, as pdain, eTbow, and foot, right, left, etc. 
9. Balance-Lying.-In this position, the support of 
the body is under the center of the trunk. It may 
be backward, forward, or sidewise. 
V.-HANGING 
In this position the body is perpendicular, as in 
standing, but the weight is sustained by the hands, in- 
stead of the feet, by grasping a transverse pole, or 
something of the sort, overhead. 
Swim-Hanging is when the body is made to deviate 
from the perpendicular position, through the instru- 
mentality of another person. 
POSITIONS OF THE ARMS AND LEGS. 
In each of the above postures of the body, the arms 
and legs may assume all the various positions that are 
consistent with the anatomical arrangement of the parts TERMINOLOGY OF POSITIONS. 
149 
concerned. These variations of position are dependent 
upon the nature of the joints which connect these ex- 
tremities with the trunk. 
These joints are of the 'ball-and-socket kind, which 
permit the greatest degree of freedom of motion. The 
arms are capable of describing an entire circle, of 
which the shoulder is the center. The mobility of the 
leg is considerably less, its motion in an upward direc- 
tion being prevented by ligaments and osseous projec- 
tions at the upper edge of the acetabulum. 
The other two joints of the limbs-viz., the elbow 
and knee joints, act on the hinge principle, permitting 
motion of those portions of the extremities beyond the 
joint only in one direction. 
In studying the positions of the extremities we must 
keep distinctly in mind not only the difference of these 
two kinds of joints, but also the fact that the position 
resulting from the flexure of the one joint is to be re- 
garded as entirely distinct and different from that re- 
sulting from a flexure of the other. Thus, for example, 
the upper arm is capable of bending at the shoulder, 
in many directions, and it makes no difference in regard 
to that motion whether the elbow joint is bent at the 
time or not. If we keep this simple fact in view, it 
will greatly simplify our study of the positions of the 
arms and legs. 
The arms and legs, whether bent at the elbow and 
knee joints or not, may be considered as forming the 
radii of a multitude of circles, of which the shoulder 
and hip joints form the centers, so that the hands and 
the feet, when the limbs to which they belong move 
freely, describe arcs of circles, not only parallel with 
the antero-posterior diameter of the body, but also at 
every conceivable angle with this diameter. 150 
terminology ok positions. 
Of course, it is impossible to invent a nomenclature 
that shall define with accuracy, through this great 
range of possibility, all the positions the members may 
assume ; but for the ends demanded in the practice of 
movements, both as a hygienic and as a remedial art, a 
description sufficiently accurate to fulfill all purposes of 
practical utility, becomes quite easy. 
We reduce the description of -the positions of these 
members to the utmost simplicity, bringing them 
down to a few cardinal points easily remembered.. 
Thus, we may refer all the positions of the arms to 
perpendicular, the anterio-posterior, and the trans- 
verse diameters of the body. Every direction in which 
the arm can be extended will either correspond with 
these planes, or be related to them more or less nearly, 
so that they may be described or designated accord- 
ingly. 
Arm Positions Seen in a Front View of the Body. 
-These positions of the arms will be understood by 
reference to the following diagram. 
In this diagram, the positions of the arms are repre- 
sented in the plane of the transverse diameter of the 
body. The left side of the diagram represents the chief 
positions of the arms in that plane. A is the shoulder 
joint, representing the center of the circle of which the 
arm is the radius. The names of these positions are as 
follows: 
Stretch, or upward-stretch, A a. 
Side-stretch, or yard, A c. 
Iligh-side-stretch, or high-yard, A &. 
Low-side-stretch, or low-yard, A d. 
Downward-stretch, or natural position, A e. 
The right side of the diagram represents the same TERMINOLOGY OF POSITIONS. 
151 
Fig-4. 
FRONT VIEW, SHOWING THE ARM POSITIONS. 
positions, but with the elbow-bent at a right angle, the 
shoulder being at A. 
Each of these positions might receive the same name 
as the corresponding ones of the opposite side, with 
the addition of the term elbow-bent, to denote the varia- 
tion of the forearm from a straight line with the upper 
arm. Thus, A I o is stretch elbow-bent; Ami xq high 
side-stretch elbow-bent; and so of all the other posi- 
tions with the elbow bent, corresponding with the posi- 
tions on the opposite of the diagram, in which the 
elbow is straight. 
But as this would be a rather cumbrous mode of 
expression, and as it is easier to remember shorter spo 152 
TERMINOLOGY OF POSITIONS. 
cific names for these positions, the following terms are 
used for convenience: 
Curve, A I o, indicates that the arm is placed in close 
contact with the head, both the elbow and wrist joints 
being bent so as to bring the member in close contact 
with the head. This is otherwise expressed as stretch, 
Ibow, and wrist-bent rest. 
Shelter, equivalent to high side-stretch, or 
yard, elbow-bent rest. 
Heave, hnkpA the same as yard elbow-bent. 
Angle, A ij, is low-yard elbow upward-bent. 
Wing, Ai h,\s> low-yard elbow downward-bent rest. 
Cover, A gf, is down-stretch elbow-bent rest. 
The above comprises all the arm positions that it is 
necessary to describe in the transverse plane of the 
body. It is obvious that the same kinds and the same 
number of positions, with slight variations, may be had 
in any other plane as in this, and they admit of an 
analogous mode of description. 
Arm Positions Seen in a Side View of the Body. 
-The accompanying diagram represents the positions 
of the arms in the plane corresponding with the antero- 
posterior diameter of the body. It will be seen at once 
that the shoulder being the center, the arm may de- 
scribe the greater part of .the circle of which it is the 
radius, a small arc posteriorly being excepted. 
It will also be seen that when the arm is extended 
perpendicularly, either up or down, it is in exactly the 
position it occupies on the plane of the previous dia- 
gram, which plane, it will be noticed, cuts the one 
represented in this diagram at right angles. The posi- 
tions of the arms shown in this view are as follows, viz.: 
Stretch, arm upward. 153 
TERMINOLOGY OF POSITIONS. 
Fig. 5. 
SIDE VIEW OF ARM POSITIONS. 
Rack, A Z>, or forward-stretch. 
High-rack, A a, or high-forward-stretch. 
Low-rack, A c, or low-forward-stretch. 
Backward-stretch, A d. 
The chief variation of the positions in this plane, pro 
duced by bending the elbow, joint, is flight, A ef. 
The positions intermediate to those represented in 
the above diagram, which represent the positions seen 
in the front and side views of the body, are named 
from these. Thus the position between rack and 
yard, is forward-side-stretch; the position between 
this and stretch, in the same plane, is high-forward 
side-stretch, etc., etc. The only one of the interme- 
diate positions that has received a name is low-forward 154 
TERMINOLOGY OF POSITIONS. 
sidewise-str etch, which is termed, briefly, speak po- 
sition. 
Beside the extensive rotary motion technically termed 
lending., of which the shoulder joint is capable, it may 
also be considerably twisted to the right or left, in 
nearly every position of the upper arm that has been 
above described. Hence the term twist, or right-twist, 
or left-twist, prefixed to the names of these severa 
positions. 
The leg positions are produced by the bending ol the 
hip and knee joints, except in standing, lying, etc., 
when the lower extremities are parallel with the trunk. 
The mobility of the hip joint is not quite so great as 
that of the shoulder joint, since it is limited in its mo- 
tion upward, but in general it may be said that the 
positions of the legs may be made to correspond with 
those of the arms. 
The general appellation given to any deviation of the 
leg from the perpendicular produced by bending the 
LEG POSITIONS. 
Fig. 6. TERMINOLOGY OF POSITIONS. 
155 
hip joint, is vone less graceful than expressive, perhaps) 
kick. 
Forward-kick, the leg carried forward and raised to 
an angle of about forty-five degrees. 
lligh-forward-kick is between forwrard-kick and the 
horizontal. 
Low-forward-kick is between forward-kick and the 
perpendicular. 
Sidewise-kick, the leg extended sidewise. 
Backward-kick, the leg extended backward. 
There are also intermediate positions, as- 
Forward-sidewise-kick, high and low. 
Backward-sidewise, high and low. 
LOWER LEG POSITIONS. 
These positions are designated by the term kneedent 
prefixed to the names of positions resulting from flexure 
of the thigh joint. 
A number of the positions of the legs, as in the case 
of the arms, are better expressed by distinct terms, as 
follows: 
1. Stride.-In this position the legs are set apart, on 
each side of the perpendicular, distant about two or two 
and a half feet; whether sitting, standing, or lying. 
2. Walk.-One leg is placed before the other, the 
trunk perpendicularly between them, as in ordinary 
walking. 
3. Step-Standing.-One foot rests upon a step or 
stool, eight to twelve inches highthe knee and thigh 
ioints are bent, to permit the foot to be thus raised, 
and the leg may be extended either forward or side- 
wise. 
4. Foot-Support-Standing indicates a similar posi- 
tion. When this term is used, the position of the leg 156 
terminology of positions. 
must also be designated; a matter often neglected in 
step-standing. Thus, forward-kick, foot-support, half- 
standing, indicate that while the body rests upon one 
leg, the other is raised in forward-kick position, and 
that the foot rests upon some object that elevates it 
from the floor. 
5. Squat-Position.-This is when both thigh and 
knee are bent at right angles. 
6. Leg-Angle is a term indicating the bending of 
both thigh and knee, without precision as to degree. 
In describing positions, the word half denotes that 
but one side is concerned, whether in reference to the 
arms or legs. PART II. 
EXAMPLES OF SINGLE MOVEMENTS. 
REGION OF THE FEET. 
Remarks on Movements of the Feet.-A large 
number of small bones enter into the composition of 
the feet, and are firmly bound together by ligaments 
and tendons. Some of the muscles of this region are 
confined to the feet, while others extend beyond them 
and are attached to the bones of the leg, nearly as high 
as the knee. Motion of the feet is produced by the ac- 
tion of these muscles, the chief bulk of which are situat- 
ed in the lower leg, which member is, in consequence, 
affected by most of the movements of the feet, so that 
these muscles are properly included in this region. 
The feet are so constructed as to be very elastic, and a 
the same time very compact and strong, and little 
..able to injury from accidents to which they may be 
subjected. 
The strength of the muscles and tendons of the feet is 
necessarily subjected to much more constant and severe 
trials than that of almost any other portion of the body. 
This results from their location, which obliges them not 
only to sustain the weight of the entire superior portion 
of the body, but also any additional weight that the 158 
KEGION OF THE FEET. 
person may carry. It is plain, too, that whatever power 
the muscles of the superior- portions of the body may 
exert, must necessarily be continued to the ground or 
floor upon which the feet rest; because, through them, 
the feet not only sustain the body, but must sustain, as 
well, the effects of all the forces brought to bear upon 
t. Thus we brace ourselves with the feet in perform- 
ing any action by means of the upper extremities-as 
in lifting a weight, pushing, pulling, etc. 
To maintain the ordinary perpendicular position of 
the body upon the narrow base furnished it, it requires 
a stronger action of the muscles of the lower extremi- 
ties than of those of any other part of the body. In 
inferior animals the weight is shared by four legs, which 
gives a base so broad as to render any such concentra- 
tion of muscular power unnecessary. 
This arrangement in the human framework may 
seem, at first sight, to be unwise, but a little reflection 
will show that it is a very wise and gracious provision 
of nature. We find, indeed, throughout nature, a law 
of compensation and balance, and in the present in- 
stance we see it most beautifully illustrated. At the 
superior extremity of the body is the head, containing 
those intellectual organs which, par excellence, distin- 
guish man from the unthinking beasts. The functions 
of this part of the body require much nutrition, for 
which it draws largely upon the common reservoir. 
Now, to maintain an equilibrium of the circulation, 
it is needful that the inferior extremity of the body 
should be subjected to such habitual and vigorous 
action as to make an equally great counter demand 
upon the circulation. This is secured by the arrange- 
ment that we have just noticed, in which the lower ex- 
tremities may be considered as the grand functional REGION OF THE FEET. 
159 
counterpoise of the brain. If this view be correct, it 
seems plain enough that when the health suffers from 
excessive cerebral action, the true remedy will consist 
in instituting strong action of the lower part of the 
body, especially at the feet, which must conduce to an 
equilibrium of the circulation by creating a counter 
flow in the direction of these members. And, in fact, 
in proportion as the demand for nutrition in those re- 
gions is responded to, will the cerebral symptoms abate. 
This principle is popularly understood and practiced 
upon in the application of irritants to the feet-every 
old nurse understands it; it holds equally true when the 
effect is realized by the natural method of exercise. In 
the technical language of the doctors, the effect here 
spoken of is termed derivative. 
Thus we see that movements of the lower extremities 
supply a ready and efficient means of counteracting the 
effects of excessive stimulation in the superior portions 
of the body, consequent on the mental labor and anxie- 
ties inseparable from cultivated and busy life. They 
are also an efficient auxiliary means in the treatment 
of many cases of chronic disease. 
We may remark here, that the feet sustain precisely 
the same relation to temperature as to motion. That is, 
by contact with the earth, which is cooler and damper 
than the air, they part more rapidly with their heat 
than do other portions of the body. And to supply 
this loss it is necessary to urge forward the heat-making 
process in the feet in proportion to the necessity thus 
produced, and thereby to cause the blood to flow into 
the extremities in suitable measure. 
We will now enter upon a description of particul 
movements, charging the reader to bear in mind tha 
he must not depend upon them for any curative cr re 160 
REGION OF THE FEET. 
cuperative effects unless he is willing to piactice them 
in conformity to the directions aryl principles laid 
down. To 'accomplish any good, they must be per- 
formed very slowly and with the utmost precision. 
EXAMPLES OF MOVEMENTS OF THE REGION OF THE FEET. 
1.-STANDING, FEET-EXTENDING. 
Position.-To execute this movement, one should 
stand in the erect posture, with one hand extended so 
as to preserve the balance of the body by touching a 
wall, chair, or other object. 
Action.-1. The feet should stretch at the ankle 
joint in such a way as to slowly raise the whole body, 
which they support, as high as possible, bringing it at 
length into the tip-toe position, in 
which it must be sustained for a 
few moments. 2. Relaxation of 
the stretched muscles should be al- 
lowed slowly to take place, till the 
heel reaches the floor, and the feet 
and trunk have recovered their 
original position. The cut shows 
the position after the extension is 
completed-in other words, the ter 
minating position of the movement 
This action should be repeated from 
six to ten times, slowly, as at first, 
with a slight interval between. If 
a more strenuous exercise of the 
muscles is desired, the movement may be performed 
with one foot only, the knee of the opposite leg being 
slightly bent, to clear the floor. After performing it 
with one foot, change to the other, and repeat the 
Fig. T. REGION OF THE FEET. 
161 
movement in the same manner as it was performed at 
first. 
Effect.-In this movement the muscles of the bot- 
toms of the feet, also those of the posterior parts of tlie 
legs below the knee, are brought into powerful action. 
By this process they are strengthened, that is, their nu- 
trition is increased, owing to the blood being attracted 
to the parts that have acted away from other organs. 
Hence the term derivative applied to such actions. 
2.-TOE-SUPPORT, HALF-STANDING, HEEL-PRESSING. 
Position.-One knee is bent, the foot lifted, its upper 
surface resting upon a cushioned seat or chair, while 
the weight of the body falls upon the 
other leg, standing in the erect position; 
the hand on the side of the raised foot 
is placed upon it, requiring the body to 
be slightly turned that way. 
Action.-1. The hand placed upon 
the heel of the foot strongly pressed 
upon it, stretching the muscles and forc- 
ing the upper surface of the foot into a 
line with the leg, where it remains a 
short time. 2. The ankle bends, rais- 
ing the heel against the pressure of the 
hand, till the foot is at right angles 
with the leg. The dotted lines of the 
cut show the terminating position. This action is to be 
repeated six or eight times with each foot. 
Effect.-This movement renders the ankle joint sup- 
ple, warms the feet, and is powerfully derivative. The 
muscles of the top of the foot and of the sides of the 
lower leg are chiefly affected. 
Fig. 8. 162 
REGION OF THE FEET. 
3.-WING-WA.LK, TOE WALL-STANDING, FOOT-BENDING. 
Position.-The hands should be placed upon the 
hips, one foot advanced a yard or 
so beyond the other, in walking 
position, but with the ankle of 
the forward leg a good deal bent, 
and the toe against the wall, with 
the heel as near the wall as pos- 
sible. 
Action.-1. The knee of the 
forward leg should bend, causing 
the instep to form a more acute 
angle with the leg; this position 
to be maintained for a short time. 
2. The bent knee should now be 
extended, and the ankle and foot 
made to resume their former position. The cut shows 
the posture, the dotted outline indicating the position 
at the end of the first part of the movement. This 
should be repeated five or six times with each foot. 
Effect.-The calf of the leg is very strongly acted 
upon, as well as the sole of the foot, producing a deriv- 
ative effect, and rendering the ankle supple, and the 
calf strong, elastic, and voluminous. 
In each of the preceding movements the weight of 
the body is the chief resistance that the acting muscles 
are compelled to overcome. 
Fig. 9. 
4.-LONG-SITTING, FEET SIDEWISE-BENDING. 
Position.-Sitting in an easy posture in a chair, the 
hands placed upon the hips, and legs extended horizon- 
tally across, and supported by another chair that is 
placed immediately in front of the one occupied by the 
body. The feet should extend quite beyond the chair 163 
REGION OF THE FEET. 
supporting the legs, and should 
remain quite free. 
Action.-1. The feet should 
be turned to one side slowly, as 
far as they will go, being kept 
in the mean time in close con- 
tact ; they should so remain for 
a short period. 2. They should 
then be turned in the opposite 
direction, in the same manner. 
This action should be repeated 
ten or twelve times. The cut shows the position; the 
dotted outline indicates the extent of the motion. 
Effect.-This motion is produced chiefly by the 
muscles of the lower leg, and it strengthens these parts, 
and is derivative. If the ankle be weak, so that it is 
inclined to bend too easily in one direction, the move- 
ment should be directed to that side. Slight deformi- 
ties of the ankle may be corrected by persevering in 
this discipline of the faulty 
muscles. 
Fig. 10. 
Fig. 11. 
5.-LONG-SITTING, FEET-ROTA 
TION. 
Position.-This is the 
same as in the preceding 
movement. 
Action.-The toes of both 
feet are made to describe 
as broad a circle as pos- 
sible, by slowly p forming revolutions from right to 
left, ten or a dozen times, and then reversing the action. 
The motion may be changed in this way three or four 
times. The dotted outlines indicate the circle on which 164 
REGION OF THE FEET. 
the toes revolve, which, it will be seen, represents the 
base of a cone, of which the heels are the apex. The 
two feet are to be kept close together during the exe- 
cution of the movement, and the legs and body must 
maintain a uniform position. 
Effect.-In this movement all the muscles of the 
feet and lower leg. are put in vigorous action, and all 
the motion of which the ankle joint is capable is effected 
at each revolution. The movement is strongly deriva- 
tive, and especially useful to the joint when in a weak 
state. 
6.-FOOT-PERCUSSION. 
Position.-Sitting in a chair with one of the lower 
legs supported by the thigh of 
the other, near the knee, the 
foot projecting a little beyond 
it, while the other foot rests 
firmly upon the floor. 
Action.-The hand of the 
side next to the raised foot 
holds a ruler or stick fifteen 
inches long and half an inch 
thick, by which a rapid suc- 
cession of light blows, amount- 
ing to thirty or forty, are dealt upon the sole of the 
uplifted foot. The sole of the foot thus treated should 
be protected by a shoe or slipper. The cut shows the 
position, and suggests the mode of the action. Both 
feet are to be acted upon in this way alternately. This 
is what is called a passive movement, because the effect 
derived is not produced by inducing muscular contrac- 
tion of the part. 
Effect.-The benefit derived chiefly belongs to the 
Fig. 12. Region of the feet. 
165 
capillaries and nerves of the part. In the capillaries 
the clogged vessels have their blood renewed thereby, 
while the arteries, through the increased action of the 
nerves supplying them, are made to contract more vig- 
orously. If there is congestion of the capillaries, as in 
chilblains, it is quickly scattered, and the normal con- 
dition restored. The movement is derivative, and 
warms the feet. The cure of chilblains by this method 
is speedy and permanent. 
Position.-The same as shown in the preceding cut, 
except that the hand, instead of holding a stick, grasps 
the toe of the foot. 
Action.-The toe of the foot thus grasped is made by 
means of the action of the hand thus grasping it to 
describe as broad a circle as the ankle joint will allow, 
the foot itself remainingin the mean time quite passive, 
that is, offering no resistance by means of its muscles. 
The motion is wholly effected by means of the hand 
thus applied to it. The foot should make about six 
revolutions in one direction, and then as many in the 
opposite. This change should be repeated five or six 
times. The movement should be applied to both feet. 
Effect.-The foot may be turned farther in each 
direction in this manner than by its own muscles, and 
the movement is made with less effort and with more 
grateful effect; otherwise the general effects flowing 
from it are similar to those of the preceding move- 
ments. 
7.-FOOT-EOTATION (PASSIVE). 
Position.-Standing with one foot resting upon a 
stool, one hand is extended and touching a wall, and 
8.-SUPPORT HALF-STANDING, LEG-SWINGING 166 
Fig. 18. 
REGION OE THE FEET. 
supported by it, one leg 
free. 
Action.-The free leg 
is caused to swing by 
bending at the hip 
joint, in a plane pax 
all el with the antero- 
posterior diameter of 
the body, the foot de- 
scribing an arc of a cir- 
cle, to be repeated fif- 
teen or twenty times on 
each side. 
Effect. - This mo- 
tion assists the flow of 
the arterial blood to- 
ward the feet, while it 
retards the venous flow in the contrary direction, and 
thereby causes the blood to accumulate in the lower 
extremities. It warms the feet, and induces a pleasant 
sensation in the limbs. 
All the above movements tend, if repeated at regu- 
lar intervals, and in a proper manner, to increase the 
healthful flow of arterial fluid toward and into the 
lower leg and feet, while at the same time the venous 
blood is abundantly removed. They augment the bulk 
and energy of the parts thus brought into special 
action, warm the extremities, derive from the head 
and superior organs, and so bring great relief to a 
system suffering from oppression, congestion, or fatigue 
in its superior portions. EEGION OF THE LEGS. 
167 
(Qaph* giiu. 
REGION OF THE LEGS. 
Remarks on Movements oe the Legs.-The legs 
are endowed with very large masses of muscle, and it 
is necessary to employ them freely in movements, in 
order to secure the objects contemplated in our pre- 
scriptions for diseases. They are used as means of 
modifying the circulation of the blood, and by the aux- 
iliary power thus derived, of securing the more special 
and desired effects of movements for other regions of 
the body. When a derivative effect is desired from 
movements of the region of the feet, it is best se- 
cured by employing the auxiliary influence of move- 
ments of this region ; for the effect of these is strongly 
derivative also, and the whole result then produced is 
greater on account of the larger mass of muscle belong- 
ing to this region. It will be borne in mind that every 
part of the body is charged with the duty of perfecting 
the circulation of the blood in itself, and also of aid- 
ing its passage in the blood-vessels both to and from 
other parts more remote, for which it necessarily 
furnishes a channel. 
Walking.-This most common and most useful spe- 
cies of exercise is performed chiefly, though not entirely, 
by the muscles of the legs, and the act of walking con- 
stitutes a movement thatdeserves attention, as it enters 
not only as an element into many of the Movement- 
Cure prescriptions, but is very generally prescribed 
by physicians of every class and creed. We will briefly 168 
REGION OF THE LEGS. 
consider the special purposes it is supposed to answer, 
and its mechanism. Walker gives the following an- 
alysis of the actions concerned in walking : 
" For the purpose of walking, we first bear upon one 
leg the weight of the body, which presses equally upon 
both. The other leg is then raised, and the foot quits 
the ground by rising from the heel to the point. For 
this purpose, the leg must be bent upon the thigh, and 
the thigh upon the pelvis; the foot is then carried 
straight forward at a sufficient height to clear the 
ground without grazing it. To render it possible, how- 
ever, to move the foot, the haunch, which rested with its 
weight upon the thigh, must turn forward and outward. 
A.s soon as by this movement this foot has passed the 
other, it must be extended on the leg, and the leg upon 
the thigh, and in this manner, by the lengthening of the 
whole member, and without being drawn back, it reach- 
es the ground at a distance in advance of the other foot, 
which is more or less considerable according to the length 
of the step, and it is placed so gently on the ground as not 
to jerk or shake the body in the slightest degree. As 
soon as the foot which has been placed on the ground 
becomes firm, the weight of the body is transferred to 
the limb on that side, and the other foot, by a similar 
scries of actions, is brought forward in its turn. In all 
walking, the most important circumstance is, lhat the 
body incline forward, and that the movement of the 
leg and thigh spring from the haunch, and be free and 
natural. Viewed in this way, the feet have been well 
compared to the spokes of a wheel, the weight of the 
body falling upon them alternately." 
The exercise of walking is extremely gentle, and it 
becomes fatiguing only by being unduly prolonged. 
The leg is raised, not by a direct lifting, but by cans- REGION OE THE LEG8. 
169 
ing the limb to deviate from a straight line by simply 
bending the thigh and knee joints. This action short- 
ens the distance between the hip and foot, and thus 
the foot is elevated from the ground. The act requires 
comparatively little muscular power. Then the leg is 
brought forward, not by projecting it by means of 
sheer muscular force, but by an easy swinging motion, 
like that of a pendulum ; its own momentum is made to 
assist the action. The progress of the trunk, in the for- 
ward direction, renders the swinging of the leg neces- 
sary and easy. 
In walking, all the muscles of the legs and feet are 
moderately exercised, as also those of the back and 
shoulders. By these latter the body is kept upright, 
while the arms gently swing with a motion opposite 
that of the legs, so as to preserve the center of gravity 
over the changing base. If the pace be quickened, the 
muscles of the feet and legs enter upon a more vigor- 
ous action, whereby the body is projected more rapidly 
forward at the same time. This great expenditure of 
muscular power calls for a more rapid and profound 
respiration, and the respiratory muscles respond ener- 
getically to the demand, the chest dilates, and air passes 
into the farthest cells of the lungs. 
In consequence of these actions, a surplus amount of 
heat is developed ; more water, carbonic acid, and urea 
are produced, and these soon show themselves at the 
different o tlets; perspiration appears upon the surface 
of the whole skin, and there are more frequent calls for 
urination, while the volume of vapor discharged by the 
lungs is greatly augmented. 
Walking is doubtless superior to any other single 
exercise that a person can take, yet it fails to answer 
all the ends of exercise. As there are many other ex- 17C 
REGION OE THE LEGS. 
ercises involved in many kinds of work better adapted 
to preserve the health and power of all the organs of 
the well man, so there are others better adapted to cer- 
tain morbid conditions. Though these should be em- 
ployed in connection with a suitable amount of this 
exercise, walking, alone, fails to bring the abdominal 
organs into sufficient activity. On the contrary, these 
organs are simply carried, and are, until the respiration 
becomes accelerated, nearly as inactive as in sitting. 
Hence weakly persons, especially females, complain of 
a dragging sensation in wralking, in this condition of 
the system; and without some other movement to in- 
vigorate the enfeebled parts, walking may be consid- 
ered not only useless, but even injurious to the health. 
In these cases, certain movements of the trunk and 
abdomen are absolutely required to render walking 
proper and useful. 
EXAMPLES OF MOVEMENTS OF THE LEGS. 
9.-WING-STEIDE-8TANDING, CURTSEYING. 
Fig. 14. 
Position.-The hands are fixed 
upon the hips, in the standing pos- 
ture, with the hack in contact with 
a smooth wall, the heels two or two 
and a half feet apart, and five or six 
inches from the wall, against which 
the trunk is slightly supported, the 
toes turned outward. 
Action.-1. The feet stretch (as 
in No. 1). 2. The knees bend for- 
1 ward and outward, while the trunk 
sinks quite down. 3. The knees 
stretch, raising the body to its ut- 
most height. 4. The heels sink and REGION OF THE LEGS. 
171 
rest again upon the floor. At each stage the move- 
ment should be performed very slowly, observing a 
few moments' pause between its distinct portions. The 
cut shows the position at the stage of the movement 
when the body begins to descend, also by the dotted 
outlines, the position at the extreme limit of motion. 
The movement may be repeated four or five times. 
Effect.-The action is felt at the bottoms of the feet, 
in the calves of the legs, and, after the knees bend, 
strongly in the muscles of the legs. The effect in- 
creases in proportion as the knees deviate from the 
perpendicular by the bending of the knee joints. The 
muscles of the perineum, and even of the rectum, in 
the extreme position, are strongly affected. 
Position.-One hand is 
placed upon the hips, the other 
rests on some object to steady 
the body ; the trunk erect, one 
leg straight, and the foot rest- 
ing on the floor, the other leg 
bent at the knee at right angles. 
Action.-1. The foot on the 
floor is bent so that the weight 
rests upon the toes. 2. The 
knee slowly bends, and the 
trunk sinks as low as the leg is 
able to support it. 3. It is 
again stretched till the trunk 
rises to its erect position, when, 4, the heel sinks to the 
floor. The cut shows the position, and the dotted out- 
line the extreme position. This action should be re 
peated three or four times with each leg. 
10.-HALF-STANDING, CURTSEYING. 
Fig. Ik 172 
REGION OF TOE LEGS. 
Effect.-This is similar to that of movement No. 8: 
but as the whole weight of the body is supported by one 
leg, the movement is thereby made much more positive 
11-BALANCE-STANDING, CURTSEYING. 
PosmoN.-One hand is placed in 
contact with some firm object to 
steady the body; the other is placed 
upon the side ; the trunk erect, 
and its weight is borne by one foot 
resting upon a stool about eight- 
een inches high, while the other is 
free. 
Action.-1. The knee slowly bends, 
and the trunk with the suspended leg 
falls, but it does not touch the floor. 
2. The bent knee is slowly extended 
till the body is in the first position. 
The cut shows the position after the 
knee is bent. Repeat the action five or six times with 
each side. 
Effect.-This move- 
ment is only a modification 
of the previous one, and the 
effect is much the same. 
Fig. 16. 
Fig. 17. 
12.-WING-KNEELING, KNEE. 
STRETCHING. 
Position.-The hands 
are placed upon the hips, 
trunk, or kneeling position, 
with a cushion under the knees, and the heels prevent- 
ed from rising by being forced down by some firm 
object, as the frame of a sofa. REGION OF THE LEGS. 
173 
Action.-1. The trunk inclines gently and slowly 
forward, without bending at the hips or in the back, 
the knee only being slightly straightened or stretched. 
2. It rises upward aud backward till it regains its erect 
position. The cut shows the commencing, and the 
dotted outline the extreme position of the movement. 
This movement should be repeated five or six times. 
Effect.-This movement powerfully affects the mus- 
cles and fascia of the thigh, its influence extending to 
the hips and back, also to the calves of the legs. It is 
derivative, and counteracts the ill effects of too much 
exercise of the muscles of the anterior portion of the 
thigh. 
Position.-The hands being fixed upon the hips, the 
trunk rests upon one foot, while 
the other foot is placed upon a 
slight elevation, about two feet 
distant, in a direction diagonal to 
the front of the body. 
Action.-By a slight effort of 
the body and of the leg upon 
which it rests, the trunk turns 
horizontally upon the axis of the 
leg, right and left, alternately. 
Care should be used not to twist 
too strongly, so as to over-tax the 
knee joint. The cut shows the 
commencing position. The twisting should be per- 
formed five or six times each way upon each leg. 
Effect.-The amount of contraction of the muscles 
of the leg in this movement is comparatively small; 
all the muscles, however, together with all the other 
13-HALF-STANDING, ALTERNATE LEG-TWISTING. 
Fig. 18. 174 
REGION OF THE LEGS. 
structures of the part, are strongly affected by it. The 
muscles, nerves, areolar structures, vessels, etc., are 
subjected to an unusual agitation, that induces peculiar 
sensations and marked effects. 
14-WING-WALK, FORWARD-FALL-STANDING, KNEE-BENDING 
Position.-The hands being fixed upon the hips, one 
foot is placed about two and a 
half feet before the other in 
walking position ; the posterior 
foot is at right angles with the 
anterior. 
Action.-1. The heel of the 
forward foot rises at the same 
time that the knee slowly bends; 
and since this action shortens 
the forward leg, the body is in- 
clined forward, throwing its 
weight upon it. 2. The bent 
knee slowly extends, the leg becoming straight, until 
the heel reaches the floor, and the trunk is raised to 
the commencing position. The cut shows the move- 
ment in one stage of it. This action may be repeated 
five or six times with each leg. 
Effect.-This movement very strongly affects all 
the muscles of the legs, and it proves derivative in 
cases of cold feet or rush of blood to the head. 
Fig. 1» 
Position.-The knee and thigh of one leg are bent 
so as to raise the foot, which is placed on a chair or 
stool, while the trunk rests upon the other leg in the 
erect or gently inclining posture. 
15.-LEG-ANGLE HALF-STANDING, LEG-CLAPPING. 175 
REGION OF THE LEGS. 
Action.-Both hands, with the 
palms open and fingers outstretched, 
are employed to clap, from the hip to 
the ankle, the whole of the leg thus 
brought within their reach. The dap- 
ping consists of rapid but light strokes 
of the palms of the hands. Each leg 
may be thus clapped throughout its 
length five or six times. The clapping 
is a passive movement for the legs, 
although the arms are active, of 
course, in applying it. 
Effect.-This action imparts a high 
degree of nervous sensibility to the legs thus operated 
upon, and greatly increases the vascularity and warmth 
of the skin. It is derivative for the superior organs, 
and also for the interior vessels of the parts subjected 
to the action. This operation will also be found an ex- 
cellent means of warming cold hands and of increasing 
the circulation in the arms. 
Fig. Ml 
REGION OF THE HIPS. 
Remarks on the Region of the Hips.-This region 
includes the pelvis, its contents, and its connections, 
in debility from any cause, this region frequently pre- 
sents some severe symptoms, and is often afflicted witl 
rave disease, such as constipation, prolapsus of the 
womb and rectum, uterine congestion, ovaritis, amenor- 
rhea, leucorrhea, diseases of the prostate, bladder, and 
sexua1 organs. 
The movements applicable to this region are nume- 
rous and important, affording us the means of con- 
trolling the circulation and nutrition of these parts, 176 
REGION OF THE LEGS. 
and if well selected and applied in proper connection 
with others that may be indicated, such movements 
prove an invaluable means for maintaining or destroy- 
ing the health. 
The utility of these movements will be realized 
when it is noticed that after childhood the class of per. 
ons afflicted with the diseases referred to, seldom 
make use of much variety in their exercises, but are 
in the habit of carrying themselves stiffly about, em- 
ploying as few muscles as possible. Most of the fol- 
lowing movements necessarily affect the thigh, back, 
and abdomen, because the muscles acting have their 
attachments at one extremity in one or the other of 
these regions. Many of them affect the legs equally 
with the pelvis. 
16.-WING-STRIDE, SHORT-SITTING, LEG OUTWARD-STRETCHING. 
Position.-The hands are 
fixed on the hips, the body 
erect, in the sitting posture, 
upon the edge of a chair or 
stool, with' the thighs sepa- 
rated a! right angles, feet 
resting on the floor. 
Action.-1. The foot of 
one-side is raised a few inches 
from the floor. 2. The knee 
is slowdy stretched, till the 
legs are quite straight, and 
in a horizontal position, and pointing forward-sidewise. 
3. The knee bends and returns to its first position. 
This movement may be repeated five or six times with 
each limb. The cut shows the position, and the dotted 
line indicates the extreme position of the movement. 
Fig. 21. REGION OF THE LEGS. 
177 
Effect.-This movement requires strong action of 
the internal muscles of the pelvis, and of the muscles 
of the abdomen and upper portion of the leg, and 
causes the blood to circulate toward the feet. It 
strengthens the pelvis, and is derivative in congestion 
of its organs. 
17- LEG-ANGLE HALF-STANDING, KNEE-STEETCHING. 
Position.-With one hand extended, and grasping 
some firm object, and the other upon the hip, the body 
stands erect upon one 
foot-namely, that on 
the supported side; the 
other leg is bent at both 
knee and hip, the thigh 
being horizontal. 
Action.-1. The knee 
is slowly stretched until 
the leg is straight. 2. 
The knee bends, and the 
leg assumes the first po- 
sition. This action may 
be repeated three or four 
times with each side. 
The cut shows the position, and the dotted line indi- 
cates the terminating position. 
Effect.-The action in the movement is like that of 
the preceding, though somewhat more energetic, and 
more difficult tc perform, and it produces similar 
effects 
Fig. 22. 
Position.-The hands are placed upon the hips, the 
trunk sustained in a chair, in reclining posture, or on 
18 -WING-EECLINE, SUPPOET-SITTING, KNEES-EAISING. 178 
REGION OF THE LEGS. 
a couch with the shoulders 
a good deal elevated; the 
feet restiug upon the floor, 
and the knees bent at right 
angles. 
Action.-1. The knees 
are slowly raised as high as 
possible, the lower leg re- 
maining in the same rela- 
tive position. 2. The legs 
slowly return to the first 
position. This action may be repeated five or six times. 
The cut shows the first position, and the dotted outlines 
the direction and the extent of the movement. 
Effect.-In this action the lower abdominal muscles 
and the internal pelvic muscles are strongly affected. 
The movement strengthens the part, and removes in- 
ternal congestion of the pelvic organs. 
Fig. 28. 
19.-HALF-STANDING, LEG FORWARD-RAISING. 
Fig. 24. 
Position.-The body is 
steadied by extending one 
hand for this purpose, 
while the other is placed 
upon the hip, the body in 
standing position, resting 
its weight upon one leg. 
Action.-1. The leg of 
the side opposite the sup- 
port is slowly raised for- 
ward till it nearly reaches 
the horizontal position. 
2. It then slowly returns 
to its first position. This REGION OF THE LEGS. 
179 
action may be repeated four or five times with each 
leg. The dotted line of the cut indicates the direction 
and the extent of the movement. 
Effect.-This is similar to that of the preceding 
movement. 
Position.-This is precisely like that in movement 
No. 19, to which the reader is referred. 
Action.-1. The leg is extended slowly backward, 
and raised as high as possible. 2. If returns slowly to 
its first position. The cut (fig. 24) shows this move- 
ment, the dotted outline extending backward indicat- 
ing the limit of the backward motion. 
Effect.-In this movement the muscles of the seat, 
the lower portion of the back, and those of the pelvis 
are strongly affected. It is useful to strengthen these 
parts, and to remove internal weakness and congestion. 
The action of the muscles in the direction in which the 
leg moves is concentric, while that of the anterior and 
internal muscles is eccentric. 
20.-HALF-STANDING, LEG BACKWAED-EAISING. 
21.-HALF-STANDING, LEG SIDEWI8E-EAISING. 
Position.-For this the reader is also referred to 
movement No. 19, fig. 24. 
Action.-1. The leg is separated from the standing 
one, and slowly raised sidewise as far as possible. 
2. It then falls slowly to its first position. The plane 
in which the leg moves is represented by the perpen- 
dicular dotted line. 
Effect.-Similar to that of the preceding, except 
that the muscles of the thigh and hip on the side 
moved, are brought into strong action. 180 
REGION OF THE LEGS. 
Each of the above four movements acts upon the 
muscles of the thigh and leg in a very powerful man- 
ner, especially if the extremity be maintained for a 
few moments at the extreme limit of the movement; 
and since not only the muscles of the hips and thighs, 
but also those of the leg enter into these actions, they 
are all strongly derivative in their effects. 
22.-FOBWARD-FALL, HEAD-SUPPORT-STANDING, LEG-RAISING. 
Position.-The head rests upon the folded arms 
placed upon some object of convenient height, as a 
table or mantle-piece; the feet resting on the floor, so 
far back from the perpendicular as to cause the body 
(which is in a nearly straight line) to fortn an angle 
with the floor of about forty-five degrees. 
Action.-1. The leg is slowly raised as high as pos- 
sible, where it remains for a few moments. 2. It then 
slowly returns to its first position. The dotted outline 
of the accompany- 
ing cut indicates 
the direction and 
extent of the move- 
ment. This action 
may be repeated 
four or five times 
with each leg. 
Effect.-The 
muscles of the 
thigh, leg, seat, pe- 
rineum, and back 
are strongly affected, and also those of the anterior sur- 
face of the body. This movement is especially valu- 
able for sedentary people whose legs have become 
weak from disuse. 
Fig. 25. REGION OF THE LEGS. 
181 
23.-HALF-STANDING, LEG-BOTATION. 
Position.-One hand extended steadies the body by 
leaning against a wall or 
some firm object; the other 
hand being fixed upon the 
hip. Body erect, and rest- 
ing upon the leg nearest the 
supporting hand. 
Action.-The free leg is 
made to rotate so that the 
foot shall describe the broad- 
est possible circle, of which 
the inner edge is near the 
supporting foot. This mo- 
tion is produced by the al- 
ternate gentle action of the 
muscles" attached to the hips. 
The rotation may be performed six or eight times in 
one direction, when it is reversed, and performed in 
the opposite direction. In the cut, the dotted outline 
indicates the action. 
Effect.-This movement gently affects all the mus- 
cles of the thigh, and by the centrifugal effect that re- 
sults from the motion in a circle, restrains the return 
of the venous circulation for a moment, whereby the 
circulation of the leg is subsequently quickened, and 
the leg warmed. 
Fig. 26. 
Position.-The hands are upon the hips, the trunk sus- 
tained by a chair, or lying upon a couch with the shoul- 
ders raised high; the legs are extended across- another 
chair, the feet projecting freely, and placed so far apart 
that the t?es will barely touch in the movement. 
24.-WING-SITTING, DOUBLE LEG-TWISTING. 182 
KEG ION OF THE LEGS. 
Action.-1. The legs slow- 
ly rotate, the toes turning 
outward, the rotation being 
effected at the upper ex- 
tremity of the thigh. 2. 
They then rotate inward, 
till the toes touch in a near- 
ly horizontal position. This 
action is repeated five or 
six times, each time in both 
directions. In the cut, the 
dotted curved line indicates 
the direction of the movement. Care should be taken 
that the limbs turn on their own axis, without bending 
at the knees, stretching at the ankles, or in any other 
way deviating from the first position of the legs. 
Effect.-This movement is chiefly effected by small 
muscles about the head of the thigh bone, some of 
which are intimately related to the cavity of the pelvis, 
though many others assist in the movement. It circu- 
lates the blood in the legs, strengthens the hips, and 
removes congestion of the organs contained in the pel- 
vic cavity. 
Fig CT. 
25.-LEGS-ANGLE, LIE-SITTING, KNEES-STRETCHING. 
Position.-The hands are placed upon the hips, the 
trunk reclining on a couch with the shoulders raised, 
the legs bent both at the thigh and knee joints so that 
the feet may rest upon the couch near the seat, the legs 
being in angle position. 
Action.-1. The knees are slowly stretched, the feet 
being raised and the lower legs being brought into a 
line with the thighs, the thigh in the mean time re- 
maining at an angle of about forty-five degrees with 183 
REGION OF THE LEGS. 
the body, which position is maintained for a few mo- 
ments. 2. The knees slowly bend, bringing the feet 
back to their original position, resting on the couch. 
This action may be repeated six or eight times. 
Effect.-If the extreme position of the legs be main- 
tained, the action at the lower portion of the abdomen 
and in the pelvis is powerful, and in character concen- 
tric. The anterior part of the leg is also affected. 
26.-SHELTER TRUNK-BACKWARD-LYING, LEGS-RAISING. 
Position.-The hands are placed upon the crown of 
the head, the trunk lying backward upon a couch, the 
legs, from the hips, projecting beyond the edge, their 
weight causing 
them to descend 
considerably be- 
low its level. 
Action.-!.. The 
legs are slowly 
raised till they 
are in a posi- 
tion approach- 
ing right angles 
with the trunk, 
and are held 
there for a few moments. 2. They are permitted slowly 
to fall back to their original position. This action 
may be repeated five or six times. The dotted out- 
line in the cut shows the position reached at the limit 
of motion. 
Effect.-Tin's movement acts upon the abdominal 
coverings and the muscles of the pelvis, presses upward 
the pelvic and abdominal contents, and affects eccen- 
trically the muscles of the chine and hips. 
Fig. 28. 184 
REGION OF THE LEGS. 
27,-KICK BACKWARD-LYING, LEGS-8EPARATI0N. 
Position.-The hands are placed upon the hips, the 
head slightly elevated, the trunk lying on the back, 
and the legs raised nearly to the position shown in 
fig. 31. 
Action.-1. The legs are allowed slowly to separate, 
as far as possible, being carried apart laterally by their 
own weight. 2. Are slowly brought together again. 
This action may be repeated five or six times. 
Effect.-The insides of the legs, the perineum, the 
pelvis, and the lower portion of the abdomen are af- 
fected by this movement. 
28- SIDEWISE-LYING, LEG-RAISING. 
Position.-The body lies upon one side in a horizon- 
tal and straight position, the head being pillowed upon 
Fig. 29. 
the under arm, while the hand of the other is placed 
upon the hip. 
Action.-1. The leg slowly rises in the perpendic- 
ular plane of the body as far as it may, where it remains 
for a few moments. 2. It then slowly falls back to its 
first position. This action may be repeated six or 
eight times with each side. The dotted outline of the REGION OF THE LEGS. 
185 
cut indicates the point to which the leg rises, and the 
direction of the movement. 
Effect.-The sides, the outsides of the legs and hips, 
and the perineum, are brought into action in this 
movement. 
Position.- 
The com- 
mencing posi- 
tion is exactly 
like that of 
No. 28. 
Action.-1. 
The legs are 
carried to one side by bending at the hips. 2. The feet 
are then made to revolve in as wide a circle as possible 
while the legs are kept in contact. 3. The direction 
of the rotation is then reversed. This change is re- 
peated three or four times. The dotted outline of the 
cut shows the circle traversed by the feet. 
Effect.-This movement acts upon all the muscles 
of the thighs and hips, the lower portion of the abdo- 
men and back in turn, also the rectum, uterus, blad* 
der and lower portion of the spinal cord. 
29.-BACKWARD-LYING, LEGS-ROTATION. 
Fig. 80. 
30-WING LEG-ANGLE HALF-LYING, KNEE-STRETCHING. 
Position.-The arms are in wing position, trunk 
lying with the shoulders much elevated, the legs bent 
at both thigh and knee joints at right angles, the feet 
resting on the same horizontal level with the body. 
Action.-1. The knees slowly stretch, without chang- 
ing the position of the thighs, until the legs are straight, 186 
the feet being elevat 
ed. 2. The knees 
slowly bend, and the 
feet take the position 
from which they 
started, i. e., the com- 
mencing position. 
This action may be 
repeated five or six 
times. The dotted outline of the cut shows the posi- 
tion at the end of the first part of the movement. 
Effect.-This movement brings into action all the 
anterior muscles of the leg, as well as those of the 
lower abdominal and pelvic regions, and affects the in- 
ternal organs of these parts. It also warms the feet. 
Fig. St 
REGION OF THE LEGS. 
Position.-The hands are placed upon the hips, the 
trunk is lying back- 
ward, with the. shoul- 
ders and head elevat- 
ed, the thighs bent 
strongly upon the ab- 
domen ; the knees also 
are bent to their acut- 
est angle. 
Action.-The knees are caused to revolve five or 
six times in a circle as broad as possible, the inner part 
of which is close to the body. The direction of the 
motion 'should change four or five times, as in No. 31. 
Effect.-This movement excites the rectum, lower 
intestines, and abdominal contents generally, and also 
etrengthens the muscles about the hips, and all th* 
31.-THIGH-ROTATION. 
Fig. 82. REGION OF THE LEGS. 
187 
organs depending for their innervation on the lower 
part of the spinal cord. 
Position.-One hand is extended so as to brace and 
steady the body by its contact with 
some firm object; the trunk leans 
forward, the body in the standing 
position. 
Action.-The free arm and hand, 
strongly clenched, is used to deal a 
number (twenty or thirty) of smart 
blows upon the lower portion of the 
chine. 
Effect.-This movement makes a 
vibratory impression upon the sacral 
bone, its contained nerves - the 
lower portion of the spinal cord and 
branches. The effect is also communicated to all the 
pelvic organs, as the rectum, uterus, bladder, etc., both 
directly, and as a result of the excitement produced 
in the part of the spinal cord supplying the affected 
region with nerves. The movement is highly useful in 
many cases, but should be omitted in others. The 
question of its appropriateness may generally be de- 
cided by the sensations produced. If it is intended to 
stimulate the actim of the rectum, the knocking should 
be applied to the lower extremity of the sacral bone. 
32.-CHINE KNOCKING. 
Fig. 83. 188 
REGION OF THE TRUNK. 
REGION OF THE TRUNK. 
The trunk of the body consists of external walls, 
with the included space, which is filled with the organa 
of digestion and respiration, and their appendages. 
This space is divided by the diaphragm into two parts 
or chambers ; the one below the diaphragm containing 
the apparatus for the digestion of food and the prepara- 
tion of nutritive material, that above it being devoted 
to the aeration and circulation of the blood. 
In the light afforded by the Movement-Cure, there 
is seen to be an intimate connection between these two 
sets of functions, whether physiologically or patho- 
logically considered. The therapeutical indications 
also relate to both sets of organs and their functions- 
even though the symptoms of which the invalid chiefly 
complain relate more especially to one or the other. 
There can be no good digestion with imperfect respira- 
tion, and no efficient respiration while the blood is 
overwhelmed with the crude materials derived from 
imperfect digestion. The location of these organs very 
much favor their associative treatment. These organs 
are the media through which the materials destined 
for vital service are brought into those peculiarly inti- 
mate relations with each other that are required. 
By digestion, food is reduced to a fluid state ; it then 
passes the digestive boundaries into the blood. The 
circulation carries the materials in this condition to the REGION OF THE TRUNK. 
189 
lungs, vt here they become associated with the oxygen 
of respiration, and the products of this association are 
then applied to all the nutritive purposes of the body ; 
oxygen or the blood-plasma being yielded up to the 
tissues according to the various vital requirements. 
It has been already shown that the quality of the 
vital manifestations depends upon the manner in which 
these preparatory processes are performed. The modes 
of attempting to control these processes are as numerous 
as the devices of medicine; for it is to gain this con- 
trol that the remedial art is exercised everywhere. But 
to accomplish this grand object successfully, we must 
make use of the appliances furnished us in the Move- 
ment-Cure. 
Movements of the Digestive Organs.-It has al- 
ready been shown, pp. 88, 90, how necessary are move- 
ments to further the different stages of the digestive 
processes; to set the blood in healthful motion ; to rouse 
to activity the secretory functions, etc., etc. But their 
applicability in disease would seem, at first view, not to 
be demonstrated by these facts. That they are so, how- 
ever, one is convinced from attending to the essential 
nature of many pathological conditions, as revealed to 
us by the Movement-Cure, and by a consideration of 
the advantages that these organs are constantly receiv 
ing from those natural and constant movements to 
which they are subjected while in a state of health. 
1. In the alimentary canal we have a tube more than 
twenty-five feet in length, variously convoluted and 
folded upon itself, but the greatest portion of which is 
quite free to move when acted upon by causes external 
to itself. It is fixed to the abdominal wall by few and 
movable attachments, so that it readily yields in all its 190 
REGION OF THE TRUNK. 
parts to the least mechanical force exerted upon it. 
The tendency of the several portions of the canal to 
glide upon each other is highly favored by the exceed- 
ingly smooth and polished surface they present, and by 
the fine, glairy secretions with which they are lubri- 
cated. These surfaces glide and play upon each other 
with every change of posture, and with the muscular 
exertion put forth in nearly every part of the body. 
These mechanical displacements, caused by impressions 
received from external sources, afford to the intestines 
the stimulus necessary to induce their own worm-like 
motion, which is effected by means of the circular mus- 
cular fibers that enter into the structure of the tube 
itself. It is by this motion that the contents of the 
canal are carried forward and the condition supplied 
for absorption of the fluid portions and for the passage 
of the portal blood in the direction of the liver. 
It is a curious and most interesting fact, that children 
and young animals, whose desire for motion is inherent 
in their constitutions, are inclined chiefly to those kinds 
of exercise, and to assume those positions, that necessa- 
rily affect the abdominal contents in the way above 
described. It is in such exercises as climbing, rolling, 
crawling, jumping, and playing generally, that these 
contents are most disturbed ; but we never hear that 
these movements, though often violent, are attended 
with harmful consequences. On the contrary, we are 
convinced that these are the very means that nature 
prescribes to secure healthful development and powei 
in these most essential parts of the body. 
2. And, as if to insure these healthful effects, nature 
has ordained that by respiration, as an efficient and 
constant means, these motions shall be secured to the 
alimentary canal. The abdominal contents mav be KEGION OF THE TRUNK. 
191 
considered as located between two great muscular or 
gans, the diaphragm and the abdominal 
walls. These muscles act conjointly sim- 
ultaneously, and upon all the included 
parts, causing them to play incessantly 
upon each other, and subjecting them to 
a constant and gentle pressure. 
Fig. 84. 
Diagram illustrating the movements of the abdominal walls 
and contents under the influence of respiration ; a, position 
after expiration ; 6, position after inspiration. The diaphragm 
is shown to be much more concave after expiration. 
The accompanying diagram shows how 
the diaphragm and walls of the abdomen 
are moved and acted upon by the included 
organs at each respiration. And as these 
respiratory acts are at the rate of about 
eighteen per minute, we see these or- 
gans must undergo a pretty thorough 
churning. 
Any cause operating to deteriorate the health, dimin- 
ishes the amount of this motion, for the simple reason 
that the respiration, in chronic disease of every kind, is 
less vigorous than in health. In disease, also, these 
natural movements are not only less in extent, but 
faulty in kind ; for we frequently find that, to afford 
play to the lungs, some other part of the walls of the 
body take on motion that compensates for the lack of 
it in the parts originally intended for the performance 
of that function. In this way the advantage of the 
respiratory movements to the abdominal contents is 
partially lost. The common causes operating to pro- 
duce these injurious results are too long continuance 
of the fixed positions of standing or sitting, at work or 
study. The prevalent style of dress, too, by limiting 
the movements of the chest and abdomen, and com- 192 
REGION OF THE TRUNK. 
pressing and weakening the muscles, has much to do 
in the production of these disastrous consequences. 
3. One prime effect of exercise is the increase of the 
substance and the contractility of the abdominal mus- 
cular coverings. The walls of the abdomen become, in 
the absence of proper exercise, weak, flabby, and un- 
naturally distended. When this occurs, the abdominal 
contents necessarily obey the laws of gravity, become 
dislocated, and their function consequently impeded. 
Well-directed movements restore the power of these 
walls ; the sinking organs are reinstated in their orig- 
inal position, and their function is recovered. 
4. The action of these muscles necessarily calls blood 
into them'to supply their nutrient wants. The advan- 
tage of this does not stop with the maintaining of the 
powers of these muscles. An equal benefit is derived 
in the scattering of the visceral congestion, which will 
necessarily occur when the blood is not employed in 
external parts. Congestion of the mucous surfaces, or 
of some portion of the contained glandular apparatus, 
is quite sure to accompany the weaknesses above men- 
tioned. 
The reader will now be able to understand the mor- 
bid conditions that coexist in nearly all forms of dys- 
pepsia, constipation, bronchial, laryngeal, and liver 
affections, that so extensively prevail in the community. 
There is insufficiency of respiration, and consequently 
of the natural movements of the digestive organs ; these 
functions are hence impeded, and the well-known symp- 
toms are manifested that are so freely doctored instead 
of the diseases themselves. And the reader will also read- 
ily infer that, in order to correct all the above-mentioned 
difficulties, it is only necessary to employ movements 
with due reference to the exact pathology of the case, REGION OF THE TRUNK. 
193 
and with a rational understanding of the limits of their 
ability to correct physiological aberrations. Other- 
wise employed, movements are quite as competent, and 
as likely, in fact, to do injury as good. In congestion 
of the liver, for instance, it is highly improper to em- 
ploy such movements as would tend to promote that 
condition in a healthy person. Ignorance will not 
shield one from the consequences resulting from such 
foolish practice. That an aggravation of disease fre- 
quently follows the use of heterogeneous exercises, is 
only a proof of their power to do good when properly 
directed. The beginner can not observe too much 
caution in prescribing for himself. 
Movements of the Respiratory Organs.-The 
function of aerating the blood would seem to be more 
important than any other of the system. Every func- 
tion may suffer a temporary suspense except this, and 
those intimately connected with it, as the action of the 
heart; but life shortly ceases -when respiration is from 
any cause too long suspended. When, also, respiration 
becomes defective or inefficient, whether from exter- 
nal or internal causes, all the other functions speedily 
fail. This fact shows the direct dependence of all other 
functions upon this. All changes in the system, wheth- 
er for the purpose of evolving sensorial, intellectual, or 
muscular power, require in the blood the presence 
of oxygen obtained from the air of respiration. It is 
by means of oxygen that the compounds into which the 
•wasting organs are resolved, are reduced to the still 
simpler and hss noxious forms in which they are dis- 
missed from the body. It is the abundant supply of 
this element, secured by wholesome avocations, or, in 
the absence of labor, by special exercises, that secures 194 
REGION OF THE TRUNK. 
to the system that elasticity and vigorous tone, which 
is health. Withdraw this element, by contracting the 
respiratory capacity, and important vital changes are 
interrupted, and the forces of the system begin at once 
to fail-the bow has lost its spring, the eye ceases to 
sparkle, the rose fades on the cheek, and that form that 
once no trouble could bend, now bows under grasshop- 
per burdens. 
The need of a supply of oxygen to the system is gen- 
eral ; all parts are equally liable to sutler without it. 
Hence all the organs and tissues, including the nerves 
and muscles, unite in a common effort to secure it, and 
to perfect the respiratory process. That such is the case 
is proved by many symptoms in acute disease. In these 
cases the efficiency of the respiratory process is first di- 
minished by a deterioration of the quality of the blood, 
whose attraction for oxygen is thereby lessened.* The 
whole system is then aroused, and the respiratory and cir- 
culatory actions excited to a high degree in the effort to 
attain more air by means of which to reduce its nox- 
ious principles to the more neutral and bland state of 
carbonic acid, water, and urea, which are the ultimate 
products of the oxydation attending these vital opera- 
tions. 
There are two principal circumstances that control 
the amount of oxygen received into the system. One 
is the affinity of the blood and tissues for this element, 
which, there is reason to believe, varies with the health, 
habits, diet, etc. The other is, the capacity of the chest 
in cubic measure, and the degree of the mobility of its 
walls. In complete health there is, of course, a com- 
* There la no disease characterized by an in create of the products of regpiratiok. 
-Lehmann. REGION OF THE TRUNK. 
195 
plete harmony between the chemical and the mechan- 
ical conditions of supply and the general needs of the 
system for oxygen. But it is also necessary that in 
health there should be a large funded capacity, be- 
yond the ordinary needs of supply, to meet the emer- 
gencies into which the system may be thrown ; for 
instance, the extra breathing made necessary during 
temporary forced labor or excessive cold. The powers 
of the system soon succumb under hardships, if this re- 
serve capacity for respiration is limited or deficient, as 
in pulmonary affections. 
That the wTalls of the chest are very mobile and well 
adapted to contain and to charge different quantities 
of air according to circumstances, is apparent from an- 
atomical considerations. This cavity is bounded below 
by a thin muscle, the diaphragm, which is convex up- 
ward during respiration, but which by contracting is 
flattened, leaving much space above it to be filled by 
the air which simultaneously rushes in to supply the 
vacuum thus produced. 
The sides of the chest are formed by the ribs, and 
their tendonous and muscular attachments. The ribs 
extend downward and forward from the spinal column, 
are connected with the sternum in front by long elas- 
tic cartilages, except the two lower ones of each side, 
whose anterior extremities are entirely free. Simul- 
taneously with the contraction of the diaphragm, the 
external muscles of respiration also contract. This 
action elevates the forward extremities of the ribs, 
causing them to include a larger space; and it also 
turns them slightly outward, thus contributing to the 
same result. The extent of this effect is precisely in 
proportion to the degree of the muscular action. The 
diagram, fig. 34, page 191, illustrates the motions of 196 
REGION OF THE TRUNK. 
the inferior and lateral .walls of the chest. It may 
not only be inferred that the amount uf air revivi- 
fied in respiration depends on the amount of the mo- 
tion of the walls of the chest, but also that the amount 
of air habitually resident in the lungs depends on the 
tone of these muscular walls. 
Habitual immobility of the walls of the chest is a 
characteristic of all chronic diseases. The capacity of 
the chest has become restricted, the power of the mus- 
cles lessened, most likely from habitual disuse ; for in 
these cases the occupations and habits of life have not 
enforced that abundant exercise that the requirements 
of the system demand. In most cases, the evil is not 
lack of exercise in general, but lack of the particular 
kinds that are calculated to serve the wants of the par- 
ticular function in question. The kinds of exercise 
that the weakly and sedentary are most inclined to en- 
gage in do not, it is admitted, sufficiently affect the 
respiratory apparatus. Just here, often, is the true 
disease, while the invalid is suffering from symptoms 
that have not yet suggested to him their origin. 
The important part played by respiration in the ani- 
mal economy is not doubted, but we fail to recognize 
the practical inference deducible from this considera- 
tion bearing upon the restoration of the invalid. We 
also fail to consider that one is running in the direc- 
tion of disease whenever the efficiency of this function 
is from any cause abated. When these facts are well 
considered, and not till then, will the importance of 
special means adapted to counteract the effects above 
indicated be appreciated. 
All exertion of the voluntary powers, we have said 
causes an increase of respiration. Profound thought 
or study, all may have noticed, demands frequent and REGION OF THE TRUNK. 
197 
profound inspiratory efforts; while preliminary to any 
very strong muscular efforts there is invariably an in- 
voluntary preparation made by a deep inspiration. 
The inspired air, at such times, is frequently held, and 
subjected to all the pressure that the chest can exert 
upon it, apparently to accelerate and increase the so- 
lution of the oxygen brought in this way into contact 
with the blood. Thus we see that exercise not only 
increases the expansibility of the chest, but probably, 
after the manner here noticed, deprives the respired air 
of a larger proportion of its oxygen. 
Great caution, let it be remarked here, is indispen- 
sable in prescribing movements designed to enlarge 
the chest, for great injury is easily done in this di- 
rection. Persons of feeble habits we would caution 
earnestly against indiscriminate, random movements. 
Let it be understood, and always borne in mind, that 
movements of this region tend more decidedly than 
those of any other to produce congestion; while the 
production of this condition ought specially to be 
avoided, and the movements should be so prescribed 
as to overcome it if it already exists. 
It is to be borne in mind, too, that the same act that 
causes the chest to become filled with air, assists also 
the flow of venous blood to the same locality. Hence, 
movements of this region should always be given in 
such connection and order as to counteract, or render 
impossible, these pernicious effects. By inattention to 
this caution, not only may congestion be produced, 
and alarming disease promoted, but even serious hem- 
orrhages may occur that may threaten life, especially 
if there be previous disease of the pulmonary organs. 
These accidents need never occur in the most delicate 
or in the worst cases of disease, but the capacity and 198 
KEGION OK THE fKUNK. 
power of the chest may be greatly but surely improved 
in nearly all of them. 
83- 6TEETCH-STEIDE SHOE! SITTING, TEUNK FOEWAED-SIDEWISE 
FALLING. 
Position.-The arms are 
brought up nearly in con- 
tact with the ears, and par- 
allel to each other; the 
trunk erect, supported 
upon the edge of a chair 
or other convenient seat; 
the thighs at right angles 
apart ; feet so extended 
upon the floor as to form 
a large base. 
Action.-1. The trunk 
falls slowly, diagonally 
forward, that is, in a line 
directly over one thigh, bringing the breast in close 
contact with the knee. 2. It then slowly resumes the 
first position. This action may be repeated five or six 
times on each side. In the cut, the dotted outline indi- 
cates the direction and the extent of the falling. 
If it is deemed advisable that less effort be expended 
in this movement, the arms may be put in wing posi- 
tion instead of stretch; when considerable effort is de- 
manded, the stretch position may be used. In this 
case the hands should grasp some weighty object, as a 
pair of dumb-bells, and the movement be performed 
as before. 
Effect.-This movement affects the region of the 
loins, and if weights are used, also the back and arms. 
Fig. 85. REGION OE THE TRUNK. 
199 
84. -STRETCH-STRIDE SHORT-BITTING, TRUNK BACKWARD-8ID» 
WISE-FALLING 
Position.-This is pre- 
cisely like that repre- 
sented in No. 33, ex- 
cept that it may be nec- 
essary to secure the feet 
by placing them under 
some iirm object, or they 
may be held to the floor 
by another person, as 
may be most convenient. 
Action.-1. The trunk 
to be twisted a little to- 
ward the knee of one 
side. 2. It must now be 
allowed to fall slowly 
backward till it reaches a position approximating the 
horizontal, where it remains for a few moments. 3. 
Then rises slowly again to the commencing position. 
This action may be repeated three or four times with 
each side. In the cut, the dotted outline indicates the 
direction and the extent of the movement. 
Effect.-This movement calls powerfully into action 
the muscles of the abdomen upon either side, and 
strengthens them as well as the fasciae of the groin and 
leg, especially in the region liable to rupture. It also 
presses the bowels, and is derivative in respect to the 
visceral organs. 
Fig.WL 
Position.-This is the same as in No. 34, including 
the suppoit necessary for the feet. 
Action. -1. The trunk falls directly but slowly 
backward till it reaches a position nearly horizontal, 
35.-STRETCH-SITTING, TRUNK BACKWARD-FALLING. 200 
REGION OF THE TRUNK. 
2. It then rises slow- 
ly till it regains the 
commencing posi- 
tion. This action 
may be repeated four 
or five times. lu the 
cut, the dotted out- 
line indicates the di- 
rection and extent 
of the movement. 
Effect.-This is a 
very useful move- 
ment to increase the 
nutrition of the ab- 
dominal coverings, especially the lower portion of the 
walls of the abdomen It also produces strong deriva- 
ative effects, and consequently tends to remove visceral 
congestion, and to restore the contained organs to their 
natural situation in the abdominal cavity. If the arms 
be in wing position, the movement will be easier; if 
weights be held, it will be more positive in its effects. 
Fig. 3T. 
86,-• HALF-STRETCH, HALF-WING, STRIDE SHORT-SITTING, TRUNK 
SIDEWISE-BENDING. 
Position.-One hand is placed upon the hips; the 
arm of the other is stretched perpendicularly upward ; 
trunk erect, sitting; thighs at right angles; feet extend- 
ed and braced against the floor. 
Action.-1. The trunk gently bends in the lumbar 
region in the direction of the hip, on which the hand 
is fixed, while the stretched arm retains the position 
relative to the head, in which the movement commenced. 
The trunk falls as far as it can without raising the seat 
at the opposite side. 2. It then slowfly rises to its orig- REGION OF THE TRUNK. 
201 
inal j osition. This action may be 
repeated three or four times upon 
each side. The perpendicular dot- 
ted line and the arrow indicate in 
the cut the direction of the move- 
ment. The extent of the move- 
ment will increase after a little 
practice. If the action needs to 
be stronger, a weight may be held 
in the upright hand. The action 
may be repeated four or five times 
with each side. 
Effect.-This movement strong- 
ly affects the side of the body, and 
the effect is extended to the liver, spleen, and other 
visceral organs. 
Fig. M. 
37-HALF-STRETCH, HALF-WINO STRIDE-SITTING, TRUNK- 
TWISTING 
* Position.-This is the same as 
in No. 36. 
Action.-1. The trunk remains 
perpendicular, neither bending 
nor swaying in any direction, but 
twists on its own axis, while the 
seat remains immovable on the 
chair or stool. In twisting, the 
side of the raised arm moves for- 
ward, while the opposite side 
moves to an equal extent back- 
ward, performing the twisting to 
the extent of about a quarter of 
a circle, there remaining for a 
Fig. 89. 202 
REGION OF THE TRUNK. 
few moments. 2. The trunk then moves on its axis in 
the opposite direction ; or, in simpler phrase, it un- 
twists, bringing the anterior part of the body forward to 
the commencing position. This action may be repeat- 
ed four or five times with each side. 
Effect.-Although in twisting movements the limit 
of the power of motio i is soon reached, on account of 
the confined conditior of the muscles, yet this class of 
movements are potent, especially in their effect on the 
circulation, since nearly all the muscles of the part are 
put in action-some concentrically, others eccentric- 
ally. The muscles are thus nearly all rendered very 
tense, producing much pressure upon the blood-vessels 
and nerves, followed by increased flow of blood into, 
and nutrition of, the parts subjected to this action. 
Twisting also tends to contract the diameter of the 
cavity of the trunk, and hence produces slight press- 
ure upon the contained organs. This class of move- 
ments are derivative. 
38.-8HELTEB 8TBIDE-8ITTING, CHANGE-TWISTING. 
ng. 40. 
Position.-The hands are locked 
upon the top of the head; in all 
other respects the position is iden- 
tical with that in the last four ex- 
amples. 
Action.-The trunk turns on its 
axis with moderate rapidity as far 
as it will turn, and then in the op- 
posite direction for the same dis- 
tance. This action may properly be 
repeated fifteen or twenty times suc- 
cessively. The cut shows the posi- 203 
REGION OF THE TRUNK. 
tion, which is not varied, except by the twist motion 
during the movement. 
Effect.-This movement, for the great majority of 
the parts affected, is nearly passive, only a few mus- 
cles, comparatively, being employed to give the mo- 
tion, while all the organs contained in the cavity of 
the body are agreeably stimulated by the agitation im- 
parted to them. The movement is tranquilizing for 
the nerves, and equalizing in its effect on the circula- 
tion, while certain muscles in different portions of the 
body are performing active service. 
39.- VARD-SITTING, SWAYING. 
Position.-The 
arms are extended 
horizontally until 
they are both in the 
same line ; trunk 
sitting, legs stride, 
and feet well braced. 
Action. - The 
trunk turns on its 
axis, as in No. 38 ; 
but on account of 
the position of the 
arms, much more deliberately. It first turns as far af 
it can to the right, and then in the same way to the 
left, allowing the extended arms to acquire consider- 
able momentum, and, by the consequent reaction, in- 
creasing the effect of the movement upon the loins. 
This twisting may be repeated ten or fifteen times 
each way. 
Effect.-The muscles of the top of the shoulders, 
and nearly all those of the arms, and those of the sides, 
Fig. 41. 204 
REGION OF THE TRUNK. 
are strongly affected. The centrifugal effect upon the 
circulation of the blood in the arms is to detain and 
then quicken the circulation, and warm the hands. 
The movement acts derivatively for the chest. 
40-8TEETCH 8TEIDE-KNEELING, TEUNK BACKWAED-BENDING. 
Position.-The arms are stretched 
upward parallel with each other, 
and with the head; the trunk erect, 
kneeling, with the knees placed far 
apart in the stride position; the 
knees must be sustained by a cush- 
ion. 
Action.-1. The trunk bends 
slowly backward as far as its flexi- 
bility will allow, so as to assume a 
reclining posture, where it remains 
for a few moments. 2. It then re- 
turns slowly to its commencing po- 
sition ; the knees and hips remain- 
ing fixed in the mean time. In the cut, the dotted 
outline indicates the direction and extent of the move 
ment. 
Effect.-This movement puts the skin and fasciae 
and muscles of the anterior portion of the body and legs 
strongly upon the stretch; it is felt in the groin, the 
walls of the abdomen, and chest; elevates the ribs, dia 
phragm, and visceral contents, and expands the chest. 
The action is chiefly produced by the muscles of the 
back, which it strengthens. 
Remark.-This and many other back-bending move- 
ments frequently occasion keen sensations in 'the back, 
especially at the beginning of their employment. Thia 
is not be-cause the muscles of that region are strr-Oii 
Fig. 42. REGION OF THE TRUNK. 
205 
unduly by the movement; for, tlie weight of the body 
assisting the movement from the time it first deviates 
from the perpendicular, the muscular action is compara- 
tively slight. The sensation is, no doubt, produced by 
the pinching of the vertebral cartilages caused by the 
unusual position. The sensation gradually wears away 
the cartilages become more elastic, and as the part 
dapt themselves to the new requirements imposed 
upon them. If movements of this class produce an un- 
pleasant tenderness, they must be desisted from for a 
short time, after which they may be resumed. 
Variations of No. 40.-1. The arms may be in 
shelter position instead of stretch. In this case the 
action is not so forcible, and it is, therefore, better 
adapted to those who are quite feeble. 
2. The arms to be extended exactly as in No. 39, 
but may grasp a couple of weights, as a pair of dumb- 
bells. The effect in this case becomes much greater, 
since the added weight acts through the leverage of the 
arms and body, very much more powerfully upon the 
whole anterior surface of the body. 
3. While the arms are in either of the above posi- 
tions, the legs may be placed in walking position, that 
is, with one knee presented forward of the body, and 
the other behind it, and as far apart as convenient. In 
this case, after the action has been repeated three or 
four times, the position of the legs may be reversed, by 
placing forward the leg which was behind, and putting 
behind that which was forward. The action is now 
felt much more powerfully in the groin, and the move- 
ment is especially useful to strengthen the muscles and 
fasciae about the hernial region. 206 
KEGION OF THE TRUNK. 
41.-HALF •STRETCH, HALF WING RECLINED STRIDE KNEELING, 
TRUNK-TWISTING. 
Position.-One arm is extended upward, while the 
hand of the other is placed upon the hip; the trunk 
erect, in the kneeling position, with the legs widely 
apart. 
Action.-The side of the extended arm moves for- 
ward while the opposite side moves backward, twisting 
the body upon its axis. This action is to be repeated 
four or five times with each side. The reader is refer- 
red to No. 37 for an explanation of this movement; it 
is to be remembered that in this movement the posi- 
tion is that of kneeling, with the body a little bent 
backward. 
Effect.-This movement is felt at the sides, and in 
the arm which is in stretch position ; also across the 
abdomen, at its lower portion, pressing somewhat the 
contents of the abdominal cavity, and strengthening 
these regions as well as acting derivatively. 
42 -half-stretoh, half-wing, walk-kneeling, trjnk- 
TWISTING. 
Fig. 48. 
Position.-One arm is stretched, the 
hand of the other being upon the hips; 
the trunk erect; the knee on the same 
side with the stretched arm is placed as 
far back as is possible; the opposite 
knee placed as far forward. 
Action.-The side on which is the 
stretched arm moves forward, while the 
opposite side moves backward, twisting 
the body on its axis, as far as practica- 
ble. After this motion has been repeat- 
ed four or five times, the knees change 
their respective positions, the back one 207 
being placed forward, and the forward one back, and 
the motion is repeated as before. The cut shows the 
position after the body has twisted. 
Effect.-This movement acts strongly upon the ab- 
dominal muscles and fasciae, and especially those of the 
groin, and increases the power and resistance of those 
parts. 
REGION OF THE TRUNK. 
Position.-The arms are in an- 
gle position, that is, the elbow is 
bent while the upper arm is near 
the side parallel with the body; 
the trunk kneeling, knees wide 
apart, but leaning back from the 
perpendicular. 
Action.-1. The arms are slow- 
ly stretched till they become par- 
allel with each other, and in a 
line with the body, where they re- 
main for a short time. 2. They 
are then allowed slowly to return to the commencing 
position. This may be repeated six or eight times. In 
the cut, the dotted outline shows the position after the 
first part of the movement, that is, the extreme position. 
Care should be taken that the arms be not stretched 
perpendicularly, but exactly in the line of the reclining 
trunk. 
Effect.-The parts affected by this movement are 
the arms, the tops of the shoulders, the region beneath 
the shoulder blades, the sides of the chest, the dia- 
phragm, and the abdominal muscles, as well as the 
visceral organs, which are raised by it and moderately 
compressed. 
43.-ARMS-ANGLE RECLINED KNEELING, ARMS STRETCHING 
Fig. 44. 208 
REGION OF THE TRUNK. 
Vabia.tions of No. 43.-1. The hands may grasp 
some heavy objects, as a pair of dumb-bells, which in- 
creases the effect upon all of the parts enumerated. 
2. The legs may be in walking position. In this case 
the effect upon the abdomen, especially upon the groin, 
materially increased. 
44- RACK-RECLINED STRIDE-KNEELING, ARMS BACKWARD- 
STRIKING. 
Position.-The arms are in 
rack position, that is, extend- 
ed horizontally forward; the 
trunk slightly reclining, and 
kneeling; knees apart or 
stride. 
Action. - The arms are 
thrown horizontally back- 
ward as far as the anatomy 
of the parts will allow. This 
action is repeated eight or 
ten times. 
Effect.-There are but few muscles brought into 
active play in this movement, and these are situated 
back of the shoulder.- By this movement the muscles 
of the breast are acted upon, the ribs elevated, and the 
blood thrown into the hands, increasing their warmth 
This movement may be practiced slowly; if mor 
quickly, an increased effect is produced upon the ante- 
rior muscles. 
Fig. 45. 
Position.-The hands are placed upon the hips, the 
trunk is perpendicular, and kneeling; legs in. stride po 
■ition. 
Action.-1. The trunk bends above the hips to one 
45.-'WING STRIDE-KNEELING, RINGING. KEGION OF THE TRLNK. 
209 
Bide, as far as it can. 2. It then re- 
turns and passes beyond the perpen- 
dicular for the same distance on the 
opposite side; the motion being 
somewhat rapid, so that the mo- 
mentum acquired will be felt upon 
the convex side. This action may 
be repeated ten or twelve times. 
The cut indicates the position and 
the direction of the movement, but 
not its extent, which will vary great- 
ly with the powers of the patient and the amount of 
practice. 
Effect.-This movement acts upon the muscles of 
either side, and also upon the liver, spleen, and other 
organs situated in the region affected by the motion, as 
the abdominal walls and viscera. 
Variation.-1. The arms may be in stretch position. 
The motion then is much more slowly performed, and 
the effect much greater, at the same time more gentle. 
2. The arms may be in stretch position, and the 
hands grasping a pair of weights. This variation adds 
greatly to the effect, making the movement a gentle 
and very effective one. 
Fig. 46. 
46 - YARD STRIDE-KNEELING, SWAYING. 
Position.-The arms are extended in a line, palms of 
the hands downward; the trunk is erect and kneeling; 
the legs apart, or in stride position. 
Action.-The trunk turns on its axis as far as the 
tnuscles will allow, from right to left, and then from 
left to right, and so continues to repeat the action of 
twisting, without bending the body, the arms being 
maintained in the same straight line. This may be re> 210 
REGION OF THE TRUNK. 
peated eight oi ten times. This movement affects the 
coverings of the abdomen, and the muscles of the back 
generally. It also warms the hands, and is derivative 
for the chest. 
Position.-The 
arms hang in their 
natural position by 
the side, trunk erect, 
sitting, legs in stride 
position. 
Action. - 1. The 
arms slowly rise side- 
wise, in the same 
perpendicular plane 
with the trunk, the 
back of the hands 
uppermost, carefully 
avoiding all irregu- 
lar actions, till the backs of the hands meet perpen- 
dicularly above the head, where they remain for a 
short time. 2. They then return slowly to the first 
position by the side. This action may be repeated six 
or eight times. In the cut, the dotted outlines show 
the commencing position, also the horizontal interme- 
diate position, and the circle described by the points o 
the fingers in making the movement. 
Effect.-In this movement the muscles of the top of 
the shoulder, and all of the muscles of the side of the 
chest, are brought into action, the former concentrically, 
the latter eccentrically ; the ribs are raised and everted, 
the diameter of the chest increased; the diaphragm is 
also affected. 
47.-STRIDE-SITTING, ARMS SIDE WISE-R USING. 
Fig. 4T. REGION OF THE TRUNK. 
211 
48.-stretch half-walk, half-kneeling, trunk backward 
BENDING. 
P o s i r i o'n. - The 
arms are in upward 
stretch position, the 
trunk erect; one leg 
kneeling, while the 
other is extended for- 
ward, with the sole 
of the foot upon the 
floor. 
Action. - 1. The 
trunk bends slowly 
backward, so as to 
carry the arms, which 
must be kept parallel 
with the head, and in the axis of the trunk, as far back- 
ward as possible. 2. It slowdy resumes the commencing 
position. This action may be repeated three or four 
times, when the position of the legs should be reversed, 
and the action again repeated. The cut shows the 
commencing position, and the dotted outline the posi- 
tion at the end of the first part of the movement. 
Effect.-The lower portion of the abdomen, the 
groin, and the whole anterior surface of the body are 
affected by this movement; the parts acted on are 
strengthened, and those beneath experience a deriva- 
tive influence in consequence of the action. 
Fig. 48. 
49- HALF-WING HALF-CURVE (WEIGHT HELP) STEP-RECLINED- 
STANDING, TRUNK SIDEWISE BENDING. 
♦ ' 
Position.-One hand rests upon the hips; the foot 
of the same side is elevated upon a step or stair; the 
other hand holds a weight, the forearm resting upon 212 
REGION OK THE TRUNK. 
the head; the weight of the body, 
which is erect, is sustained principally 
by the leg that stands erect upon the 
floor. 
Action.-1. The trunk slowly bends 
at th# waist in the direction of the ele- 
vated foot, being assisted by the position 
of the weight in the hand. 2. It rises 
slowly to the commencing position. 
This action may be repeated four or six 
times, with each side of the body. The 
dotted outline in the cut shows the di- 
rection of the motion. 
Effect.-This movement allows the 
muscles of the bent side to remain near- 
ly passive, the bending being mostly produced by the 
weight; while the muscles of the convex side of the 
bended body are felt strongly upon the stretch, or in 
eccentric action. The movement affects the walls of 
the body upon each side, also the contiguous internal 
organs. 
Fig. 49. 
50.-HALF-WING, HALF-STRETCH, STEP-STANDING, TRUNK SIDE- 
WISE-BENDING. 
Position.-In this movement no weight is held, and 
the arm is in upward-stretch position. In all other re- 
spects, the position is precisely like that in No. 49. 
Action.-The trunk bends as in 49, but it is brought 
into the curve of the terminating position by the action 
of the muscles of the side. The movement is repeated 
four or five times upon each side. 
Effect.-The effects of the movement differ but lit- 
tle from those of 49 ; the muscles in the present posi- 
tion, however, acting more concentrically. 213 
61-HALF-STRETCH, HALF-WING, HALF-KICK RECLINED STANDING, 
TRUNK SIDEWISE BENDING. 
REGION OF THE TRUNK. 
Position,-One arm in wing 
position; the leg of the same 
side extended forward in Icicle 
position, and maintained in 
place by means of a stool; the 
arm of the opposite side in 
stretch position ; the trunk re- 
clined, and resting with its 
weight upon the leg on the side 
of the stretched arm. 
Action.-1. The trunk slow- 
ly bends in the direction oppo- 
site the stretched arm. 2. It 
returns to the first position. 
The commencing position is 
shown in the cut. 
Effect.-This movement differs from No. 50, in 
causing much more strain upon the groin and iliac re- 
gion of the stretched side. 
Modification of 51.-Both arms may be in stretch 
position, as described in No. 54, instead, of only one. 
The twisting will then be performed in the same direc- 
tion as before, and the movement in every respect like 
the one here described. In this case the movement 
affects the trunk and elevates the ribs more than in 
the first described. 
Fig. 50. 
62.-HALF-STRETCH RECLINED KICK-STANDING, TRUNK 
TWISTING. 
Position.-The position is exactly like that in No.. 
51, and is seen in the cut. 
Action.-1. The trunk twists upon its axis, the 214 
REGION OF THE TRUNK. 
stretched 'side moving forward, and the opposite side 
backward. 2. It returns to the commencing position. 
This action is repeated four or five times with each 
side. 
Effect.-This movement affects nearly all the mus- 
cles of the trunk. 
53 -SHELTER LONG-SITTING, TRUNK JORWARD BENDING 
Position.-The hands 
are placed upon the 
head in shelter position; 
the trunk in sitting pos- 
ture ; the legs extended 
horizontally, and sup- 
ported by a cushion. 
Action.-1. The trunk • 
bends slowly forward as far as possible. 2. It returns 
slowly to the primary position. This action may be 
repeated five or six times. The cut shows the first po- 
sition, and also, by the dotted outline, the direction of 
the movement. 
Effect.-This movement elevates the ribs, causes 
the abdominal muscles powerfully to contract, elevates 
the abdominal contents, and affects eccentrically the 
muscles of the back and seat. 
Fig. 5L 
54.-ARMS ANGLE, HALF KICK (FOOT SUPPORTED) RECLINED- 
8TANDING, ARMS STRETCHING. 
Position.-The arms are bent at the elbows, while 
the upper arm is by the side of the body; the trunk 
reclines ; one leg placed two feet forward, in kick po- 
sition, with the foot supported by a stool; the weight 
of the body rests mainly upon the other leg. 
Action.-The arms slowly rise, stretching the el- REGION OF THE TRUNK. 
215 
bow, and keeping the 
extending arms in the di- 
rection of the transverse 
plane of the body till they 
become straight and par- 
allel with each other, with 
the head somewhat thrown 
back ; this position is re- 
tained for a few moments. 
2. The arms then slowly 
resume the first position. 
This action may be re- 
peated three or four times, 
when the position of the 
legs should be reversed, 
and the action again repeated. The dotted outlines of 
the arms in the cut show their commencing position, 
and the stretched arms, the limit of the upward mo- 
tion. 
Effect.-In this movement the whole of the ante- 
rior surface of the body and the tops of the shoulders 
are strongly acted upon ; also the parts beneath the 
shoulder-blades and the muscles connected with the 
ribs generally. It develops the muscles of these re- 
gions, is derivative for the chest, and is valuable as a 
means of assisting in its expansion. 
Varieties.-1. A pair of dumb-bells may be held by 
the hands, and the movement practiced in all other re- 
spects as before. This modification of the movement 
greatly increases its effect. 
2. The movement may commence in the stretch, po- 
sition, instead of the angle. The effect in this case 
will be the same in all essential particulars. 
Fig. 02. 216 
REGION OF THE TRUNK. 
Position.-The arms are in yard position ; in every 
<5ther particular the position is like that of No. 54. 
Action.-The trunk twists in the lumbar region as 
far around as it can, while the arms remain in the same 
-elative position, but sway in a circle of which the 
nands describe the arc, and the plane of which is 
necessarily inclined to the horizontal in consequence 
of the reclined position of the trunk. The motion 
is alternate, and may be repeated fifteen or twenty 
times, in the mean time changing the position of 
the legs. 
1 ffect.-This movement acts strongly upon the ah 
dominal walls, especially at the sides, and also upon the 
liver, spleen, and other visceral organs. 
55.-YARD RECLINED HALF-KICK STANDING, SWAYING. 
66.-HALF-STRETCH, half-wing, walk, trunk sidewise bent, 
STANDING, TRUNK TWISTING. 
Position.-One arm is in 
stretch, the other in wing, posi- 
tion ; the legs in -walk position, 
with a long distance between the 
feet; the leg of the wing side 
being forward, and the trunk 
bent toward the same side. The 
commencing position here de- 
scribed is identical with the ter- 
minating position of No. 52. 
Action.-1. The trunk slowly 
twists upon its axis, the side on 
which is the stretched arm, as in 
previous instances, moving forward, and the opposite 
backward. 2. It returns to the primary position. The 
cut shows the position after the twisting. 
Fig. 58. REGION OF THE TRUNK. 
217 
Tliis action may be repeated four or five times with 
each side. 
Effect.-This movement puts into powerful eccen- 
tric action the muscles of the sides ; it is derivative in 
cases of central congestion, and strengthens the chest 
and abdomen. 
57-YAED WALK-STANDING, TEITNK BACKWARD BENDING. 
Position.-The arms are 
extended horizontally on ei- 
ther side, the trunk erect; 
one foot is placed before, and 
the other behind, the center 
of the body, the two being 
two and a half feet apart. 
Action. - 1. The trunk 
bends backward as far as it 
can, where it remains a mo- 
ment. 2. It then returns to 
the commencing position. 
This action may be repeated 
three or four times, and then 
the legs should exchange places, and the action be re 
peated again. 
Effect.-This movement expands the chest, warms 
I he hands, and strengthens the back. 
Fig. 54. 
58-UPWARD-SIDEWISE STRETCH DOORWAY-STANDING, WALKING. 
Position.-This is taken in a doorway, the arms 
being extended up-ward and outward, and the palms 
of the hands pressed against the casement; the trunk 
erect, the feet just behind the middle portion of the 
threshold. 
Action.-1. One leg is raised as if to walk, but some- 218 
REGION OK THE TRUNK. 
what higher than is common in that 
action. 2. At the same instant the 
body is projected forward; but the 
arms being arrested by the resisting 
object against which the hands are 
placed, the center of the trunk is very 
much curved forward. 3. The raised 
leg returns to its place beside the other 
on the floor, and at the same time the 
trunk straightens, resuming the com 
mencing position. The other leg is next 
raised and put forward in the attempt 
to walk, but its progress is arrested, 
and the trunk bends forward; the 
whole body afterward returning to the 
commencing position, as before. This 
action may be repeated with each leg 
ten or twelve times. The cut repre- 
sents the movement at the point when the raised leg 
and the projecting trunk are falling back into the com 
mencing position. 
Effect.-This movement acts powerfully in expand- 
ing the chest, and tends to develop all the muscles of 
the front portion of the body. It is easily taken (after 
being once learned), and requires but little exertion 
compared with the amount of effect produced. In thia 
respect it very much resembles a true duplicated move 
ment. 
Fig. 06. 
59- - SHELTER, 8IDEWI8E-BENT STRIDE-STANDING, TRUNK ROTA 
TION. 
Position.-The hands are locked upon the top of the 
head, the trunk is bent far to one side, the legs in stride 
and the body in standing position. 
Action.-The trunk is made to rotate, carrying the REGION OF THE TRUNK. 
219 
head around a circle of consider- 
able extent. The axis of motion 
is just above the hips. This ro- 
tary motion may be performed 
three or four times each way, 
when the trunk should bend to 
the opposite side to the same ex- 
tent, and repeat the motion as 
many times more. In the cut, the 
dotted lines indicate the perpen- 
dicular, also the circle in which 
the head revolves. 
Effect. - This movement 
strengthens the parts about the loins, and expands the 
chest. 
Modification.-This movement may be taken in the 
sitting position. In this case, the body being more 
firmly supported, the extent of the movement, that is, 
the diameter of the circle described by the head, may 
be greater than while standing, and this will, of course, 
cause greater action of the sides. This movement 
affects the liver and spleen. 
Fig. Ml 
60.-HEAD-AND-HEELS lying, holding. 
Position.-The 
trunk lies in a hori- 
zontal position, with 
the hands clasped 
upon the head, the 
legs parallel, the 
head and the heels only resting on supports, as two 
chairs, while the remaining portion of the body is quite 
Fig. 57. 220 
KEGION OE THE TRUNK. 
Action.-The body I'emains in this position for a 
longer or shorter time, according to the strength. 
Effect.-The muscles of the back are put into power- 
ful action in this movement. Hence it is derivative in 
respect to the spinal cord, while it increases the de- 
velopment and power of the muscles of the back. 
Modification.-The supports may be placed nearer 
each other, as at the shoulders and lower legs. The 
movement thereby becomes less powerful, and the 
holding may continue longer. 
6L-ELB0W8-AND-T0ES LYING, HOLDING. 
Fig. 63. 
Position.-The arms are in rack elbow-bent position, 
the trunk horizontal, face downward; the elbows and 
toes only resting on a mattress. 
Action.-The trunk is held in this position for a few 
moments, more or less, according to the strength of the 
experimenter. 
Effect.-This movement produces a muscular ten- 
sion and contraction of the whole forward part of the 
body, the effect of which is especially felt at the lower 
portion of the abdomen. It presses the abdominal 
contents toward the diaphragm, and often instantly 
relieves prolapsus of any of the pelvic organs, as 
that of the womb, vagina, or rectum, restoring the 
parts to their natural condition and relation. Thia 221 
REGI< N OF THE TRUNK. 
movement is invaluable in this class of cases. Indeed, 
all other medical applications designed to meet the 
ends here indicated, bear no comparison in value with 
this simple movement. By repetition the weak parts 
are strengthened, and a radical cure is effected. 
Modification.-While in the position, above de- 
scribed, the hips may rise slowly upward, and after a 
moment, slowly fall to the level of the elbows and toes. 
This movement may be repeated six or eight times. 
This mode of taking the movement is often more' 
agreeable, as well as somewhat more positive, and pro- 
duces similar effects. 
62.-ELBOW-AND-LEG 8IDEWISE-LYING, HIPS RAISING. 
Position.- 
One arm lies 
upon the trunk, 
while the elbow 
of the other rests 
upon a mattress. 
The trunk is ex- 
tended horizontally, the lower leg lying with its side 
upon the mattress, the other resting upon it. 
Action.-1. The hips are raised slowly upward, and 
remain for a few moments lifted. 2. They return to 
their first position. This action may be repeated four 
or five times with each side. The dotted outline in the 
cut shows the point to which the hips rise. 
Effect.-This movement is strongly felt at the side 
of the hip -which is under at the time, and acts through- 
out the whole extent of the side of the body. It also 
affects the back. 
Fig. 59. 222 
REGION OE THE TRUNK. 
63.-SHELTER BACK-LYING, HEAD AND LEGS RAISING. 
Position. - The 
trunk lies horizon- 
tally upon the back, 
supported by a mat- 
tress ; the hands 
clasped upon the 
head; legs paral- 
lel. 
Action.-1. Both the feet and head are raised from the 
horizontal line at the same time, so as to cause the 
body to assume a curved shape, and remain for a short 
period. 2. They return to the commencing position. 
This action may be repeated five or six times. 
Effect.-This movement is a very powerful one for 
the abdominal muscles, affecting the visceral organs 
derivatively. It also increases the force of the general 
circulation, and urges the blood into the capillaries of 
the system at large. 
Modification.-Only the back may be supported, 
instead of the whole length of the body. The effect is 
similar. The cut above represents the movement as 
being taken in this way ; the dotted outline indicating 
the extent of the movement. 
Fig. 60. 
Position.-The arms remain in contact with the body 
at the sides; the trunk rests with the back supported 
by a single chair; while both the legs and the head 
and shoulders are suffered to obey the law of gravita- 
tion, and fall below the horizontal position. 
Action.-The body is allowed to remain for a short 
period in this position. 
Effect.-This is chiefly felt in the forward part of 
64.-BACK LYING, HOLDING. 223 
REGION OF THE TRUNK. 
the body, which in this position is str etched, qt receives 
eccentric action. The curved position causes consid- 
erable pressure upon the abdominal contents. 
65- WING-STEIDE LEG-ANGLE STANDING, Th (INK VIBEATION. 
Position.-The hands are placed upon the hips ; the 
knees and thighs are bent to the greatest possible ex- 
tent ; the feet rest on the floor about two feet apart; 
the trunk maintained in a position as nearly erect as 
the position of the legs will allow. 
Action.-The body is slightly raised by the exertion 
of all the muscles of the legs, on which its weight rests, 
and is directly permitted to return with the force of its 
weight to the same position. It should rise only a few 
inches, and repeat the action a dozen times or more as 
fast as possible. 
Effect.-This is felt in the perineum, and is propa- 
gated to the rectum, exciting its contractility to a 
noticeable, and sometimes to a remarkable degree. If 
the posture is maintained with difficulty, the back may 
be supported by a smooth wall. This movement en- 
courages an evacuation of the bowels in cases of con- 
stipation. 
es.-operations UPON TUE DIGESTIVE ORGANS.* 
A great variety of motions may be given to one's 
own digestive organs suited to different constitutions, 
conditions of disease, development of the region, 
strength of the person, etc. A few forms are selected 
for the reader's attention, which, if not entirely appli- 
* In the Inferior animals, the position of whose bodies is such that the trunk ii 
horizontal, the digestive organs are subjected to considerable motion at every step 
taken; and this-motion is greatly augmented with the increase of the pace. The 
upright posture of man in a degree precludes this motion that is inevitable 'or the 
brute. This fact, however, renders it necessary that he should employ his reason 
and intelligence in order to secure a relief he is so liable to need. 224 
KEGION OF THE TKUNK. 
cable for a given case, may at least prove suggestive of 
some other that may act more to the purpose. 
Position.-Lying upon a couch, with the shoulders 
raised and the legs in an easy position. 
Varieties of Action.-1. Kneading.-The two fists, 
strongly clenched, may be pressed upon the abdomen 
so firmly as to cause the subjacent parts to yield be- 
fore the pressure. This action is to be repeated for sev- 
eral minutes over the whole region of the abdomen. 
The movement excites the muscular contractility of 
the tube, and promotes fecal discharges. 
2. Shaking.-The hands are applied to each side of 
the abdomen, and alternate pressure given to it, pro- 
ducing a somewhat rapid oscillating movement of all 
the abdominal contents included between the two 
hands. This movement promotes venous absorption, 
and removes congestion. 
3. Stroking.-Each hand is applied to the region of 
the groin, the tips of the fingers nearly meeting; then 
each hand is to be drawn slowly, with much pressure, 
upward and outward. The movement has an effect 
similar to that of the first. 
4. Circular Stroking.-The pressure of the hands is 
made to follow the course of the colon, beginning low 
upon the right side of the abdomen, passing around be- 
neath the stomach, and terminating on the side oppo- 
site. This movement also promotes fecal discharges. 
5. Point Pressure.-This may be performed under 
the short ribs ; the ends of the fingers are applied from 
below, and strong pressure made with a tremulous mo- 
tion. The movement excites muscular and nervous 
action in the organs reached, and in certain cases re 
lievee pain. 
6. Clajpping.-The extended hands are made to 225 
KEGION OF THE TRUNK. 
strike any portion of the frontal region of the body. 
The blows should be given with each hand alternately, 
and at such a rate of rapidity ai. d force as to produce 
no unpleasant sensations. If there be a point where 
pain is felt, the motion, at each successive application, 
should for a period be given to surrounding parts, ap- 
proaching the tender point gradually until the pain 
disappears. 
The doubled fist may be used instead of the flat 
hand, when it can be borne. This movement promotes 
absorption, and removes congestion. 
Variety of Position.-All the above movements 
may be applied in the standing position, with the 
trunk a little bent forward, or stooping. 
Effects.-The above motions are but imperfect imi- 
tations of a few of the duplicated movements that may 
be applied to the part; their effects, however, are often 
highly salutary. 
It is not necessary in practice to procure each of 
these effects in a distinct form, because in every patho- 
logical state there is a general similarity of condition 
to that of other such states ; and it is pathologica. 
states, more especially, that these movements meet. 
Indeed, the effects above described merge into each 
other as do the applications themselves. With con- 
gestion of the mucous membrane, there may be dry- 
ness and costiveness ; or there may be an attempt at 
relief by serous effusion or diarrhea; but either of 
these is relieved by overcoming the primary cause. 
In either case the surcharged capillaries need to have 
their contents impelled along their course. In either 
case, too, the subjacent muscle needs more nutrition 
and power ; in both the circulation needs to be equal- 
ized, and nutritive absorption promoted. These lesults, 226 
REGION OF THE TRUNK. 
the motions above described, and others analogous, 
tend in an eminent degree to secure. 
67.-AGITATION OF THE ABDOMEN AND DIAPHRAGM. 
Position.-Wing stride sitting. 
Action.-This movement consists in contracting the 
abdominal coverings and diaphragm by strong efforts 
exerted in rapid succession, thus producing an oscil- 
latory motion of the entire abdominal contents. This 
may be continued for several minutes. 
Effect.-This movement promotes the contractile 
power of all the muscular tissues parti cipating in it, 
and the functional action of all the (rgans affected 
by it REGION OF THE ARMS. 
227 
(Qaphr (SHtrtn. 
REGION OF THE ARMS. 
Remarks on this Region.-The region of the arms 
is intimately connected with that of the chest. This 
connection is not only suggested by its contiguity to 
the chest, but indicated by the anatomical conforma- 
tion and relations of the parts. The arms are con- 
nected with the chest by large and strong muscles 
spreading themselves over a good portion of its surface. 
The blood-vessels and nerves of the chest also extend 
along the arms. The gymnast who uses his arms vig- 
orously and habitually, never fails to secure an ample 
development of the chest. We see this fact further 
illustrated in the use we make of the arms in certain 
duplicated movements for the purpose of overcoming 
various deformities and even grave diseases of the tho- 
racic region. 
Several movements have already been described in 
which very potent effects are incidentally experienced 
in the arms and hands. Indeed, movements of the 
chest and arms are so connected that no absolute and 
precise distinction can be drawn between those of the 
two regions, the one being necessarily affected by the 
operations designed to influence the other. Power 
may be exerted by the arms in every direction, in each 
of which there will result a distinct effect appertaining 
to both the arms and the chest. 
But it is often highly proper to employ such move- 228 
REGION OF THE ARMS. 
ments as chiefly affect the arms. The cases in which 
one arm is much stronger than the other are almost 
universal, indicating how general is the reprehensible 
habit of making partial use of these important mem- 
bers. So, too, an arm becomes useless from nervous 
shocks, especially in children, and its growth partly 
ceases. It then continues powerless, because the parent 
or physician does not employ the means in his hands to 
direct the nutritive actions into the channels in which 
they are now so especially needed. These results are 
only more conspicuous in the arms, the principle being 
equally true in its application throughout the body. 
In all cases of great feebleness, the treatment must 
at first be of a kind that husbands the strength, while 
it is necessary, at the same time, to direct the energies 
and the nutrition of the system outwardly. The blood 
of central congestion needs to be removed to external 
members deficient in it. The use of arm movements, 
forcible in proportion to the general strength, is the 
proper mode of commencing the treatment of these 
cases. By this means the pressure in the large cen- 
tral vessels is relieved, and thereby a most important 
advantage is gained in the treatment of the disease. 
The novice will pay a costly forfeit if he neglects this 
essential portion of the treatment, even in cases proper 
for its application, especially as diseases situated in the 
superior cavity of the trunk are the most difficult and 
dangerous of all under any kind of treatment. By 
using these precautions, however, the treatment be- 
comes quickly and certainly beneficial. 
The reader will notice that in the examples given of 
movements of the lower extremities, advantage is taken 
of the weight of the body or of some portion of it, which 
weight is made to act upon the regions to which the EEGION OF THE ARMS. 
229 
movement is principally directed. In this way effects 
are produced that somewhat resemble those of the du- 
plicated movements. So, also, as we approach the up- 
per portion of the body, advantage derived from this 
source may be obtained by taking such positions as 
throw a portion of the weight of the body upon the 
arms. 
68-stretch BACKWARD-LYING, WEIGHT-HOLDING. 
Position.-The arms are stretched, the trunk extend- 
ed upon the back, with the crown of the head pro- 
Fig. 61. 
jecting a little beyond the edge oi the couch; weights 
are held in the hands. 
Action.-The weights are held for a length of time 
proportioned to the strength, the action consisting in a 
holding. The cut shows the position. 
Effect.-The weights not only task the muscles of 
the under sides of the arms, but the arms serve as lev- 
ers, by the action of which the ribs are raised and the 
chest enlarged. There is little voluntary effort in this 
movement, but much valuable effect is produced. It 
is particularly advantageous for strong persons, but 
useful also for the weak, if not carried too far. 
Vahiety I.--1. The arms may be slowly raised, 
maintaining their parallel relation to each other until 230 
kegion of the akms. 
they reach the perpendicular, when, 2, they are allowed 
gradually to fall back again. This may be repeated 
six or eight times. This mode of performing the move- 
ment is somewhat easier than the first, and is attended 
with similar effects. 
II. The arms may describe an arc of a horizontal 
circle on each side, repeating the motion three or four 
times. This mode of employing the movement calls 
other muscles into play, which it is sometimes desir- 
able to develop. 
69.-back grasp, forward arms angling. 
Position.-The arms are 
extended forward, grasp- 
ing with the hands some 
convenient object, as the 
edge of a mantel or top of 
a bedstead; the body is in 
forward-fall-standing posi- 
tion, forming an angle of 
about forty-five degrees. 
Action.-1. The elbows 
slowly bend outward, 
while the body falls for- 
ward, till the head is 
brought into the immediate vicinity of the object of 
support. 2. The elbows now slowly stretch, bringing 
the trunk again into the commencing position. This 
action may be repeated four or five times. The dotted 
outline in the cut indicates the extent of the move- 
ment. 
Effect.-In this movement not only the arms are 
affected, but the chest is expanded, and the anterior 
muscles of the abdomen are acted upon. 
Fig. 62. REGION OF THE ARMS. 
231 
Variety.---Some means of support, about half as 
high as that represented in the above cut, may be em- 
ployed. 
In this case the strain is greater upon the arms and 
hands, and the influence upon the anterior muscles 
of the abdomen is increased so as to elevate the ribs 
and visceral organs. 
Position.-The arms are stretch- 
ed, and a transverse pole, eight or 
ten inches below the point of ut- 
most reach, is grasped by them di- 
rectly over the feet-these, as well 
as the hands, being placed close to- 
gether. 
Action.-The hips bend to one 
aide, and then revolve in a circle of 
which the diameter is as extensive 
as the position of the body will al- 
low. The revolutions are performed 
eight or ten times in each direction. 
The cut shows the position, and the 
dotted outline the circle, in which 
the hips revolve. 
Effect.-The hands and arms sustain nearly the 
whole weight of the body, and the motion affords 
action alternately to nearly all the muscles of the 
arms. The same effect is also experienced in nearly 
equal degree by the shoulders and chest, the ribs being 
elevated. The size of the chest and the action of the 
respiratory muscles are increased. The strong tension 
of the arms also produces a derivative effect upon the 
chest, and the hands are warmed. There is but little 
70.-STRETCH-GRASP STANDING, HIP ROTATION. 
Fig. 63. 232 
REGION OF THE ARMS. 
exertion of the will expended in this movement, and 
consequently there is but little fatigue. 
71.-HALF-STEETCII GRASP STANDING, ARM TWISTING. 
Position.-One arm is stretched up- 
ward, and the hand grasps a transverse 
pole placed at about the height it can 
conveniently reach, while the body is 
standing erect. 
Action.-1. The trunk turns quite 
round, without moving from its stand- 
ing-point, which, as the grasp of the 
hand is maintained, causes the arm to 
be twisted. 2. It then turns in the op- 
posite direction, not stopping till the 
arm is untwisted and twisted again in the 
opposite direction. This action may be 
repeated four or five times with each arm. 
Effect.-This movement causes all 
the muscles of the arm to act strongly 
and eccentrically, it affects all the blood-vessels, small 
and large, is strongly derivative, and warms the hands. 
Fig. 64. 
Fig. 65. 
72.-YARD STBIDE-SITHNG, 
ARMS TWISTING. 
Posit ion.-The 
arms are extended at 
either side in the same 
straight line, body in 
a sitting position. 
Action.-The arms 
are twisted upon their 
own longitudinal axis, 
first forward, then 
backward, alternate* REGION OF THE ARMS. 
233 
ly; the same position being maintained. They may 
be twisted eight or ten times each way. The position 
is shown in the cut. 
Effect.-This movement engages all the muscles 
of the arms in both concentric and eccentric action. 
It is highly stimulant to the circulation, warms the 
hands, and is derivative for the chest. 
73.-STANDING, ABM3 ROTATING. 
Position. - The arms 
are stretched in the up- 
right standing posture. 
Action.-The arms are 
made to describe circles, 
perpendicular and paral- 
lel with the body, the 
diameters of which are 
twice the length of the 
arm. After revolving in 
one direction ten- or a 
dozen times, the direc- 
tion of the motion is re- 
versed. The cut shows 
the position, and the dot- 
ted circle the course tra- 
veled by the hand. 
Effect.-This move- 
ment causes the blood to be retained in the arms and 
hands, because the centrifugal force attained by the 
rotation counteracts the return of venous circulation; 
while, at the same time, the arterial flow is assisted. 
The consequence is, that the hands become not only 
warmed, but absolutely swollen with blood, and the 
tendency to cold hands is overcome. The movement 
Fig. 66. 234 
REGION OF THE ARMS. 
also relieves congestion of the chest. Besides these 
effects, all the muscles and ligaments about the shoulder 
joint, including those that are spread over the chest, 
are strengthened. 
Modification.-1. One arm may be in wing position, 
while the movement is performed, as described, by the 
filler arm, but changing after a suitable number of 
revolutions. The effect of this mode of performing the 
movement is, perhaps, greater than if both arms re- 
volved at the same time. The body accommodates 
itself better to the single than to the double movement, 
and the object is achieved in a shorter time, and with 
less tendency to fatigue. This last advantage wJl be 
especially appreciated by the feeble invalid. 
2. Let the commencing be the rack position. One 
arm may be brought backward on a nearly horizontal 
plane, as far as it can extend, with a swinging motion, 
and while returning to the commencing position the 
other arm may be in the act of performing the same 
motion backward that was before performed by the 
first. These alternate motions may be kept up till fifteen 
or twenty are performed. The dotted outlines indicate 
the positions occupied by the arms anteriorly and pos- 
teriorly in this movement. The body is required to be 
in a more lax state in this than in the principal move- 
ment. 
74--hanging, swinging. 
Position.-For this movement it is necessary to pro- 
vide a swinging apparatus, to consist of a pole about 
three feet long, suspended horizontally by ropes attached 
to it at each end, and so high that it can be just reach- 
ed by a person standing upon the floor. The higher 
the ceiling from which the apparatus is suspended, the REGION OF THE ARMS. 
235 
greater the arc through which the body 
swings, and the more desirable the ar- 
rangement. The two hands are to grasp 
the pole, as represented in the cut. 
Action.-The person gives a spring 
with the feet, throwing himself power- 
fully forward, and hangs by his hands. 
The momentum thus acquired causes 
him to swing for a time like a pendu- 
lum, the feet describing the arc of a 
large circle, of which the suspended 
ropes and body together are the radius. 
This motion may be continued as long as 
the body can be sustained by the hands. 
Effect.-This motion does not oc- 
casion fatigue, since the will is but 
slightly exerted, but the effects are 
very important. A powerful derivative effect, having 
reference chiefly to the central portions of the body, is 
produced, caused, 1. By the strong action of the mus- 
cles of the hands, arms, and shoulders, required to sus- 
tain the body, the prolonged tension occasioning a 
subsequent rush of the blood into the arms. 2. The 
swinging motion produces a very great centrifugal 
effect, which, acting upon the circulating fluids, causes 
them to flow into, and be retained in, the lower ex- 
tremities. In other words, the venous circulation is 
for the time retarded, while the arterial is accelerated, 
and the result is an accumulation of blood in the lower 
extremities, expanding the vessels and increasing the 
nutrition of that region. While these objects are being 
attained, the equally important one of diminishing the 
amount of blood in central portions of the body is also 
secured, and the circulation is equalized. 
Fig. CT. 236 
REGION OF THE ARMS. 
Another desirable effect produced by this movement 
is the elevation of the ribs, with consequent expansion 
of the chest. It will be seen that the weight of the 
body is suspended by the arms. But the arms being 
connected by muscular attachments with the ribs, both 
before and behind, the body is really suspended at the 
walls of the chest in such a way as to force them outward, 
and to allow the inspired air to occupy a larger space. 
It is evident that in this movement most of the in- 
dications for the treatment of chronic pulmonary affec- 
tions of the various grades are fulfilled. The same 
may be said in respect to the treatment of affections of 
the liver, and the dyspepsia usually connected -with it. 
Hence, for chronic invalids of nearly every class, this is 
a movement as important as it is grateful and easily 
performed. 
75.-BWING-HANG-STANDING, TRUNK ROTATING. 
Fig. 68. 
Position.-The hands 
grasp the swing, in the 
same ■way as in No. 74. 
but the feet remain upon 
the floor. 
Action.-The body falls 
to one side by its weight; 
but being sustained by 
the swing, it bends at the 
side or shoulders, while 
the feet, or rather the 
toes, remain on the floor, 
directly under the point 
of suspension. 
Action.-The body 
now, by a little effort REGION OK THE ARMS. 
237 
made to revolve in a circle, the longest diameter of 
which is at the shoulders, care being taken to keep it 
looking constantly one way. It may revolve several 
times in each direction. 
Effect.-In this movement every part of the surface 
of the body is stretched, as the weight is thrown upon 
it, and relaxed, as the revolution throws the weight 
upon other muscles. The intercostal muscles and those 
of the arms are particularly subjected to the action, as 
are also the muscles of the abdomen, back, and legs. 
As this movement is accomplished with little effort, it 
is very grateful and refreshing. It also develops the 
the chest and respiratory apparatus, and is useful in 
dissipating the unpleasant feeling of fatigue, or any in- 
cipient congestion that may have been produced by the 
expenditure of too much power in the practice of other 
movements. 
Modification.-Instead of revolving in a circle, the 
body may remain stationary at any given point in the 
circle; as, for instance, looking forward. In this case 
the anterior portion of the body is convex, the feet 
being placed far back, and strong action is produced 
upon the muscles of the chest and abdomen. 
Position.-The hands grasp firmly some object about 
as high as the shoulders ; the feet and legs are extend- 
ed backward, the toes resting on the floor; the body 
takes on a curved shape, the convexity being an- 
terior. 
Action.-1. The trunk straightens itself, so that it 
forms a line diagonal to that of the arms. 2. It then 
falls back into its curved position. This may be re- 
peated two or three times. < The dotted outline in the 
76.-TT.UNK FORWAED-FALL HANGING, HOLDING. 238 
REGION OF THE ARMS. 
cut indicates the 
commencing posi- 
tion, while the figure 
shows the position 
attained by stretch- 
ing. 
Effect.-Thia 
movement affects 
the hands and arms, 
the chest, the abdo- 
men, and the legs, 
upon their anterior portion. 
Modification.-The body may take the position 
shown in the accompanying cut, and hold for a few 
moments. The effects are very similar to those of the 
above movement, but perhaps a little more marked. 
The top of a bedstead or a mantel will answer perfectly 
well as a means for obtaining the position. 
Fig. 69. 
Position. - 
The arms ex- 
tended on ei- 
ther side, in 
yard position, 
but the elbows 
may be bent; 
the trunk is in 
backward fall 
position, and is 
supported by a chair or cushioned stool under each 
elbow, while the back of the heels are supported by 
the floor, the body being carefully maintained in the 
straight line. 
77 - BACKWARD-FALL ELBOWS-SUPPORT LYING, HOLDING. 
Fig. 7a REGION OF THE ARMS. 
239 
Action.-The position may be continued for about 
one minute. The cut shows the position and action. 
Effect.-This movement affects the back of th© 
arms, the muscles between the shoulders and under 
the shouulder blades, and also those of the back; it 
strengthens these parts, and is derivative for the spina 
cord. 
78.-HALF-STRETCH SUPPORT HALF-STANDING, 8TEETCHING. 
Position.-One arm is extend- 
ed horizontally, and being in 
contact with some object, helps 
to maintain the upright position 
of the body ; the other arm is 
stretched; the leg of the same 
side resting with the foot upon 
a stool, while the other leg is 
free; the trunk is erect. 
Action.-The action in this 
movement does not consist in 
change of place, nor in holding, 
but in putting all the muscles 
of the standing side of the body 
into a state of tension; the ac- 
tion of each muscle being ex- 
actly balanced by that of its an- 
tagonist. In other words, all of 
the muscles of one side of the 
body are stretched by a strong 
exertion of the will. After the action has continued 
for a minute on one side, the other side may undergo 
the same discipline. The cut indicates the position. 
Effect.-This movement is quite fatiguing, and is 
strongly derivative in its effects; it may be used on 
Fig. 71, 240 
BEGION OF THE ARMS. 
one side, when that side is much weaker than the op- 
posite, as in partial hemiplegia, curvature of spine, etc. 
79.-STRETCH-STRIDE STANDING OR STAR-STANDING, STRETCHING. 
Position. -The arms are 
stretched upward, and a little 
outward; the legs are in the 
stride position, trunk erect. 
Action.-An effort is simul- 
taneously made by nearly all the 
muscles of the body to reach 
higher, and this action is con- 
tinued for a minute. 
Effect.-This is a very fa- 
tiguing movement, since it calls 
for a powerful exertion of the 
will to maintain the simultane- 
ous action of so many muscles. 
The effect is derivative, and 
equalizing to the circulation, 
and also to the nervous and nu- 
tritive forces, for it stimulates at once all these powers 
to harmonious and vigorous co-operation. Tt drives 
the blood toward the skin, and if continued, soon ex- 
cites perspiration. 
Fig. 72. MEGTON OF THE HEAD AND NECK. 
241 
REGION OF THE HEAD AND NECK. 
Remarks on the Region of the Head.-The motions 
.mF the head are .due to the action of the muscles of the 
neck, some of which have their attachments at the base 
of the skull, and to the framework of the chest. The 
neck is provided with numerous and powerful muscles, 
enabling the head to assume an extensive range of posi- 
tions, and to perform a variety of most important move- 
ments. These movements are useful, In a hygienic and 
medical point of view, chiefly as they affect the circu- 
lation of the blood to and from the head, and also as 
enabling us to modify, to a limited extent, the circula- 
tion and nutrition of the throat, and the several organs 
of sense, as the eyes, ears, nose, etc., all of which are 
liable to disease or weakness. These muscles of the 
neck are also called upon to assist in removing certain 
natural and acquired faults of position, or deformities, 
not only of the neck, but also of the spine, of which it 
is a part. In treating of the several movements of this 
region, it is more convenient to refer them to the head, 
since it is the change in the position of the latter that 
constitutes their most conspicuous result, although it is 
the neck that is the region to which the movement is 
really applied. 242 
EEGI0N OF THE HEAD AND NECK. 
Fi*. TO, 
80.-HEAD TURNING. 
Position.-The body may be in either sitting or 
standing position, with the head erect, as in the central 
figure of the cut, which is the commencing position in 
all head movements. 
Action.-The head turns upon its axis to the right, 
so far as it can, and then, in the same manner and to 
the same extent, to the left, thus twisting the neck. 
The terminating positions of the movement are shown 
in the right and left figures of the cut. The action may 
be repeated six or eight times each day. 
Effect.-This movement brings all the muscles of 
the neck into strong action, thus causing them to press 
upon the vessels, and so aiding the circulation of the 
blood in this region. 
81.-HEAD FORWARD BENDING 
Fig. 74 
Position.-This is the same as is 
represented in No. 80. 
Action.-The head is bent directly 
forward, as far as it can go, bringing 
the chin close to the breast, as in the 
cut. It is then carried up to the com- 
mencing position. This action may be 
repeated six or eight times. 
Effect.-This movement is concentric for the front REGION OF THE HEAD AND NECK. 
243 
part of the neck, and eccentric for the back. It is 
sometimes advantageous on account of its influence on 
the vertebral vessels, in removing headaches. It is 
also useful in affections of the throat. 
82.-HEAD BACKWARD BENDING. 
Fig. 75. 
Position.-This is the same as that 
shown in No. 80. 
Action.-The head is carried back- 
ward as far as possible. It then returns 
to its first position. This action to be re- 
peated six or eight times. 
Effect.-This is nearly the same as 
that in No. 81. The kind of action, however, is differ- 
ent ; the eccentric action being in this case exercised 
by the anterior muscles, while the concentric is effected 
by the muscles at the back of the neck. 
83.-HEAD BACKWARD BENDING AND TWISTING. 
Position.-The same. 
Action.-1. The head bends back- 
ward, and assumes the position repre- 
sented in fig. 75. 2. It then turns to 
the right while thus bent, and then to 
the left, and so on, alternating the mo- 
tion exactly as in No. 80. 
Effect.-This movement acts much more power- 
fully upon the front of the neck than that in No. 80. 
It is useful for its derivative effect upon the laryngeal 
mucous membrane in case of congestion of that surface. 
Fig. 78. 
84.-HEAD BACKWARD BENDING AND TWISTING (SCREW 
RAISING). 
Position.-The head is bent forward and sidewise. 
Action-The head slowly bends backward, turning 244 
REGION OF THE HEAD AND NECK. 
the face upward, while at the same 
time the head turns upon its axis until 
it looks toward one shoulder. The mo- 
tion is like the turning of a screw. The 
head may return to the primary posi- 
tion, and then rise and turn in the 
direction opposite to that previously 
taken. This action may be repeated each way five or 
six times. 
Effect.-This movement is useful much in the same 
way as those previously described. It is also useful in 
lateral curvature of the spine; but in this case the 
turning should be of course in only one direction. 
Fig. It. PART III. 
I HE PATHOLOGY OF SEVERAL FORMS OF CHRONIC DISEASR 
©Ijirittn. 
THE RELATIONS OF MOVEMENTS. 
Remark.--No attempt will be made in the follow- 
ing pages to go into any particular account of the 
symptoms and progressive stages of the several affec- 
tions that we have selected as the theme of remark. 
Such an account would so far swell the size of our vol- 
ume as to defeat its object. Besides, if such an effort 
were possible within our present limits, there are many 
excellent popular treatises, written in the interest of 
different medical systems, that embrace a similar de- 
sign, and do such ample justice to the subject as would 
render any further attempt on our part in the same di- 
rection a work of supererogation, to say the least of it. 
In the following chapters, therefore, we have thought 
it best to presume some knowledge on the part of the 
reader in regard to the nature and symptoms of the 
diseases noticed-a degree of knowledge sufficient, at 
any rate, to enable him to refer the particular com- 
plaint under discussion to some general class. It should 
further be understood that the principles of the Move- 
ment-Cure, which generally aim at the correction of 
the primary, radical causes of disease, regard the sec 246 
THE RELATIONS OF MOVEMENTS. 
ondary symptoms as merely effects, and consequently 
as demanding less attention than they do in those plans 
of remedial treatment in which the suppression of these 
is regarded as the prime object of the practitioner's 
solicitude. 
The account of himself given by the patient to the 
physician is really nothing more than a statement 
crudely rendered of the evidences of the operation of 
abnormal causes which it is the function of the latter, 
through this deceptive vail of symptoms, to recognize 
and remove. To suppress or ameliorate the symp- 
toms while the cause remains, is but to practice a 
sort of deception at the expense of the patient; to 
sing the song of peace ! peace ! in the time of trouble; 
to attempt to purify the stream while the work of 
corruption is proceeding busily in the secret depths 
of the fountain. 
It will be my chief endeavor, in the following pages, 
to expose the essential nature of certain maladies in 
connection with their causes; not in the light of the 
ordinary, or what would be termed orthodox therapeu- 
tics, but in that better, truer light, as we think, that is 
shed upon the subject by the Movement-Cure. We shall 
endeavor to make manifest to the reader's mind, what is 
clearer than noon-day to the writer's, to wit, the entire 
therapeutic appropriateness (and we use the word in its 
full, original meaning) of the " cure" to the many mor- 
bid conditions to which it is now beginning to be ap- 
plied ; and hence the propriety of claiming for it the 
distinction of being, in the best sense of the term, 
a philosophical system. It can not be said that the 
views of pathology herein set forth are in the interests 
exclusively of either of the two great antagonistic theo- 
ries of medical science, the chemical or humoral) or the THE RELATIONS OF MOVEMENTS. 
247 
vital. The curative process, properly so called, is re- 
garded as eminently & physiological process, in distinc- 
tion from the critical and artificial, and therefore patho- 
logical actions that are the result of the means used by 
nearly all other schools of medical practice extant. 
These processes, it has been shown, present both chem- 
ical and vital features; and that the movements promote 
these processes, we have made it our business to demon- 
strate in these pages. It will be seen that the function 
of any defective locality may be exalted to the healthy 
state, the circulation be made equable, innervation di- 
rected to needy quarters, and so the health be restored, 
not by excitement and violence (which are ever fol- 
lowed by depression and functional anarchy), but by 
gentle, gradual, and harmonious tonic impressions. 
These results are reached in an eminent degree by 
the practice of the duplicated movements, the effects 
of which, I hope to be able to show, may to a consid- 
erable degree be realized by the single movements, as 
explained and represented in this volume. 
Under this general head may be embraced all the 
common chronic disorders of the stomach, with the re- 
sulting loss of muscular power and disturbance of the 
nervous system. The varieties of this disorder so 
named are many, and the symptoms attending them are 
legion ; but it is unnecessary here to go into a partic- 
ular enumeration of them, since, being dependent all on 
essentially the same causes, very little variation in the 
treatment is demanded for all the countless phases of 
the complaint. 
The digestion of food may be regarded as a central 
function, upon which the integrity of all the other? 
INDIGESTION-DYSPEPSIA. 248 
THE KELATION8 OF MOVEMENTS. 
are, to a great extent, dependent, and all, tnerefore, 
are apt to suffer in consequence of disturbance at thia 
point. Indeed, no function of the body can be proper- 
ly understood when considered apart from its physio- 
logical connection; but the control which this exerts 
over all the others is made painfully evident to the 
sei es in case of any considerable deviation, as many 
a reader will be quick to acknowledge. Digestion is 
the first in the order of the changes wrought upon 
alimentary materials in the system, and when we con- 
sider that the supply of this material is under the con- 
trol of the judgment and will, the responsibility resting 
upon us for the healthy performance of this act becomes 
evident. 
The term digestion simply implies the reduction of 
alimentary material to a state of fluidity, whereby it is 
rendered fit to enter the circulation and supply mate- 
rial for the organizing processes of the frame. This 
act is effected in the digestive cavity formed by the 
alimentary canal, which, with its expansions and con- 
volutions, extends quite through the body, and pre- 
sents an inner surface of several square feet. Each 
portion of this canal is adapted to perform some dis- 
tinct and necessary portion of this act, and the func- 
tion is incomplete if any portion of the digestive sur- 
face is incapable of performing its particular, allotted 
share of the operation. 
This change is effected in food by means of secre- 
tions poured into the cavity and mingled with the 
food derived from all parts of the digestive surface. 
The extent of this surface is very much augmented by 
certain appendages to it called glands, whose secre- 
tions are conducted into the cavity. 
The amount of secretion thus daily poured into thia THE RELATIONS OF MOVEMENTS. 
249 
cavity for this exclusive purpose is very large, and 
consists in the following substances: 
®Saliva 3.30 lbs. 
Gastric juice 14.08 " 
Bile 3.30 " 
Pancreatic juice 44 Iba. 
Intestinal juice .44 " 
The aggregate of these secretions amounts to more than 
twenty-one and a half pounds of solvent secretions 
poured into the digestive cavity, whose whole object is 
the solution of the two or three pounds of food that is 
daily required to sustain the functions of the body. 
These secretions, we all know, are derived from the 
blood, and their quality and adaptation to the purposes 
for which they are intended, we see at once, must 
greatly depend on the quality of that fluid. 
While we are investigating the causes, and selecting 
the remedies for indigestion, it is necessary to inquire 
into the separate influence exerted by these several 
factors that take part in the act-namely, the food, the 
secretions, and those accidental or temporary conditions 
of the system that have so much to do in promoting or 
impairing its health. 
1. The guality of the food is a matter of much mo- 
ment, and this is a subject that happens to receive, in 
our day, much attention from the popular mind; but, 
unfortunately, this attention proceeds from a most un- 
reliable quarter; for, sad to say, senses perverted by 
long habits of wrong action are allied to the popular 
mind, and hence its judgments are generally erroneous. 
To the healthfully disciplined judgment, enlightened 
by science and experiment, there is but one test allowed 
for food-taste, fashion, must be set aside-the only 
question to be put in regard to any given material is, 
♦ Draper's Physiology. 250 
THE DELATIONS OF MOVEMENTS. 
Can it be assimilated ? AV hat is its degree of capacity 
for supporting all the functional operations of the sys- 
tem? And here let me say, we must carefully discrimi- 
nate between supporting and exciting functional acts, 
for substances belonging to the class of excitants, 
though generally mixed with, and often regarded as, 
food, yet in a true physiological sense do not really bear 
this relation. Even the mechanical and the imponder- 
able agents may excite, but they certainly do not sup- 
port, vital actions. They occasion waste, possibly to a 
hurtful extent; they never help forward in any direct 
way the organizing or reproducing processes of the 
body. The organic actions of the body have two grand 
objects in view: 1st. The construction of the instru- 
ments of vital action. 2d. The maintenance of the 
vital temperature. To accomplish this there must be a 
constant supply of materials capable of being organized 
instead of those capable of being oxydized. But of all 
the products of the organic world, whether produced 
by the plant or derived from the animal, nature re- 
stricts food material proper to sustain life to two dis- 
tinct types. One is the albuminous, consisting of vege- 
table and animal aliment, and its derivatives fibrin, 
gluten, casein, etc., and the saline matters associated 
with these, all of which contain nitrogen in a certain 
definite proportion. The other class contains no nitro- 
gen, and is always of a bland nature, of which starch 
and oil are examples. 
A common cause of imperfect digestion consists in 
improper food-that is, from a sort of food that does 
not correspond with this description. Since the system 
is able to dispose of other matters besides food, one 
portion by the oxy dizing process always going on 
within it, effecting its destruction, and another portion THE EELATION8 OF MOVEMENTS. 
251 
Ly its insolubility, the distinctive difference between 
what is and what is not food is apt to be lost sight of, 
and hence the unconscious, but not the less harmful 
abuse. 
Another source of injury to digestion arises from 
disregarding the proper relative proportion of the cor- 
rect elements in the use of food. In this case, while 
there may be an insufficiency of some of the elements, 
others are in surplus amount, so that while the system 
is loaded with materials, organization, or rather nutri- 
tion, is at a low standard, because the necessary ele- 
ments are not present in sufficient quantity. 
Practically, the danger to the health arising under 
this head comes from two sources: one, the employ- 
ment of too much soluble-that is, saccharine matter; 
and the other is the rejection of the saline constituents, 
which are fully as important as the organic. These are 
apt to be lost by mechanical refining, for the chief por- 
tion of the saline elements of the edible grains exists 
in the outer or coarser portions. 
It is also important that the amount of food taken 
be strictly proportionate to the needs of the system; 
in other words, proportionate to its powei' of dissolving 
in the stomach and intestines, and also of its power of 
elimination, by means of the oxygen respired. If 
these bounds be exceeded, the materials thrust into the 
digestive cavity are no longer food, but a harmful 
foreign n ass, perhaps even poisonous matter, affording 
to the lor al nerves a cause of irritation that will affect 
the whole system, and also to the blood a quantity of 
matter rife with chemical tendencies, over which vitality 
can exercise but imperfect control. 
2. The secretions constitute the next great factor in 
the digestive process to be considered. It is by these 252 
THE RELATIONS OF MOVEMENTS. 
that the solution of food is effected. If these seer«« 
tions are deficient in quantity or vitiated in quality 
from any cause, an imperfect solution of food must re- 
sult. A deficiency in quantity can never really exist, 
because, being furnished by the vital powers of the 
organism, the quantity must always be graduated to 
the vital need, so that, practically, the want of a healthy 
relation, in this respect, resolves itself into an excess of 
quantity of food, the consequence of which wTas shown 
when speaking of the relations of the elements of food. 
There can be no proper digestion unless the peculiar 
chemical affinities of the true digestive secretions are 
able to overpower all tendency to other chemical action 
in the digestive mass. 
The cause of a deterioration of the quality of the 
digestive secretions arises partly from the cause above- 
mentioned, and partly from a morbid condition of the 
blood, and of the general nutritive offices of the body 
connected therewith ; in other words, from the general 
imperfect evolution of vital activity in the system, 
hereafter to be noticed. 
All the causes above enumerated have in them- 
selves an intrinsic and direct injurious tendency, but I 
am inclined to believe that the train of unpleasant 
symptoms resulting from indigestion is due, to a large 
extent, to consequent disturbance of the nervous system. 
The nervous susceptibilities of the digestive organs are 
aroused by the various causes noticed, and soon be- 
come habitually-morbidly active. The perceptions 
not only become unnaturally acute but erroneous, and 
the judgment is insensibly led to make false decisions 
in regard to the conditions of the system. Stomach ir- 
ritation is reflected through the nervous system to all 
the bodily organs, and nutritive changes in remote THE RELATIONS OF MOVEMENTS. 
253 
parts of ffie body are injuriously influenced thereby. 
But what is of more importance, the ganglionic 
situated near the stomach, and posterior to it, whose 
function i4 is to preside over digestion, become in- 
flamed, and rendered incapable of performing their 
office. There is an insanity of digestion, quite as 
much a disease as that of the brain, and more difficult 
of cure. The difficulty in either case consists in with- 
drawing the morbid causes, which are apt to be self- 
perpetuating in their nature. 
The morbid activity of the digestive organs disturbs 
the digestive process as we have seen by its direct in- 
fluence, but this is only a portion of the troublesome 
effects. The attention is concentrated continuously 
upon the stomach and the digestive process. This is 
contrary to nature, and is sure to disturb still further 
the process. No good digestion is possible while sen- 
sations in the stomach are habitually aroused by food, 
improper in kind or amount, by stimulating beverages, 
or by drugs. 
There are two symptoms attending the state of things 
here described, besides the ordinary ones of loss of 
power, local or stomach symptoms, pain, acidity, etc., 
but these appear only in aggravated cases. One is, 
sensitiveness or soreness at the pit of the stomach upon 
deep pressure ; the other is, a peculiar sensation of buz- 
zing or ringing in the head, generally referred to the 
region of the ears. There are many evidences that the 
latter symptom is due to the connection of the nerves 
of organic life with the cerebrum. The removal of 
these symptoms is one of the earliest proofs of the res- 
toration of the digestive power. 
3. Another, and not the least important cause of 
indigestion, consists of a defect in the general vital 254 
THE RELATIONS OF MOVEMENTS. 
actions of the system. Viewed with reference to the 
whole system, digestion may be regarded as being de- 
pendent upon the general nutritive actions that are 
constantly proceeding in every portion of the body. 
These actions make digestion necessary, and give, at 
the same time, its peculiar character to the secretion 
provided for this purpose. The hind of digestive ac- 
tion, as well as the quality of the product, will there- 
fore depend on the degree of perfection with which all 
the other processes of the system are performed; for 
each, as we have seen, contributes to the blood the last 
result of its action, and it is from blood thus replenish- 
ed and enforced that the digestive secretions are drawn. 
Thus it is that an imperfectly elaborated blood, loaded 
with the results of the imperfect vital action of the tis- 
sues, is returned to the stomach and intestines, and is 
capable of affording only morbid secretions, which 
must irritate, debilitate, and finally render diseased and 
sensitive, these important and central organs. It will 
be recollected that the amount of the digestive secre- 
tions that is daily poured into the digestive cavity, 
nearly equals that of the whole mass of the blood from 
which they are derived, so that the morbid effects that 
it is capable of exciting may be concentrated upon 
these delicate and important parts. 
Hence, the cause of indigestion is not confined to im- 
proper food, but it is also, in a degree, referable to 
those voluntary habits which are connected with, and 
exercise an immense control over, the vital manifesta- 
tions of the general system. It is to this source that the 
quality of the digestive fluids is ultimately referable, 
because they are produced from the blood common to 
all parts, and by means of the exercise of vital power 
belonging to the local organs, so that when the vital THE RELATIONS OF MOVEMENTS. 
255 
energy of the general system is low, the digestion is sure 
to suffer as a direct consequence. It is plain, then, that 
the digestive process depends no less upon how we act, 
then it does upon what we eat', and therefore, that no 
amount of dieting, however correct, per se, will be capa- 
ble of doing more than palliate some of the symptoms 
of indigestion, and can never cure it so long as the 
movements of the body are insufficient in amount or 
faulty in kind. 
In cases of indigestion arising from this cause, the 
amount of pain suffered in the region of the stomach 
affords no true indication of the severity of the disease. 
Indeed, there is generally but little, or perhaps no 
pain referable to that organ, even though the digestive 
power be very small. The perceptive power of the 
nerves is deteriorated along with the general power of 
the system. 
The indications of disease afforded through the nerves 
are very irregular and unreliable, and this fact serves 
greatly to embarrass the efforts that may be made to- 
ward a cure. The dyspeptic patient is generally tanta- 
lized, for instance, by a morbid craving for food, and 
there is little or no sense of satisfaction experienced 
when food is taken, so that he never knows when to 
leave off eating, nor when to begin. He also, in this 
condition of the nerves, craves piquant substances and 
concentrated food, which is often the worst for him, 
and shows that the feelings of the dyspeptic, especi- 
ally those accompanying this phase of the disorder, 
are entirely untrustworthy. Such a patient should 
first instruct his judgment, and learn to rely upon it, 
and to distrust his sensations scrupulously, and also 
consider that the physician whose prescriptions arc 
directed to the mere palliation of his present sufferings. 256 
THE RELATIONS OF MOVEMENTS. 
is not a safe professional adviser. The dictates of the 
cultivated judgment must be strictly submitted to, even 
though opposed to his perverted feelings, if so be he 
would avoid the abysses of suffering toward which his 
disease is pressing him, and into which thousands are 
daily plunging, never to rise till Death comes to their 
relief, or his brother, Palsy, quiets the tortured nerves 
with his benumbing touch. 
We are now prepared to understand what are the 
proper means to be employed for the purpose of over- 
coming, or, to use the phrase to which the popular 
mind has been so long accustomed, of curing these 
particular affections. These consist, in the first place, 
in attention to the quantity and quality of the food. 
In indigestion, the capacity, not of the stomach only, 
but of the whole system, to receive food, is impaired. 
The quantity of food that may be taken by the system 
always must depend on the general habits of the indi- 
vidual as well as upon his condition at the particular 
time; on circumstances exterior to the body, as tem- 
perature, as well as those within it, as mental and 
bodily activity. With the consciousness of a lack of 
nutrient force pervading the system, it is very difficult 
to resist the inclination to perform that act which for 
the time being generally relieves the feeling. 
On account of the morbid sensations in the stomach 
there is perhaps greater inclination to err in quality 
than in quantity of food taken. As this matter is 
treated with some elaborateness in another place, it 
need not be further discussed here. We will now only 
caution the dyspeptic by suggesting that he can never 
expect his health and strength to return to him while 
his system is receiving through the stomach such mat- 
ters as conflict with the tendency of the acting parts THE RELATIONS OF MOVEMENTS. 
257 
of the body to organize themselves, whether these may 
be chemical products of morbid action, or food contain- 
ing noxious elements, as too much alkali, salt, spices, 
etc., or a larger quantity than can be eliminated by the 
ordinary physiological processes. 
Especially to be deprecated in this disease is the use 
of drugs, even of the mildest kinds. The temporary 
relief sometimes gained by this means is quite certain 
to be followed by a proportionate impairment of pow- 
er ; and the gravest features of the disease are con- 
firmed by an habitual recourse to such palliative expe- 
dients, and the unfortunate invalid so treated is apt 
to lapse into a lamentable and sometimes hopeless 
hypochondriasis. Even cases which recover after 
(generally, it may be said, in spite of) the use of drugs, 
serve but as dangerous precedents. 
It has been intimated that voluntary action is the 
most important means for maintaining or restoring the 
integrity of the digestive function. This fact has al- 
ways been popularly recognized, and in some imperfect 
manner it has always entered into medical prescrip- 
tions of every class. 
The general reasons why movements should have so 
important an influence upon the health, have been ex- 
plained in a former chapter, and are contained in the 
normal activity which is thereby induced in the assim- 
ilative and depurativ.. functions of the system-the 
higher vital tone imparted to the essential machinery 
of life, of which the digestive organs constitute so im- 
portant a part. 
It is particularly to be insisted upon that the di- 
gestive power augments with every augmentation of 
the respiratory action, whether induced by exercise or 
through continued exposure to low temperature, be* 258 
THE RELATIONS OF MOVEMENTS. 
cause this act has the direct effect of deterging the 
blood, and causes the product of vital action to be elim- 
inated through the emunctories, thus relieving the sys- 
tem of those matters that would otherwise contaminate 
and poison it. The dyspeptic, like the consumptive, 
is generally a person whose habits of life have been 
such as injuriously limit the amount of air respired. 
Persons who confine themselves to the atmosphere of 
warm rooms, and who seldom expose themselves to 
currents of cool out-of-door air, find it very difficult to 
elude the disease in question. Exercise, and espe- 
cially that afforded by well-directed movements, has 
the effect, we repeat, of urging the blood to the sur- 
face. Free contact with the air, aided by baths, tends 
to the same result. These means greatly stimulate 
the respiratory process, and scatter, at the same time, 
those central congestions which, if they give no further 
trouble, serve at least to cherish the dyspeptic condi- 
tion of the digestive organs. 
While, then, it is a patent and an admitted fact that 
exercise contributes more than all other things, drugs 
included, to the restoration of the dyspeptic invalid 
(we have the united testimony of physicians of all 
schools, as well as of public opinion, to this truth), the 
admission fails of effecting the good it should effect in 
consequence of the prevalent crude and unphilosophical 
notions that obtain generally in regard to the whole 
subject of exercise as a remedial agent. Every one is 
conscious that much of the forced exercise he obliges 
himself to undergo, so far from being beneficial and 
recuperative, proves decidedly injurious, and so he 
jumps sagely to the conclusion that his particular 
case is an exception, and that the more quiet he keeps, 
the better. This difficulty arises from ignorance of th** THE RELATIONS OF MOVEMENTS. 
259 
principles we have tried to explain. Nothing is clear- 
er than that when the nutrition is imperfect, the power 
of exertion must be proportionally limited. In pro- 
portion as the muscular power decreases, it becomes 
necessary to increase the effort of the will in order to 
accomplish a given effect. This necessitates an inju- 
rious expenditure of nervous power, tit the same time 
causes a preponderance of nervous over muscular 
action, which is fatal to' the health. No exercise is 
proper which does not tend directly to augment the 
capacity for exertion, by increasing muscular nutri- 
tion ; but this power is not increased, but on the con- 
trary diminished materially if immoderate demand be 
habitually made upon the nervous system. 
Partial exercise, that is, exercise of some one portion 
of the body exclusively, particularly if it be a central 
portion, as frequently happens in some of the trades 
and professions, is also detrimental; for it is apt to 
excite and maintain congestion in those delicate cen- 
tral organs already affected by disease, or full of the 
seeds of it, while it withdraws the circulation from 
the feet and peripheral parts. It is in such cases as 
these that discouragement is most apt to be expe- 
rienced in view of the effect of exercise. 
When persons are conscious of receiving injury in 
tliis way, they should not conclude, as they frequently 
do, that all exercise must be in the nature of things 
injurious. Even much stronger exercise, if of the 
right hind, and involving parts remote from the seat 
of the disease, may be taken, not only with impunity, 
but with the highest advantage. There is no more im- 
portant lesson than this for the invalid world to learn. 
All passive exercise, such as riding on horseback, 01 
in carriages, or by railroad, and also by sailing, ar© 260 
THE RELATIONS OF MOVEMENTS. 
generally very advantageous in this disease. These 
passive movements husband the will-power, remove 
impediments in the capillary circulation, and assist 
those actions in relation with which all nutrition takes 
place. The aeration of the blood is also greatly assist- 
ed, as well absorption, both from the digestive surface 
and from the system generally. In this way all the 
powers of the body are equalized, and the organic or 
formative processes are promoted. 
Special movements are well adapted to fulfill all the 
indication* in this immensely large class of diseases. 
The prescription should be so made as to affect all 
parts of the body successively, commencing with the 
respiratory region, and including at last the feet, legs, 
abdomen, liver, and the stomach. This latter organ 
should, at first, be attacked cautiously and tentatively, 
or be let alone entirely. A difficult case of indigestion 
requires the duplicated movements, both because there 
is too little strength for the single ones, and because of 
the amount of control over the circulation which it is 
necessary to acquire, and to which the single movements 
can not attain. But the single movements are eminently 
useful for a large class of persons that need to guard 
against the approaches of disease, or to overcome its 
milder forms; also for the after-treatment of a case 
cured by duplicated movements. The plan of treat- 
ment in this disease does not materially differ in its 
more important particulars from that which is appro- 
priate in pulmonary affections. The most important 
indications in both are to expand the chest, stimulate 
the circulation in the extremities, also in the peripheral 
portions of the body, and to promote the concoction of 
well vitalized blood in all the tissues throughout the 
framework. THE RELATIONS OF MOVEMENTS. 
261 
1. Half-wing, curve (weight held), kick-support half- 
standing, trunk sidewise bending. Change. No. 48. 
2. Forward-fall head-support standing, leg-raising. 
Change. 25. 
3. Wing stride-standing, curtseying. 9. 
4. Yard-sitting, arms twisting. 72.' 
5. Support half-standing, leg-rotation. Change. 23. 
6. Yard-kneeling, arms-swaying. 46. 
7. Sidewise-lying, hips-raising. Change. 62. 
8. Half-wing, half-stretch, short-sitting, trunk-twist- 
ing. 37. 
9. Half-lying, abdomen-kneading. 66. 
10. Hanging, holding. 
After a formula like the above has been used for a 
while, movements that affect the central portions of the 
body may properly be used. 
1. Arms angle reclined kneeling, arms stretching. 44. 
2. Shelter, back lying, legs raising. 59. 
3. Shelter, sidewise-bent, stride-standing, trunk ro- 
tation. 59. 
4. Stretch, half-walk, half-kneeling, trunk backward 
bending. 48. 
5. Sidewise-lying, leg-raising. 28. 
6. Wing-stride kneeling, ringing. 45. 
7. Half-wing, half-stretch, walk-kneeling, trunk 
twisting. 42. 
8. Half-standing, leg backward raising. 19. 
9. Wing-sitting, legs twisting. 24. 
EXAMPLES OF PRESCRIPTIONS.® 
• The figures at the end of the line describing the movement refer to ita number 
u arranged in Pa-t II. of thia work. 262 
NERVOUSNESS. 
(Qnghr Ifortun. 
NERVOUSNESS. 
The suffering of many chronic invalids, especially 
those afflicted with disorders of the digestive organs, 
consists in general not so much in absolute pain as in a 
peculiar and somewhat indefinite morbid sensation 
which, for want of a more significant term, they de- 
nominate nervousness. 
Nervousness is apt to be regarded by people in health 
as a trivial symptom. This opinion is founded, per- 
haps, on the peculiar, and often even ludicrous nature 
of the phenomena, mental, moral, and physical, which 
accompany it. If, however, it be regarded with refer- 
ence to the real suffering experienced by the invalid, 
or to the permanent nature of the malady, it must be 
admitted to be one of the most serious and important 
of the diseases which the physician is ever called upon 
to treat. 
In regard to the essential nature of the affection, 
there would not seem to be room for much difference 
of opinion. When the result of physiological action 
is imperfect, we are at liberty to presume that there 
must be a fault in some one or more, or all of the pro- 
cesses whereby it is produced ; and such faults are 
often called, in a general way, a perversion of the true 
function which it is the office of the part to perform. 
Nervous symptoms may be attributable to imperfect NERVOUSNESS. 
263 
nutrition of the nerve-centers in which all nerve-force 
originates; and this again, as we have seen, is depend- 
ent on the other physiological functions whose work it 
is to maintain the general nutritive processes of the 
body in harmonious co-operation. 
Nervous symptoms exist in many grades of intensity 
even in the same person; sometimes they arise through 
depressed, sometimes through irregular, and sometimes 
through greatly heightened functional actions of the 
nerve-centers. The impressions which these centers 
receive affect the consciousness at times to a degree 
greatly beyond that to which it is accustomed. This 
may not, however, be entirely due to the physiological 
state of the centers themselves ; but in many cases 
probably the intensified consciousness is owing to a 
general morbid condition of the whole system, of which 
the nerves of sensation make report, in their own pecu- 
liar and unmistakable way. 
In nervousness, the judgment itself suffers sadly 
from the irregular action of the nervous system, for it 
is obliged to depend, to a great extent, on the evidences 
which the senses afford. Now, the more the sensa- 
tions and feelings are excited, the greater becomes 
their control over the higher powers in council; and 
their perverted action insures wrong mental decisions. 
In nervous disease, the sensorial powers immensely 
preponderate, and the whole man is overwhelmed with 
influences due to the action of a depraved and rampant 
nervous system. 
It unfortunately happens, that the state of the nerves, 
and consequently that of the mind, re-acts on the phys- 
iological condition in such a way as to perpetuate this 
condition of things in spite of all that can be done 
through the most judicious medical treatment To the 264 
NEBVOUSNESS. 
mind of the suffering individual, no evidence in regard 
to his condition and wants equals that of the senses; 
and these senses being perverted, the subject is con- 
stantly inclined to make improper choice of means and 
materials for the supply of his wants and the rectifica- 
tion of his disorders. He eats improperly, drinks im- 
properly, acts improperly; because the nerves that in 
health speak truth, now have taken to speaking falsely. 
Under the guise of friendship they deal treacherously 
with him, and before he well knows what he is about, 
he has been led into all sorts of errors and vices of 
conduct, from the effects of which it may take him a 
long time to recover. 
Imperfection in the various nutritive actions has been 
mentioned above, as a common cause of nervous dis- 
orders ; and it was also intimated that such diseases are 
most liable to occur in persons of intellectual habits, 
and of delicate and refined tastes and sensibilities. 
The reasons for this are very obvious. The aspirations 
for honor or fame, fulfilled or otherwise, and the per- 
plexities and trials consequent thereupon, of which 
such persons are always the subjects, occasion a great 
waste of the vital power which should go to the nutri- 
tion of the organs. The intense ardor, indeed, with 
which affairs are conducted by the great mass of the 
people of this country, obliges the nervous systems of 
men and women to act., that is, to suffer waste and 
repair, to a degree greatly disproportionate to th with 
which actions proceed in the other vital structures. 
The consequence of this is, that the organic or vegeta- 
tive life of all other tissues of the body is depressed. 
A general depressed tone of vitality accompanies all ex- 
cessive or inharmonious action; and where the causes 
continue to act, results must follow, as we see them in HERVOUSNESS. 
265 
the multiform nervous complaints about us. One thing 
we may set down as certain and incontrovertible: 
nervous diseases do not occur in the absence of nervous 
abuse. It matters not how the invalid may protest to 
the contrary as respects his own particular case, the 
existence of the symptoms in question is conclusive 
evidence against him. The ignorance of the sufferer, 
alas! does not reverse physiological laws. That he has 
only been led by the dicta of a conventional system is 
not a plea that will serve to bring about a commutation 
of the sentence already pronounced upon him. He may 
bring forward the evidence of the senses in favor of his 
habits, and the approval of the consciousness; but 
these arguments only prove a perverted state of the 
senses, which his bad habits have fostered. 
The victim of this form of disease is apt to 'com- 
plain that his suffering is greater than that occasioned 
by other diseases. He should remember that the ar- 
rangements of his system which give rise to pain are 
conceived in the highest wisdom, that the experience 
of pain is designed in mercy by our Creator, and that 
the objects of such experience are not fulfilled till he 
has been stimulated by his sufferings to trace out their 
sources, and thus enabled to pursue a wiser course in 
future. In this light, pain is really the invalid's kind- 
est instructor, and as strictly a blessing as enjoyment, 
though a blessing in disguise. This class of diseases 
furnishes to the physician a deeper study than he has 
generally the time or patience to investigate thorough- 
ly, and the sufferer seldom meets, from any quarter, 
W'ith the amount of intelligent sympathy which his 
case deserves. 
The nervous powers may be abused, and nervous dis- 
ease induced by causes operating through either the 266 
NERVOUSNESS. 
physical or the mental system. The first class of causes 
affect the sensory nerves, and those of organic life, by 
direct impressions made by improper substances. The 
habitual use of fragrant and pungent seasonings and 
inspiring beverages, which are stimulating and tempo- 
rarily refreshing but not nutritious, is a most common 
mode of abusing the nerves. The organic needs of the 
system demand only materials that are strictly nutri- 
tive. Whatever is received into the stomach of a dif- 
ferent quality may impress the nerves and rouse their 
action, and very agreeably, perhaps; but this action is not 
in the direction of, nor satisfying to, the healthful wants 
of the system. This is so, because the stimulant sub- 
stance is not adapted to the purposes of growth and de- 
velopment ; thus is established a depraved habit of the 
central nerves, from which spring, as from a poisoned 
fountain, those morbid feelings, wrong thoughts, and 
insane judgments that characterize so many in every 
community. 
Another cause of nervous distemper, and perhaps 
quite as important as any other, is one perfectly sim- 
ilar in mode of operation to that last mentioned, and 
this is medication in general. The physician, whether 
he so intends or not, addresses his remedies mainly 
to the already too sensitive nerves. For as the percep- 
tion of suffering is mainly through these, so by address- 
ing this department of the organism is the conscious- 
ness of pain frequently most readily overcome. In- 
deed, the cause, in the estimation of both physician and 
patient, is of secondary importance, but both unite in 
seeking present freedom from pain, or what in general 
supplies the place of it, obliviousness to the existence of 
the morbid condition. But though quietude, artifi- 
cially induced, may be grateful for the time, the in- NERVOUSNESS. 
267 
jury done to the misused nerves is permanent. Though 
slight and almost inappreciable at first, this injury in- 
creases with the repetitions of the cause, and a diseased 
habit, degrading the whole physiological and moral 
man, is induced. This remark is directed against no 
particular method or school of medication, but it is 
equally applicable to all systems, that of the Water- 
Cure included, so far as they seek to attain their pur- 
poses by making strong impressions upon either the 
internal or external nerves of sensation, or those of or- 
ganic life. * 
The second, not perhaps second in importance, of the 
two great classes of causes affecting the health of the 
nervous system, we term the mental. If we take de- 
light in those pleasures that are derived through the 
senses, those that are obtainable by means of the emo- 
tional nature exercise an equal, or even greater, fasci- 
nation. From the sensorial we rise to the region of the 
feelings, and thence to that of pure intellect, but each 
of these fountains of enjoyment depends, after all, upon 
a material and physiological source for supply. The 
purest, holiest, and most commendable impulses and 
actions, if cherished or pursued without a wise regard 
to physiological interests, work mischief, and death at 
last. This is because all the organic powers run to the 
support of those actions which do most loudly call for 
them. Men are too apt to shut themselves up in cer- 
tain parts of the wondrous tenement of their being. 
Some domicile themselves in the emotional, some in 
the intellectual apartments, and never think of occu- 
pying, much less of furnishing and keeping in order, 
the other portions of the building. 
In this class may be reckoned the multitude of hu- 
man desires and ambitions fulfilled and disappointed- 268 
NERVOUSNESS. 
the perplexities, jealousies, and strifes incident to the 
battle and race of life, as well as the solicitudes, the 
alternating hopes and fears resulting from the political, 
moral, and religious movements in the community 
In Europe, where these latter questions are questions 
of the state, in which the mass of the people are not 
expected or allowed to take any considerable interest, 
and where, also, the condition of the people, as regards 
the pursuits of life, is mainly fixed, these diseases are 
much less prevalent. 
The causes above stated are amply sufficient to give 
a nervous character to the diseases of chronic invalids. 
Especially must this be true, for reasons named, in our 
own country. The reader will perceive the want of 
relevancy of the ordinary medical means to meet the 
exigencies of such cases. It is a condition which dis- 
creet, conscientious physicians declare to be beyond the 
province of ordinary medical skill, while they still re- 
gard it as amenable to the milder, yet more potent 
influences of hygiene, such as change of climate, scenery, 
and mode of life. Hence, such are the means princi- 
pally advised by the more experienced and careful 
among physicians, and often with great advantage, 
though it must be confessed, at other times, with 
wholly unsatisfactory results. It is reasonable to pre- 
sume that incapacity for restoration in the invalid is 
not the cause of failure in these attempts, but the real 
cause of the failure lies in the imperfect or improper 
system, or to that want of system that characterizes the 
endeavors of many physicians in bringing these im- 
portant means to bear upon the sufferer. 
Those who have conceived a tolerably correct idea of 
the character and modus operandi of movements must 
be convinced that they are eminently adapted to tl * NEEV0USNES8. 
269 
class of affections. Practically, the treatment by move- 
ments operates with all the certainty and directness of 
effect of a specific. The value of the treatment by the 
Movement-Cure has become apparent to the thoughtful 
and scientific of many differing schools of pathology. 
And why should it not be so ? If it be conceived by 
the practitioner that the indications for treatment in a 
given case are for detergents, most abundantly do the 
movements supply the means for accomplishing these. 
If, in another, the general nutrition needs to be stim- 
ulative, the movements furnisli the means in amplest 
measure for accomplishing this. If congestion is to 
be removed, where will you find instrumentalities that 
will do it more readily and thoroughly than the move 
ments ? If the peripheral circulation is to be exalted, 
here are certain unfailing modes of securing this ob- 
ject. 
The principles involved in the Movement-Cure fur- 
nish a ready explanation of the power exerted by 
movements over the many forms of nervousness. The 
doctrine of balance or equipoise, in the relative activity 
of functions, will be more fully explained hereafter. 
The system of movements has it in its power to elect 
what function or force shall predominate in the man 
brought under its influence. The several organic ac- 
tions may be, as those of nutrition, of the circulation, 
of waste, etc., waked up, so to speak, by movements in 
any part or parts where they have become languid and 
insufficient, while at the same time undue action in 
the nerves is brought under control. 
It is important to notice that nervous symptoms, 
when they come on with acute paroxysms, are most 
frequently owing to visceral obstructions and derange- 
ments, the nature of which, though often apparent, are 270 
NERVOUSNESS. 
sometimes obscure. A morbid change suddenly occur- 
ring in the contents of the alimentary canal may gen- 
erate a peculiar product that poisons the blood or irri- 
tates the nerve-centers of organic life, producing symp- 
toms sometimes severe and occasionally of a strange 
and fantastic character. These acute paroxysms gen- 
erally subside spontaneously in a short time, and medical 
interference wit-h them is of but little account, though 
it often gets a great deal of undeserved credit. The 
treatment by movements should be directed to the per- 
fecting of the digestive powers, to the augmentation of 
the functional activity of the liver, and to the restora- 
tion of the secretions generally. By thus preventing 
the occurrence of the morbid conditions named, these 
troublesome attacks may be avoided. And if ever an 
ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, it surely 
is found to be so in our experience of nervous disor- 
ders-to the patient particularly. To the doctor, in- 
deed, especially if he happens to be possessed of a 
homeopathically small practice, and an infinitesimal 
conscience, it may look differently. 
The Movement-Cure supplies the means for arousing 
directly the action of the nerves, but this is not usually 
called for in these cases. Usually it is only necessary 
to treat the invalid of this class with reference to his 
general health, to the condition of the stomach, liver, 
bowels, circulation of the head and feet, etc. The 
patent disorder is usually a concomitant and symptom 
of some other-perhaps far graver-affection which 
the judicious and acute physician will discover, and 
when this is overcome, the nervousness will surely- 
gradually, it may be-sometimes very quickly-subside. 
If the invalid reader has read carefully the chapters 
treating of the rules and principles which are laid 271 
NERVOUSNESS. 
down as the basis of the movement practice, he will 
now be able, without much difficulty, to frame a pre- 
scription suited to his own particular case. We take 
it for granted, of course, that he possesses a reasonable 
degree of intelligence and judgment. 
Seminal Disease.-This peculiar and distressing af 
fection is an indication of a diseased state of the nerves, 
rather than of the organs to which it is commonly re- 
ferred. It very frequently accompanies that state of 
general nervousness described above; but sometimes 
those nerve-centers that are situated in the lower sec- 
tion of the spinal cord, from which these organs draw 
their power, are the principal seat of the trouble. In 
either case there is a very great amount of mental de- 
pression and lassitude accompanying this disease, the 
person so afflicted being generally unfitted for busi- 
ness and society, and for any of the enjoyments of life. 
The abuse of this portion of the nervous system prob- 
ably brings down upon the sufferer regrets more bit- 
ter and a remorse more stinging than that of any oth- 
er-a fact which indicates the important relations these 
functions sustain both to the material and the mental 
system ; and we all can understand how it is that intense 
mental pain should make a part of the penalty attached 
by nature to such abuses. But, independently of cer- 
tain special and well-known causes, the affection oftei 
appears as one of the results of general nervous debil- 
ity or irregular distribution of nerve-power ; and in all 
cases its treatment, to be successful, must be general 
rather than topical. Indeed, topical treatment, in these 
cases, is often much worse than useless. 
Persons afflicted with these symptoms are commonly 
the easiest dupes in the world of audacious charlatanry. 272 
NERVOUSNESS. 
Their intense desire for restoration disposes them to 
be credulous, and to grasp at straws, while the nec- 
essary weakness of the investigating faculties which 
accompanies the disease, alike unfits them for the per- 
ception of their true condition and for a choice of 
nroper remedial means. Thus, frequently, the victim 
continues to swallow nostrums which, by increasing 
the nervous irritability of his system, can only aggra- 
vate his disorder, till finally he becomes a confirmed 
hypochondriac, or some more formidable disease sets 
in, and death ends his woes. 
The prime indication in this affection is to allay 
nervous excitability. The mode of effecting this has 
already been pointed out. The treatment required in 
this class of cases does not differ essentially from that 
required for general nervousness or for neuralgia. 
The morbid nutrition of the nerve-centers, upon which 
this and the other forms of nervous disease depend, 
can not be perpetuated at the same time with full and 
complete nutrition of the muscles, and the general sat- 
isfactory state of the organic life which attends this 
condition of the muscles. In persons much emaciated, 
and especially those who have passed far into the hy- 
pochondriacal condition, the general health must be so 
far restored that these latter symptoms shall disappear 
before the difficulty in question can be entirely re- 
moved. But if the health be not too far wasted, the 
relief of this difficulty is in general very speedy. In 
some cases, treated by duplicated movements, the dis- 
ease lias been cured without difficulty. 
It can hardly be expected that the single movements 
will be so efficient in the treatment of this malady as 
the duplicated, in cases especially where the nerves are 
greatlj disordered. Yet I doubt not their judicious 273 
NERVOUSNESS. 
use would prove all-sufficient in a large number of 
cases, if persons now resorting to other expedients- 
expedients that can not bear the test of common sense 
and true science-would but try these simpler and 
truly rational means. 
Neuealgia.-This is a disease characterized by great 
suffering; but it is usually unaccompanied with the 
other ordinary concomitants of inflammation, such as 
swelling, heat, and redness, and frequently there is an 
absence even of soreness. Hence it is presumed that 
the cause of the pain is confined to the nervous struc- 
ture itself, and is not referable to any morbid condi- 
tion of the vital structures to which the painful nerve 
is distributed. Neuralgia may attack any portion of 
the body, whether internal or external; it may be con- 
fined to a particular locality, or it may affect the gen- 
eral nervous system through all its ramifications. 
To understand this affection at all, it is necessary to 
inquire first into the nature and causes of pain. As 
this phenomenon is exhibited by the sensory nerves, it 
is evident that it bears a relation to their ordinary 
function. Indeed, pain, as well as sensation in general, 
has its uses, which consist in informing the mind, not 
only of the nature of objects in contact with the nerve, 
but also of the incompatibility of certain of them with 
the vital purposes. 
We know but little of the chemistry of the inter- 
cellular fluids. It is not unlikely that the peculiar 
quality these juices in some depraved states of the sys- 
tem acquire may give rise to the symptom in question, 
without sensibly affecting vital structures of any other 
kind. However this may be, the affection seldom 
yields to ordinary medical influences; but it is gem 274 
NERVOUSNESS. 
erally treated with reference merely to its palliation- 
by means which obliterate, for the time, the conscious- 
ness of pain, rather than remove its cause. This can 
be done by stupefying drugs; but, alas! the pain re- 
turns when the effects of the anodyne pass off. 
It is absurd to entertain the expectation that this dis- 
ease will vanish whik the nutritive processes are car- 
ried on in an imperfect way. The system must be 
relieved of its burden of effete matter, and arterial 
blood, rich in oxygen, must again find its way freely to 
every structure before any permanent benefit can be 
experienced. 
How it is that movements effect the removal of neu- 
ralgic pain, will be obvious upon a little reflection. 
The analogies afforded by certain physiological phe- 
nomena throw light upon this matter. For instance, 
the amount of force put forth by a muscle corresponds 
with the amount of change that takes place in that 
muscle during its action. In like manner we argue 
from manifestations of nervous power the extent of the 
changes going on in the substance of the nerves, both 
centers and conductors. Pain, however severe, is but 
the result of functional play, and is the representative 
of nerve-power, and consequently of nutritive change 
in the inner tissue of the nerve itself. If the nerve be 
so much diseased, or have undergone such a structural 
change as not to be able to perform its function, one is 
no longer conscious of pain in the part. Pain, then, is 
not simply a result of action, but of excessive action of 
the nerves in the direction in which they manifest 
their power, and it consequently implies excessive, 
though perhaps perverted, nutrition of the nerve-sub- 
stance. 
The therapeutic indications deducible from these NERVOUSNESS. 
275 
principles are plain. The restoration of nervous action 
to the healthy standard depends on a depression of the 
activity of the nerves involved. This effect readily fol- 
lows the excitement of muscular action. For it is 
found that in proportion to the increase of the nervous 
activity, is there an abatement of muscular nutrition. 
The limb afflicted with sciatica becomes weak, and it 
is noticeable that the neuralgic subject generally has 
but little muscular power; the nutritive effort is con- 
centrated upon the excited nerves. That this pervert- 
ed nutrition of the nerve-substance is an important 
element in neuralgia is forcibly proved by the imme- 
diate subsidence oftentimes of neuralgic pain when the 
activity of contiguous muscles has become exalted. 
That this is so is unquestionable, whatever theory may 
be adopted in regard to the philosophy of the matter. 
It is a most significant fact that robust people are but 
little liable to attacks of neuralgia. Those most afflict- 
ed with the disease in question, are the weakly ; those 
who have imperfect digestion, sallow complexions, and 
are poorly nourished. To perfect the nutritive opera- 
tions, we consider the most important indication in our 
treatment of these cases. To effect this purpose, the 
movements are entirely sufficient. By these the func- 
tions of the outlets of the body are encouraged, and 
waste matters are dismissed; so that those matters 
wanted from the alimentary canal, to subserve nutri- 
tive purposes, are selected and conveyed by the blood 
to their various points of destination. This is espe- 
cially the case with those saline elements of the blood, 
without which the organizing processes can not take 
place. 
The most painful cases of neuralgia are those attribu- 
table to mineral poisoning, incident to the practice of 276 
NERVOUSNESS. 
various trades, such as the working of gold with mer 
cury, or other metals, or their salts. The use of mineral 
drugs, as a medicine, is also a fruitful source of this 
affection. Many a person, in consequence of a course 
of mercury, is ever after subjected to attacks of neu- 
ralgia. Even in these obstinate cases, the movements 
would probably prove useful, since no other means are 
so effectual as these in dislodging and conveying foreign 
matters from the system. 
The prescription for a case of neuralgia should be so 
arranged as not only to include every part of the body, 
affecting all the blood-purifying and blood-making pro 
cesses, but especially so as to act upon the part subject 
to pain. With duplicated movements the application 
can be nicely adjusted to the needs of the local nutri- 
tion, and an important part of the prescription will be 
the passive element, consisting of stroking, clapping, 
punching, etc., as the case may require. The single 
movements will be the next best substitute, and the 
passive portion may be applied by one's self to such 
regions of the body as can thus be reached. It is not 
necessary to say that when the neuralgic disorder is 
local, such movements should be chosen as will act on 
the muscles of the part, especially upon those near to 
the seat of the uain. SCROFULOUS AFFECTIONS, 
277 
SCROFULOUS AFFECTIONS. 
The scrofulous diathesis manifests itself in a great 
variety of symptoms, differing according to constitution 
and age. In children, it is denoted by a peculiar pallor 
of countenance, dullness of complexion, hypertrophied 
or inflamed mesenteric glands, and tumid abdomen, 
bowels alternately loose and costive, capricious appe- 
tite-frequently too urgent-shrunken limbs, fetid 
breath, indisposition for play. Eruptions of various 
kinds may occur upon the skin of the face or other 
parts of the body, and swellings upon or about the 
neck of an indolent character often appear. The scrof- 
ulous child often presents a haggard, almost wild ap- 
pearance, and its blue veins are painfully prominent. 
Sometimes the head becomes abnormally developed, 
accompanied occasionally by a precocity of intellect, 
which may be accounted for by the larger amount of 
nutrition diverted to the head, in consequence of im- 
pediments in the peripheral circulation, while the ex- 
tremities are at the same time illy nourished. Not 
unfrequently serous effusion and death by dropsy are 
the final results of this unnatural flow of blood and 
nervous influence to the head. 
In youth, the most striking symptoms of the affection 
are enlarged glands of the neck, fragility of form, nar- 
rowness of the chest, and a strong tendency to cough 278 
SCROFULOUS AFFECTIONS. 
and lung disease, which not unfrequently terminate in 
pulmonary consumption. 
In adults, the morbid action is apt to center in the 
lungs, in disease which, as commonly treated, is gen- 
erally incurable. 
The intelligent reader hardly needs to be told that 
in this malady there is a period anterior to that of its 
outward manifestation, when it exists in an unrecog- 
nized and latent form, and is associated immediately 
with its producing causes, when vicious physiological 
action is clearly seen to depend upon vicious atomic 
relations; a period, in short, when sufficient knowledge 
and a correct practice would furnish an effectual bar to 
its further progress. But as such knowledge is only 
acquired under the spur of feelings resulting from the 
presence of the disease in its developed state, we must 
be content to bring.into requisition as curative, means 
that ought to have proved preventive. 
It is evident that in this disease the results of the 
vital processes are incompletely attained. The mesen- 
teric glands and lymphatic vessels become clogged 
with the materials of an imperfect nutrition, while the 
skin and lungs execute their functions in an unsatis- 
factory manner. The result is, either that the nutri- 
tive elements become imperfectly vitalized, or else that 
the matters destined to be cast out as waste from the 
system, fail to become converted into the usual soluble 
forms of carbonic acid, water, and urea, the legitimate 
products of these important processes. Hence occur 
the excess of albuminous material, and the imperfect 
and irregular cells that characterize the scrofulous de- 
posits of the lungs, glandular system, etc. Disease 
being essentially incomplete or ineffectual action (pa- 
thology being simply a modified physiology), it can 279 
SCROFULOUS AFFECTIONS. 
occur only through defect of the conditions essential tc 
the perfect development of the system in all its parts 
and functions. The nature of the mischievous agents 
that concur in the production of these conditions is 
learned only by a study of the disease during its de- 
velopment and subsequent progress. 
In this way we discover among the prominent causes 
of this disease, insufficiency of pure air, light, and ex- 
ercise, and want of cleanliness. 
We have only to look into the abodes of poverty and 
squalor for confirmation of this statement. Every city 
physician has abundant opportunities for studying all 
forms of this disease in connection with these causes. 
But the wealthy, and those who have it in their 
power to command the conditions of health, are quite 
as apt to be afflicted with scrofula in one or other 
»f its forms, and in their case it is evidently the result 
of the same causes that produce it among the poor. 
For the real hygienic condition of those whose circum 
stances and social position are so different, are often 
very much alike. For while the one class is deprived 
of fresh air and sunlight by being confined in low and 
crowded localities, the other suffers an equal depriva- 
tion through the agency of shutters, heavy window- 
drapery, and interior rooms, aggravated by-the choking 
dust and corrupt air, which are the inevitable con- 
comitants of fashionable upholstery and carpeting. In 
both cases, respiration is rendered ineffectual, through 
lack of healthful motion and purity of the air, and 
these effects are aggravated by want of exercise and 
good habits on the part of the persons thus exposed. 
We must call the reader's attention to the fact, that 
it is not the uncleanness which is external to the body 
that oxercises the most deleterious influence upon tha 280 
SCROFULOUS AFFECTIONS. 
health. It is not till matters foreign to the purposes 
of the body become constituents of its substance, that 
they can interfere to any great extent with the vital 
operations. The liability of being poisoned through the 
lungs is evidently immeasurably greater than of being 
poisoned through the skin, for volatile and soluble 
■»oisons are brought in contact with the blood through 
the one avenue, while through the other there can pen- 
etrate only insoluble and solid matters. Indeed, no 
amount and thoroughness of washing and bathing are 
effectual if other habits are such as to preclude a free 
access of air to the skin and lungs. There are no hy- 
gienic or medical procedures which can possibly com- 
pensate, or begin to compensate, for this want. Thor- 
ough cleanliness preserves the blood as well as the 
external cuticular covering uncontaminated. The illy 
clad children of the street, though they may suffer un- 
told deprivations, and be subjected to the most un- 
wholesome dietetic regimen, yet for the most part 
enjoy good health ; because, though unwashed, they 
are essentially purified within through the wholesome 
effect of the air to which they are through so many 
hours of the day exposed; while the occupants of the 
dark and dusty chamber (a luxurious one, it may be) 
are sickly and scrofulous from the contrary condition 
of things. Even the dumb animal, caged and treated 
after a similar cruel fashion, suffers from scrofula and 
consumption, and manifests symptoms throughout the 
progress of the disease similar to those under which 
his fellow human sufferer languishes. 
The interesting question in regard to the origin of 
scrofula is frequently broached. There is no doubt 
but that hereditary influences may properly be recog- 
nized as among the most important conditions deter- SCROFULOUS AFFECTIONS. 
281 
mining this form of disease. For the original form of 
the body is undoubtedly inherited, and the narrow 
chest of the scrofulous child not less than the color of 
his eyes or contour of his face. But the practice of the 
Movement-Cure instructs us that the shape and size of 
the members and regions of the body may be wonder- 
fully modified by judicious training, as may the slight- 
er temporary or local effects of physiological lapses be 
counteracted by appropriate medical means. There 
is, indeed, much reason to believe that if all the con- 
ditions of health were supplied to the greatest extent 
possible, they would quite neutralize the power, im- 
mense as it is, of bad hereditary influences, and re- 
store the faulty constitution, after a generation or two, 
to its pristine vigor. But we all know how fearfully 
rapid is the decline of persons of originally defective 
constitution, when subjected to unfavorable influences. 
The knowledge of such quicksands in the channel of 
life should be effectual in inciting persons to make that 
acquaintance with the physiological chart that shall 
enable them to avoid the dangers that are ever threat- 
ening to "wreck them or their posterity after them. 
With the indications for the treatment of scrofula 
that are derived from a careful examination of its 
causes, it is strange that that such palliatives of symp 
toms as gross animal oils, alcoholic and narcotic stim 
ulants, iodine, etc., should ever have been proposed as 
curatives. How, we ask, can any agent prove cura- 
tive wfliile the causes above mentioned continue to op- 
erate in full force ? What is evidently required is, 
the securing of a greater degree of energy in all the 
formative or organic actions of the system. Especially 
must those agencies which favor the oxydizing pro- 
cesses in the blood and solid tissues be brought into 282 
SCROFULOUS AFFECTIONS. 
active play, such as light, exercise, and wholesome and 
invigorating food. With these indications fulfilled, 
there are no others left for the drug to accomplish. 
Through the assimilation of oil or spirits, the disease 
may be temporarily masked, and iodine, holding much 
the same chemical relation to the system as oxygen, 
only less potent, may do some good, but it must needs 
be temporary and uncertain. 
Movements affect the scrofulous subject more like a 
specific than any other known means. They give di- 
rection and energy to the vitalizing processes through- 
out the body, cause a renewal of the fluids of the 
clogged glandular system, and so relieve glandular 
congestion, and are tho most direct and powerful 
means for supplying oxygen to the impoverished blood. 
In this way the non-vitalized and imperfectly vitalized 
matters of the blood, and of the body generally, are 
reduced, and the system relieved from them ; the 
chest is enlarged, and the power of the system to con- 
tinue its multiform operations in a healthful manner, 
maintained and augmented. 
The scrofulous subject needs to press into his service 
every available hygienic resource. lie can not effectual- 
ly combat the advancing disease simply by attending to 
one or two particulars of remedial hygiene. By so doing 
he will be as apt to encourage the approaches of the 
malady as to oppose them. He should particularly 
heed such suggestions as we have advanced under the 
head of Hygiene, regarding abstinence from all drugs, 
condiments, heating beverages, stimulants, etc., and 
should adhere to a simple nutritious diet, selecting 
such food as possesses the particular elements he needs. 
He must not compel his digestive apparatus to reduce 
needless matters to the necessary forms in which they SCROFULOUS AFFECTIONS. 
283 
may find their exit from the body ; for all such mat- 
ters require the oxygen that might and ought to be 
employed in eliminating the disease. 
The strength, in these cases, is generally already im- 
paired, and the patient, consequently, should avoid 
such exercises as tend to exhaust the physical powers. 
Riding and driving are particularly beneficial to him, 
because, while so engaged, he is not only in contact 
with the best air constantly renewed, but the shaking 
that he thus gets is particularly useful in assisting the 
clogged and sluggish circulation, both of the glandu- 
lar system and of the general capillaries. Long jour- 
neys, if the circumstances of the patient permit of 
such indulgence, are highly useful, because thereby 
the above-mentioned advantages are not only secured, 
but they are continued for a length of time. Besides, 
the invalid is thus carried beyond the sphere of the 
particular influences that at first planted and afterward 
served to foster his disease. We can not be too ex- 
plicit or emphatic upon this point. 
It has been noticed that in this disease, as in con- 
sumption, want of compass in the breathing organs is a 
prominent impediment to recovery, though it is proba- 
ble that defective action of these organs is the more 
common one. The deficiency in dimensions may be 
either congenital or acquired. In either case it is sus- 
ceptible of remedy, and it should be one of the first 
objects of our attention in entering upon the treatment 
of such a case, whether the subject be either child, 
youth, or adult. The circumference of the chest and 
waist may be astonishingly increased by proper dis- 
ciplinary measures, and the several cubic inches of 
increased capacity that is thus afforded to the lungs of 
course increases the respiratory ability in a commen- 284 
SCROFULOUS AFFECTIONS. 
surate degree. The change in the health for the better, 
after entering upon such a course, immediately becomes 
manifest. The food is thereby not only reduced to 
fluidity, and enabled to pass the digestive surfaces into 
the blood, but becomes transformed into the healthy 
vital element of the body, instead of those low organic 
forms which afford an obstruction, instead of an assist- 
ance to the healthy growth of the system. A higher 
vital tone and energy is thus secured, and good health 
is the natural and necessary consequence. 
The duplicated movements are demanded if the case 
be a formidable one, and these should be continued for 
several weeks, or until evidences of improvement be- 
come apparent. At a later day, or even to begin with, 
if the illness be not severe, the single movements may 
be employed with profit. 
The movements prescribed for a scrofulous patient 
should be similar to those recommended for pulmonary 
affections, but they may from the first be used some- 
what more energetically. All portions of the body 
should be included in the movements taken, so that all 
the organs and functions of the system may share the 
effect. But the special indication, or indications, of the 
ease should not be slighted. If there be a tendency 
of blood to the head or weakness of eyes, the prescrip- 
tion should begin with movements for the lower ex- 
tremities, afterward for the arms and chest. If there 
be constipation, movements adapted to this particular 
complaint should be included. If there be no special 
indications, it should begin with movements for the 
chest. 
The following formula will serve as an example : 
1. Wing sitting, feet rotation 7. 
2. Stride sitting, arms twisting. 65. 8CEOFULOU8 AFFECTS N8. 
3. Swing holding, rotating. 75. 
4. Stride-kneeling, swaying. 39. 
5. Doorway-stretch, span-standing, walking. 58. 
6. Stretch-kneeling, trunk rocking. 45. 
7. Heel-support kneeling, trunk forward falling. 12. 
8. Support half-standing, leg rotating. 23. 
9. Half-stretch, half-wing stride-sitting, trunk-twist* 
ing. Change. 37. 
10. Backward-stretch lying, weight holding. 68. 
285 286 
PULMONAEY AFFECTIONS CONSUXZHON. 
PULMONARY AFFECTIONS-CONSUMPTION. 
The principles of the Movement-Cure cast now and 
important light upon the nature of most of Lne grave 
affections belonging to this class. By simplifying the 
pathology of these diseases the patient can be brought 
to understand, as well as the physician, if he will read 
with care, the suggestions that are made, and the value 
of the practice here taught will be demonstrated at 
every step. We give the outlines of a treatment ap- 
propriate, direct, and efficacious-a treatment satisfac- 
tory to both patient and physician. The practice of 
movements affords new indications to the practitioner, 
as well as furnishes new means for fulfilling such as 
are recognized by the schools. 
Viewed in the light (or darkness) afforded by ordinary 
medical science, the diseases that we are now consider- 
ing are involved in much mystery. Those thus afflict- 
ed, as is well known, almost infallibly continue to de- 
cline, in spite of the most vigorous application of all the 
means known to and recommended by the highest medi- 
cal authorities of the land. Persons possessed of what 
is termed the " consumptive habit," are regarded as 
fated, even before the disease makes its appearance in 
any decided manner. This fact indicates the extent 
of our knowledge of the pathology of these cases, and 
it takes no argument to sh< w that the conditions from PULMONARY AFFECTIONS CONSUMPTION. 
287 
which originate the disease in question, are miserably 
misunderstood. 
A too common reference of the disease to remote 
and intangible causes disposes of the case and pre- 
cludes further investigation. Thus, people are in the 
habit of saying, and with a learned look sometimes, 
that such subjects have originally defective constitu- 
tions, are exposed to a poisoned atmosphere, inhabit 
unfavorable localities, are unfortunately endowed with 
too great intellectual activity, etc., without explaining 
how it is that the constitutions of some persons and not 
of others are affected by these circumstances. Physi- 
cians, taking advantage of popular ignorance and mis- 
conceptions, content themselves with pleasing their 
patients by the exhibition of all sorts of injurious palli- 
atives, and resort to devices that at the best but do the 
sufferers some temporary good. The short-sighted and 
hopeful invalid is satisfied to be made to feel better for 
the time, and often mistakes the transient relief for re- 
turning health. The plan of treatment commonly pur- 
sued is effectual for vailing the real nature and rela- 
tions of these affections from the minds of both phy- 
sician and patient. No wonder that such small pro- 
gress is made in the pathology and treatment of these 
diseases, or that nostrums and quacks, and their vic- 
tims, should so abound in the community! The poor 
invalid, to be sure, is troubled at times with many sad 
doubts in regard to the efficacy of these cure-alls, and 
he goes, tossed by his doubts, from one nostrum to an- 
other, and sometimes will swallow a dozen at once, 
supposing that in so doing he is increasing the chances 
of hitting upon the right thing at last. By such whole- 
sale dosing the poor victim is rapidly and surely get- 
ting rid of whatever restorative capacity the ravages 288 
PULMONARY AFFECTIONS-CONSUMPTION. 
of disease may have left him. And so it generally 
happens, that between popular and professional igno- 
rance, and the empiricism that is the result of both, 
persons threatened with diseases of the lungs seldom 
escape a fatal termination. 
We ought not to expect curative effects which are 
real and permanent in diseases of this class, unless we 
direct our treatment point blank at the radical causes. 
It will avail us little to attend exclusively to the 
symptoms as they appear, looking for nothing beyond 
these. We must trace out the circumstances, and phys- 
ical, mental, and social conditions in which the disease 
has its origin, and settle ourselves in the conviction, 
that no medical means whatsoever, that fall short of re- 
moving these, can be of any positive and permanent 
service. Then, and not till then, we shall be prepared 
to combat with remedies of unquestionable applicability 
and potency those incipient forms of the disease which, 
when the subject is only under the influence of pallia- 
tives, must inevitably pursue a regular and destructive 
course of growth. 
My observations in pulmonary affections-and they 
have been extensive-have brought me to the conclu- 
sion, that the tendency to pulmonary affections is al- 
ways in inverse ratio to the amount of respiratory 
power. My belief in this doctrine, which is now daily 
gaining converts, is amply confirmed by evidence both 
of a physiological and pathological character. There 
is no dispute in regard to the nature and relations of 
the morphological products of the disease, nor as to its 
general diagnostic features, and what may seem to be 
exceptions to the above rule, are found upon further 
investigation rather to confirm it than otherwise. 
1. One of the first signs confirmatory of this view PULMONARY AFFECTIONS-CONSUMPTION. 
289 
of the disease is the greatly diminished size of tne chest, 
noticeable in those in whom chronic pulmonary disease 
has resulted fatally. I have been at the pains to make 
careful examination of the skeletons of a number of per- 
sons known to have died of consumption, and found 
the circumference of the chest to be from three to live 
inches less than that in persons of the same height, 
who died of other diseases. In the frequent measure- 
ments made by me in the treatment by movements, I 
have found the same fact to exist invariably; the con- 
sumptive is always either narrow-chested or else de- 
formed, one side (that diseased) being shrunken. This 
condition of things is so patent to all observers, that a 
resort to measurements to prove it has seemed super- 
fluous. 
2. Another invariable condition attendant upon this 
disease is diminished mobility of the walls of the chest. 
The chest seems, sometimes, to heave with considerable 
force, but a closer observation shows that the motion is 
confined to a limited portion of its walls, while the 
average extent of motion is less, generally very much 
less, than normal. The change is always apparent in 
the relative extent of the inspiratory and expiratory 
movements, but the observer is apt to be deceived in 
regard to the total amount of mobility of the breathing 
organs. The efficiency of the respiratory act is far 
from being in exact proportion to the amount of effort 
made to effect this act. The necessity for effort proves 
the presence of an impediment to the performance of 
the act, as well as the fact that the amount of respira- 
tion is less than the system requires. 
3. The increased frequency of the pulse is an evidence 
of the diminished efficiency of the respiratory apparatus. 
The action of the circulatory organ is not under the 290 
PULMONARY AFFECTIONS CONSUMPTION. 
direct control of the will, and it is a law of the economy 
that the circulation, or at least the activity, of the ar- 
terial system increases with the increased need of the 
system for oxygen; as, for instance, in a healthy per- 
son during strong exertion either of the muscles or of 
the brain. The principle holds as well in disease, 
which in fact is, as we have said, but metamorphosed 
physiological action. When the respiration has for a 
time been imperfect, as under the influence of an ele- 
vated temperature, or through the ingestion of too great 
a quantity of food, the pulse of respiration afterward 
rapidly quickens, so as to bring the blood more speedily 
and thoroughly in contact with oxygen. This is ono 
of the conditions in acute disease. Similar effects are 
brought about by drugs. So also when, by disease 
of the lungs, the respiratory capacity is materially di- 
minished, or when, through a want of due development 
of the muscles engaged in the respiratory act, the 
amount of air breathed is too small, the pulse neces- 
sarily becomes quicker, in order to insure the contact 
of the blood and air along the diminished respiratory 
surface. 
4. The pulse becomes slower, and a sense of relief 
and rest is always experienced, by any accident or 
device that facilitates the aeration of the blood. This 
object is often secured by a removal of the invalid to 
a locality where there is exposure of the person to winds, 
as for instance, to the Western prairies, to southern 
climes, to islands of the sea. An ocean voyage is often 
of great benefit. If an invalid suffering from hectic rides 
on a fair day in a carriage, his pulse becomes appreciably 
slower. If a consumptive be exposed to an increase 
of atmospheric pressure of six or eight pounds to the 
square inch, the pulse is also retarded, because this PULMONARY AFFECTIONS CONSUMPTION. 
291 
pressure facilitates the changes effected in respiration. 
Herein lies the efficacy of what is termed the com- 
pressed air bath. Thus the most distressing symp- 
toms, in the several forms of pulmonary disease, are 
shown to arise from insufficient respiration. 
5. Another and hardly less conclusive evidence of 
the truth of the doctrine here laid down is found in 
the means required to overcome this disease. If move- 
ments are made to serve the purpose of increasing the 
aerating power of the lungs, the pulses are found soon 
to decrease in frequency, the strength begins to re- 
turn, and all the more distressing symptoms gradually 
abate, and in a degree proportionate to the amount of 
energy imparted to the respiratory efforts. Even dur- 
ing a single trial of a prescription of duplicated move- 
ments, the pulse will often fall ten or more beats per 
minute. If they are followed up, the capacity of the 
chest soon begins to augment, and along with this in- 
crease of breathing power various cheering signs appear. 
The amount of air respired in a chest collapsed 
by disease or disuse, compared with the amount re- 
spired after being expanded and strengthened by 
training it, would be very difficult to compute, even 
approximately. This increase of efficiency is the effect 
of two causes acting conjointly ; one of these is the in- 
creased amount of residual air contained by the lungs ; 
the other, the increased amount of motion secured to 
the walls of the chest and the diaphragm. If we sup- 
pose that by this gain in their mobility the lungs are 
enabled to admit only a single inch more of air at 
each respiration, in the course of the day, the increase 
would amount to fifteen cubic feet I Even this trifling 
amount of increase in respiratory power, the reader can 
readily conceive, would be capable of effecting a great 292 
PULMONARY AFFECTIONS-CONSUMPTION. 
change in the quality of the blood and the general nu- 
trition of the system. But when this is multiplied by 
several cubic inches-a result often attained-the good 
accomplished is great indeed.* 
The habits of life of the consumptive invalid are 
such as constantly to repress the development of the 
lungs, or a defect here may be due to original con- 
formation. The diminished capacity of the chest of 
course implies imperfect respiration. A direct conse- 
quence of this insufficient respiration is increase of 
the frequency of the pulse. The maintenance of this 
accelerated speed of the pulse occasions a wear of and 
perpetually increasing demand upon the powers of the 
organism incompatible with that quiet play of the func- 
tions, which is health. Had we no facts to prove it, 
• The following remarks of Lehmann are strongly confirmatory of the view here 
given: 
" While the advances of the science of medicine nave taught us that of all the 
vast accumulation of remedies which in the course of time have been collected to* 
gether, very few are of any value at the bedside, and while the enlightened practi- 
tioner is disposed to attach at least as much importance to a rational dietetic as to a 
specifically therapeutic mode of treatment, the value of investigations on normal 
respiration, in reference to the science of medicine, can never be overrated; for 
when once the fact is universally admitted that the first thing to be considered in 
many diseases is to furnish a copious supply of oxygen to the blood which has been 
loaded with imperfectly decomposed substances, and to remove as speedily as pos- 
sible the carbonic acid which has accumulated in it, these observations will have 
afforded us the true remedial agents which exceed almost any other in the cer- 
tainty of their action. We may, perhaps, aid a tuberculous patient quite as much 
by recommending him to respire a moist warm air, as if we prescribed Lichen Car- 
ragheen, or Ol.jecoris Aselli. 
" Instead of tormenting an emphysematous patient, suffering from congestion 
and hemorrhoidal tendencies, with aperient and saline mineral waters, we might 
relieve him far more effectually by recommending him to practice artificial aug- 
mentation or expansion of the chest in respiration (filling the lungs several times in 
the course of an hour), or to take exercise suited to produce this result, while we 
should forbid the use of spirituous drinks, and not preseribe tinctures which 
might hinder the necessary excretion of carbonic acid. We abstain, however, 
from offering any further illustrations of these assertions, since the reflecting physi- 
cian will not blindly follow any guide, while the mere empiricist can never learn 
thoroughly to heal any disease, whatever his knowledge of physiology and patho 
logical chemistry."-Physiological Chemistry, vol. ii., p. 471. PULMONARY AFFECTIONS CONSUMPTION. 
293 
we should suppose from analogy that congestion of the 
pulmonary tissues would be likely to occur from the 
excessive labor imposed upon this organ, and a dete- 
rioration of the morphological elements of the blood, 
and a consequent deposition in the form of tubercle 
need not be an unlooked-for consequence. 
When the respiration is below the requirements of 
the system, either one of two things may occur : either 
the blood, not being purified, and the secretions becom- 
ing clogged and changed in quality, colds, or the more 
grave and decided forms of fever, follow, with a quick- 
ening of the pulse and of the respiratory movements, 
and failure of the appetite; or the oxydizing action 
being less energetic, the materials accumulated in the 
blood may be able to resist it. Tubercle seems to be a 
degraded form of vitalized matter which continues to 
resist the oxydizing agencies at work within the blood. 
The quick pulse and breath are never able to balance 
each other perfectly. If, now, in this condition of 
things, an increase of respiration can take place, unac- 
companied by the evils resulting from quick breathing 
and the rapid pulse, the chances of restoration are at 
once immensely increased. 
The available power a person enjoys does-not equal 
the absolute product of vital action; it is only that 
part of the total force of the system which remains 
after the amount is expended which is needed for or- 
ganic purposes. It is clear that when the rate of the 
pulse is one hundred and twenty, and the respirations 
thirty-two per minute, the expenditure of force is much 
greater than when the pulse is sixty and the respira- 
tion sixteen. 
It follows, from this theory of the pathology of pul 
mouary disease, that the chief remedial indication is, 294 
PULMONARY AF I FXTIGNS CONSUMPTION. 
to increase the size of the chest and the mobility of its 
walls. 
The arrangements of nature are designed to secure 
the perfect performance of the respiratory act, and con- 
sist of means which affect the size and mobility of the 
chest. 
1. Temperature.-The lower the temperature to 
which the body is exposed, the greater the impression 
made by it upon the whole sensory surface. This im- 
pression is a direct stimulant to respiration. Whether 
the impression affects the whole, or only a limited por- 
tion of the surface, the result is the same; for a given 
amount of heat expended, an equivalent amount of air 
is respired. The average temperature of the atmo- 
sphere is forty to fifty degrees below that of the 
body. 
2. Exercise.-This, in the plan of nature, is rendered 
as necessary as temperature. All movements, wheth- 
er spontaneous and involuntary or voluntary, necessi- 
tate the use of oxygen derived from the blood by the 
acting vital organs. Hence the degree of perfection 
reached by +he respiratory act is strictly proportionate 
to the vigor oi the muscular action ; and we find that 
such action powerfully promotes respiration, and im 
proves the mobility of the walls of the chest. 
Properly directed exercise may prove advantageous 
to the respiration in two ways : 1. By directly increas- 
ing this action. 2. Indirectly, by developing and per- 
fecting the mechanism by which this act is performed. 
Chronic pulmonary diseases are of two principal 
forms: congestion and ulceration of the pulmonary 
nervous surface-the surface in contact with the air; 
and a deposit of non-vitalized organic matter in the 
parenchyma of these organs. Both forms are refer* PULMONABY AFFECTIONS CONSUMPTION. 
295 
able to the imperfect aeration of the blood at the point 
where this fluid accumulates, waiting for its noxious 
matters to become eliminated by the means above 
pointed out, and both forms disappear generally upon 
the restoration of the natural movements of the walls 
of the chest. 
The reader must be warned against rushing upon 
the inference here, that indiscriminate movements may 
be employed in this disease. Nothing, in fact, is like- 
ly to prove more harmful, in diseases of the lungs, 
than improper use of exercises, while, if they are prac- 
ticed in accordance with the principles and under the 
conditions prescribed by the Movement-Cure, injurious 
effects are scarcely possible. To enable us to guard 
against these harmful results, let us analyze the respira- 
tory process. 
Respiration is composed of two distinct actions-in 
the filling of the lungs with air, or inspiration, and 
the exclusion of a portion of the air contained by these 
organs, or expiration. 
Inspiration is effected by the contraction and con- 
sequent depression of the diaphragm, and the simul- 
taneous contraction of the muscles lying between and 
covering the ribs, which elevates them and turns 
them outward. Expiration is produced simply by 
the relaxation of these same muscles, allowing the 
-walls of the chest to return to the position they oc- 
cupied at the commencement of inspiration, thus nar- 
rowing the space included in the chest, and driving 
out the air. 
These actions are properly enough compared to those 
of a pump ; but the venous blood is exposed to similar 
conditions with those securing the rush of air into the 
lungs, and it of course acquires the same tendency to- 296 
PULMONARY AFFECTIONS CONSUMPTION. 
ward the chest, so as to meet the air which it is in 
tended to receive. 
It follows that if the respiratory act be forced be- 
yond a certain moderate extent, while other portions 
of the body are at comparative rest, this tendency of 
blood to the chest will be beyond the power of the 
heart to control, and the pulmonary organs become 
congested. As a consequence, various disagreeable 
sensations are experienced about the chest, and these 
may be followed by serious indisposition; inflamma- 
tion may set in, or rupture of vessels may occur. Espe- 
cially if the pulmonary organs be weak or previously 
diseased, the effect of such movements thus taken may 
be disastrous and irreparable. Such consequences 
have sometimes followed the use of the inhaling-tube, 
so often recommended to invalids of this class. 
The indications for the treatment of pulmonary af- 
fections plainly are, first, to remove the congestion 
that always lingers about the chest in these com- 
plaints, and certainly to guard against the possibility 
of its occurrence. This is easily accomplished by the 
aid of the duplicated movements, and also, if the pa- 
tient retain a moderate amount of strength, by the 
single movements. The prescription, to begin with, 
must include in its first part such movements as are 
strongly derivative applied to the extremities, w'hile 
the central organs should be approached cautiously. 
Only after a marked effect has been produced upon 
the extremities should we employ such movements as 
tend to expand the chest, because these draw the blood 
from the extremities. A physician of tact will so 
manage as to combine these effects of derivation and 
expansion from the first, thus greatly facilitating the 
progress of the patient After the derivative pre- PULMONARY AFFECTIONS-'CONSUMPTION. 
297 
scription has been continued for some time, with an 
improvement of all the symptoms, those which in- 
crease the size of the chest may be applied more 
boldly, never omitting, however, to alternate them 
frequently with those of the first-named kind. 
It is always best for the patient, if treating himself, 
to commence proceedings by taking accurate measure- 
ment of his chest, both at its upper section and at its 
lower, or across the short ribs. By repeating the 
measurement occasionally from time to time, he will 
be able to judge of the amount of improvement he is 
making, and thus encourage himself more than he 
possibly could by merely noticing the improvement 
in his feelings, because he is impressed with the idea 
of the permanent character of this result. In using 
the duplicated movements, some invalids have expe- 
rienced an increase in the circumference of the chest 
of an inch or more for each of three or four'consecu- 
tive weeks. But even when much less than this is 
gained, nearly all patients will attain results that will 
be quite satisfactory and cheering, especially if com- 
pared with the results effected by other kinds of med- 
ical treatment. 
The reader must not suppose that all the good ac- 
complished in this way for the lungs is indicated by 
the dilatation of the chest. The contracted and dis- 
eased lungs are incited by the stimulus of the move- 
ments to take on a more efficient action ; the vitalizing 
air is made to penetrate and dilate the collapsed air- 
cells, or to displace the secretions with which they are 
filled. The improvement from this cause, even before 
the circumference of the chest has perceptibly in- 
creased, is in many cases very decided. Many re- 
spectable physicians, who have examined my patients 298 
PULMONARY AFFECTIONS-CONSUMPTION. 
while under treatment, have testified to this fact very 
emphatically, as this is the improvement that is easily 
detected by the skillful auscultator. 
For the consumptive patient a formula of movements 
like the following may be employed. 
1. Stretch (weight held), backward lying, holding. 
68. 
2. Wing-walk standing, forward-knee bending and 
stretching. Change. 14. 
3. Door-way standing, walking. 58. 
4. Arms angle (weight held), reclined walk-kneeling, 
arms stretching. 43. 
5. Sitting, arms sidewise raising. 47. 
6. Stretch-stride kneeling, trunk transverse sway- 
ing. 45. 
7. Stretch grasp, forward fall standing, trunk bend- 
ing and stretching. 76. 
8. Half-stretch stride sitting, trunk twisting. Change. 
87. 
9. Yard-stride sitting, arms twisting. 39. 
10. Trunk support half standing, leg twisting. 13. 
The movements should be varied to meet the exigen- 
cies of each particular case. If there be great feeble- 
ness, a formula like the following would be more 
appropriate to begin with : 
1. Wing long sitting, feet rotation. 5. 
2. Rack grasp standing, feet stretching. 1. 
3. Standing, arm perpendicular, rotating. 73. 
4. Yard kneeling, arms horizontal, swaying. 39. 
5. Stretch half-walk, half-kneeling, trunk backward 
bending. 48. 
6. Step half-standing, trunk sidewise bending. 49 
EXAMPLES OF PRESCRIPTIONS. PULMONARY AFFECTIONS CONSUMPTION. 
299 
7. Support half-standing, curtseying. 10. 
8. Elbow-support, backward fall standing, holding. 
77. 
9. Hanging, swinging. 74. 
10. Hang standing, trunk rotating. 
It is useful for the invalid thus practicing to apply 
at the same time rapid and light friction over the 
whole surface of the body, with free exposure of the 
naked person to the air, as often as twice every day, 
and to lave the chest thoroughly with a coarse towel 
wetted with cold water. He should also bathe the 
whole person in water as cool as he can well bear, say 
80° or 90°, and he may likewise take a hip bath at 
75°, for ten minutes, to excite the respiration; both 
these daily if the strength will allow. 
In addition to the above the swing may be used for 
five or ten minutes several times every day. 300 
PARALYSIS OF THE NERVES OF MOTION. 
papier 
PARALYSIS OF THE NERVES OF MOTION. 
The Movement?Cure supplies new hope to the vic- 
tims of this peculiarly obstinate affection. It does not 
merely add another to the catalogue of " promising" 
remedies, but the patient who tries it is often at once 
convinced of its appropriateness to his condition, he is 
inspired with a new confidence. Hundreds who had 
become disheartened by witnessing the futility of ordi- 
nary medical treatment have had their courage thus 
renewed as if by magic. We reject such remedies 
as strychnine, stimulants, galvanism, electricity, for al- 
though the application of this class of remedies may 
afford encouragement by their temporary effects, and 
may seem occasionally to do a great deal of good, yet 
experience proves that by such practice the recuper- 
ative powers are in the end exhausted, and the case 
becomes less amenable to treatment than it otherwise 
would be. 
The treatment of paralysis by duplicated movements, 
by myself and by others under my observation, has 
resulted favorably in a large majority of instances; 
many have had members that had become useless and 
burdensome, partially, some entirely restored to their 
original integrity and usefulness, while many others 
have left my hands in the confident hope that their 
own efforts persistently followed up would finally re- 
sult in complete restoration So far as I have learned, PARALYSIS OF THE NERVES OF MOTION. 
301 
these patients have continued to improve to a satisfac- 
tory extent. One of the most encouraging cases on my 
list is that of a gentleman who came to me with com- 
plete paraplegia of over two years' standing, who after 
three weeks' instruction returned home, and applied the 
knowledge he had acquired to such purpose, that in 
a short time he was restored to health and the pursuit 
of his professional avocations. We may understand 
the peculiar appropriateness and success of the treat- 
ment if we will take the pains to examine the pathology 
of the disease. 
Modern physiology explains the cause of paralysis to 
be some defect in the health of nerve-centers located in 
the spinal cord and at the base of the brain, from which 
the incentive to muscular action proceeds. These cen- 
ters consist of the gray substance of the cord, and they 
hold communication by means of countless radiating 
nerve fibers with all the muscular tissue of the body. 
The actual pathological state of these nerve-centers in 
paralysis is often a matter somewhat obscure. Some- 
times it is found upon examination that the walls of 
the capillary vessels supplying the part with nutrition 
have been ruptured, and effusion of a clot, pressure, 
and a sudden shock, depriving the parts or muscles con- 
nected therewith by means of the nerve fibers, of power, 
is the consequence. The extent of the paralysis will 
in this case depend on the location, as those portions 
of the body connected with the cord belovo the seat of 
disease suffer from its effects. 
Another cause may be serous effusion into the mem- 
brane inclosing the cord, which may by its pressure gra- 
dually produce similar symptoms. Sometimes, again, 
a disease of the substance of the cord occurs called soft- 
ening, which destroys the function of the cord and of the 302 
PARALYSIS OF THE NERVES OF MOTION. 
parts connected with it. The reader will understand 
from this that the muscles are not primarily affected, 
but their action becoming suspended, they are deprived 
of nutrition, and consequently become weak and flabby, 
and are often greatly diminished in bulk. Neither are 
the nerve filaments which conduct the nerve influence 
from its central seat necessarily implicated. They cease 
to conduct impressions, simply because they receive 
none in the disabled state of the central organ. 
The reader may now be ready to inquire, with a 
skeptical smile, "How can exercise of the muscles, 
which are not the seat of the disease, restore functional 
power to the disabled nerve ?" 
The following considerations will serve to throw 
some light upon what may perhaps appear a rather 
dark subject. 
1. The spinal column is inclosed in the bony case 
formed by the vertebral column, in which, the more 
effectually to protect it from injury from external 
sources, it is suspended, and surrounded through its 
entire length by fluid. By this arrangement, injury to 
the cord from any sudden twist or shock is prevented. 
But this is not all. Along the exterior surface of 
the column is situated the largest and strongest mus- 
cular mass belonging to the body, which is employed 
in sustaining and giving flexibility and mobility to the 
trunk. Every action of these muscles necessarily af- 
fects the circulation of the contained and contiguous 
vessels, and modifies also the condition of the organs 
contained 'within the vertebral canal. Now the lateral, 
forward, backward, and diagonal inclinations of the 
body in the duplicated and the single movements are 
eminently derivative for the cord itself, and serve as a 
powerful means for relieving congestion of the spinal PARALYSIS OF THE NERVES OF MOTION. 
303 
membranes and nerves, or even for removing serous 
effusion. 
2. But, in perhaps a majority of cases, the spinal le- 
sion has been recovered from spontaneously,-as the 
result of the patient waiting which is enforced by the 
very nature of the affection; still, the power of motior 
is not as a consequence restored. Whether nature has, 
after a time, effected so favorable a change in the case, 
we can have no means of directly knowing; we must 
be content to wait for the results of treatment to en 
lighten us on this point. Whether it has or has not, 
the paralysis generally continues, because the con- 
ductor, having once ceased to perform its duty, contin- 
ues inoperative even after the original source of nerve- 
power is restored by time. It is evident that the mus- 
cles will remain inactive so long as the nerves refuse 
to convey motive force to them. It is inferred that 
this state of things may often exist for the simple rea- 
son that very frequently paralysis is speedily removed 
by movements, while this could not possibly happen 
if the cord itself, the source of all muscular power, re- 
mained diseased. The cure does not, in this case, con- 
sist so much in the removal of disease as in the restora- 
tion of a function. This only is wanted : the power to 
move ; the germ of the power still exists ; this is to be 
encouraged and cultivated. The disabled muscles must 
be moved, and be helped to move themselves, till they 
have regained the ability to work unassisted. So are 
children's muscles trained at the outset of life. What 
more natural, simple, and philosophic I 
Thus, again, the will is enabled to send its mandates 
like lightning from the brain to every portion of the 
physical domain, and at once healthful and harmonious 
action is restored to the whole economy. 304 
PABAETSTS OF THE NEEVES OF MOTION. 
The duplicated movements affect the diseased nerves 
jften in a most favorable manner. They may be ap- 
plied along the course of the conductor or over the 
spinal centers. 
The Movement-Cure overcomes this formidable dis- 
ease by removing any pressure that may exist at the 
nerve-centers, by restoring the flow of nervous force 
to its original channels, while the general expenditure 
of nerve-power is at the same time carefully husband- 
ed ; by tranquilizing the whole system, and especially 
the diseased organs ; and by re-establishing the condi- 
tions for healthy nutrition throughout the body. The 
Movement-Cure deprecates the employment of all 
means whatsoever designed merely to stimulate the 
nerves to functional activity, whether applied to the 
general system or to diseased parts. It would evoke 
no manifestation when there is not behind an abundant 
capacity to sustain it, supplied through the nutrient 
energies of the organism, the grand primary source of 
all functional power. It discards all beverages, ex- 
cepting simple, unadulterated water; the use of to- 
bacco, which observation proves to be frequently the 
cause of the disease ; the use of condiments of all 
kinds, which only task, never replenish, the nerve- 
power. For the same reason, it enjoins abstinence 
from all exciting business, and everything calculated 
to arouse the emotions or awake anxious or laborious 
thought; for these things tend certainly to debilitate 
the nervous system, and must necessarily aggravate 
disease where it exists, ar.d counteract, in a greater 
or less degree, the beneficial effects of the move- 
ments. 
It is a question that deserves serious consideration, 
whether the prevalence of this form of disease is not PARALYSIS OF THE NERVES OF MOTION. 
305 
refeiable, to a much greater extern than the public 
Beem to be aware, to the habits of the individual. 
Excessive venery, every practicing physician knows to 
be a fruitful source of this disease. The reflecting 
mind, indeed, may well ponder how it is that so many 
escape with only milder and comparatively tractable 
forms of nervous disease, when it considers the self- 
indulgent habits of so many in the community. 
In the treatment of these cases the duplicated move' 
ments are nearly indispensable in the beginning. It is 
absolutely necessary that the patient understand the 
various principles and methods of the cure, in order 
that as he advances in strength and in self-conffnand he 
may be able to take the treatment into his own hands 
and conduct it to the desired consummation. 
The prescription must embrace bendings, fallings, 
etc., in such positions as call the muscles of the back, 
and especially of the neck, into active play. It should 
also include attempts at the restoration of power in the 
defective members. It is found that the liver is nearly 
always affected in cases of this disease, perhaps often as 
a consequence of it, induced by mere inaction. It 
should be roused into activity by regulating and re- 
stricting the diet, together with the appropriate move- 
ments ; many of the duplicated movements of the pas- 
sive kind are important here, for the toning up not 
only of defective nerves, but also of those organs whose 
actions are limited through lack of nervous supply, as 
well as to sooth and tranquilize the nerves themselves. 
Such movements are to be applied very cautiously in 
the vicinity of nerve-centers, more freely along the 
conductors. 
It is important to direct the attention, and with 
it the nerve-force, into the affected part, by means of 306 
PARALYSIS OF THE NERVES OF MOTION. 
attempts to move the debilitated or disabled part. 
These attempts must be successful in order to be bene 
fiddly and the lacking power must be supplied by an 
assistant. Unless the patient sees a result accomplish- 
ed by his own endeavors, he will be disheartened and 
give over his efforts. If a paralytic can not, for in- 
stance, raise his hand, he must at least try. The effort 
will of course be fruitless till the power to raise the 
last ounce of the weight is developed, and the invalid 
does not know that he exerts any power until he has ex- 
erted enough to accomplish his purpose. But if assisted, 
he can be made to feel that he overcomes a part of the 
resistance, and is thence encouraged to continue and 
multiply his efforts. 
The paralytic invalid must be cautioned against 
making violent efforts, or attempting quick move- 
ments ; all his motions should be deliberate and gentle. 
The time of the movement should not only be pro- 
longed, but the part moved should be sustained during 
a period of rest at the terminal position. In this way 
the object of the movement, which consists in establish- 
ing and improving the communication between the 
nerve-centers and muscles, is secured as far as is possi- 
ble. It is only further necessary to repeat the same 
movement at the same time, in the same way, daily, 
and an increased, if not a perfect control of the weak- 
ened part is quite certain to result. But if, on the 
contrary, the movements be taken at irregular times, 
or practiced rapidly, violently, or carelessly, the fund 
of power will be exhausted rather than increased, and 
injury will result rather than benefit to the experi- 
menter. 
These remarks apply to duplicate as well as to single 
movements. It is only necessary to add that the ap- PARALYSIS OF THE NERVES OF MOTION. 
307 
plication of single movements is limited, but being 
employed according to the invalid's ability in the mode 
and with the cautions above indicated to the afflicted 
extremity, the result will amply repay in returning 
health the attention thus devoted. 308 
CONSTIPATION, DIARRHEA, AND PILES. 
.OBSTIPATION, DIARRHEA, AND PILES. 
Among business, professional, and studious men, and 
-hose engaged in sedentary avocations, no condition is 
more common than that of constipation of the bowels, 
and none more disregarded. With these classes of per- 
sons constipation is the first notice given of the com- 
mencement of a state of chronic ill health that often 
proves permanent, rendering them miserable perhaps 
for life. The approach of this affection is insidious, 
and it may exist even when the subject of it is not 
aware of the fact, for though his evacuations may be 
regular, yet the residual matter occupies a much longer 
time in its passage through the canal than is compat- 
ible with health. 
This symptom is often accompanied by disorder of 
the stomach, and it is also frequently connected with 
nervous irritability, prostration, hypochondria, etc. It 
is apt to accompany the first stages of pulmonary dis- 
ease, and indeed nearly all persons afflicted with chronic 
disorders are troubled with costiveness. 
Prominent among the causes of this condition are, 
sedentary habits, anxiety of mind and severe 
a prolonged use of' improper food, and the indulgence 
in aperients and other drugs. Constipation may be 
connected with other symptoms which constitute the 
main disease, but generally it is the fruit of one, or of 
a combination of the causes above-mentioned. Persona CONSTIPATION, DIARRHEA, AND FILES. 
309 
of active habits who do not unduly burden themselves 
with the cares and anxieties of this mortal life, are not 
apt to be afflicted in this manner. 
We may easily understand how the above-mentioned 
causes operate to the production of this distressing re- 
sult. The organs whose function it is to expel the in- 
soluble matter of the canal, need to be acted upon by 
the superficial muscles of the abdomen, which are 
brought into play only in vigorous exercise of the 
limbs and trunk. Of course these organs in the sed- 
entary are denied this mechanical stimulus. Mental 
anxiety diverts the nutritive material from the di- 
gestive organs, and employs it in a remote portion of 
the body, the brain, and thus robs these organs of the 
nutrition necessary for a proper performance of their 
duties. Improper food poisons, rather than nourishes 
the body, induces congestion of the alimentary canal 
by the irritation it sets up, and the effects upon the 
system of the products of the chemical changes it un- 
dergoes in that canal. Cathartic drugs are foreign to 
the vital purposes, wear down the delicate vital sus- 
ceptibility, and aggravate the disease for which they 
are applied. The relief they afford is of the most 
transitory and deceitful kind; their direct and perma- 
nent effects are entirely pathological, and their contin- 
ued use is well known to be eminently subversive of 
the vital welfare. 
Under the combined influence of improper habits 
and aperient drugs, the invalid is apt to go on from 
bad to worse, unless arrested in his career by some ac- 
cident, till seized by acute, violent, and perhaps fatal 
disease, or till he lapses info a state of nervous disor- 
der most difficult to overcome. Many persons are con- 
stant slaves to the enema, the only substitute which 310 
CONSTIPATION, DIABEHEA, AND PILES. 
they know for the pill or bolus. This is perhaps a more 
harmless remedy, but it is still but an unsatisfactory 
palliative at the best. Indeed, we can not well cure 
the disease which causes the retention of fecal matter, 
while we confound this symptom with the disease 
itself. 
As might be inferred from what has been said re- 
specting the causes of constipation, it is not usually 
attributable to a defect of any one part. We must look 
for these causes at several distinct points, and then we 
shall be able to remove them by simple means happily 
at our command. I will enumerate a few of these 
causes: 
1. Weakness of the muscular coat of the alimentary 
canal exists, in consequence of which its vermicular 
and expulsive power becomes insufficient. 
2. There is generally defective power of the lower 
section of the spinal cord. The defective power of 
the expulsive muscles, especially those of the inferior 
portion of the tube, results partly from want of nervous 
supply from this source. This is the natural conse- 
quence of the nervous fund being too largely drawn 
upon from other quarters-the brain, the stomach, etc. 
What is chiefly wanted to overcome this obstacle is, 
that this draft should cease, and also that appropriate 
means be used to give employment to the nervous 
power in the part of the body where it is especially 
needed. The lower section of the cord should be 
roused to action chiefly by means of the muscles sup- 
plied from this source-sometimes also by more direct 
operations. 
3. There frequently exists congestion of the mucous 
membrane of the alimentary tube, in some portion of 
its course, which causes a deficiency of the required CONSTIPATION, DIARRHEA, AND PILES. 
311 
secietions. This state of the mucous membranes calls 
for the exercise and development of the abdominal 
coverings, for the purpose of drawing off the blood 
from the congested into the acting parts, and thus 
relieving that state. Motion applied to the mem- 
brane, or, rather, to the organs of which the membrane 
is a part, is also indicated for the purpose of assisting 
the capillary action in the membrane. 
4. The abdominal muscles, whose function it is to 
assist the expulsive efforts, are, in constipation, flabby, 
doughy, and weak. They fail both to maintain the 
abdominal contents in the proper situation, and to act 
with suflicient force to aid materially in the contrac- 
tion of the tube. This state may be readily remedied 
by such exercises as are adapted to develop these 
muscles. 
5. The liver is generally torpid and congested. Some- 
times this state is indicated by tenderness in the region 
of this organ. This condition manifests imperfect ox- 
ydation of the blood, and a consequent retention of 
matters that ought to have been reduced, through res- 
piration, to a soluble and volatile form, and dismissed 
from the body. These retained matters are proximate 
elements of the bile which the liver is incapable of 
taking up in sufficient quantity. The tissues are want- 
ing in moisture; the refuse materials of the system are 
not thoroughly reduced, as they should be, to carbonic 
acid and water. To remedy this state, such move- 
ments as improve the respiratory action are demanded, 
together with a curtailment of the amount of food 
taken. In this way the harmonious co-operation of 
the digestive and respiratory functions is restored. 
6. In this form of disease, coldness of hands and feet 
also exists. This results from too great a plethora of the 312 
CONSTIPATION, DIARRHEA, AND PILES. 
large central blood-vessels. Movements for the ex 
tremities to draw the blood toward them, are neces- 
sary to effect a wholesome distribution of the circu- 
lation. 
From this view of the nature of the impediments to 
be overcome, the reader will see at a glance the entire 
ppropriateness of movements in the treatment of this 
most common and troublesome affection. 
Let us now briefly consider, by way of contrast, the 
modus operands of an aperient medicine : 
1. The drug being mixed with the homogeneous con- 
tents of the intestinal tube, and impregnating the 
whole of the contained mass, unfits it for the purpose 
for which nutritive matters are designed; the absorb- 
ents, therefore, refuse to take up these matters thus 
contaminated. Hence nutrition is suspended, and there 
is for the time a general decline of strength. 
2. The mass now having become offensive to the 
organic instinct, is acted upon by the emunctories with 
great power, which action is the ready and only way 
of freeing the system from impending harm. By this 
means the whole intestinal mass, rendered partly fluid 
by imperfect digestion, is forced rapidly through the 
entire length of the tube. 
3. Some portion of the offensive matter has been al- 
ready absorbed into the blood, but it is directly re- 
turned to the canal as being the appropriate way of 
egress. This portion is mingled with serum drawn 
from the blood, so as to dilute the noxious principle, 
and thus prevent, in a degree, the injury resulting 
from its immediate contact with vital parts. 
4. In the operations just described, but one advan- 
tage has been gained, and this is incidental and indi- 
rect, and occurs in this way: While the nutrition is CONSTIPATION, DIARRHEA, AND PILES. 
313 
prevented in the manner described from entering the 
blood, the respiration continues as usual. It follows 
that the effete and noxious matters of the system, 
which are most prone to become destructive, have 
been reduced in the ordinary way, that is, in the man- 
ner in which these actions happen in health, so that 
they have rapidly made their exit from the system. 
Or, in other words, the effects produced by cathar- 
tics are of the same kind, only inferior to those pro- 
duced by abstinence from food. All the good effects 
of the process are much more promptly, surely, and 
easily obtained, without loss of strength, without abuse 
of the digestive organs, by abstinence. In the cathartic 
process nothing has been accomplished in the way of 
removing any of the difficulties above-mentioned, and 
which are the true cause of constipation, and by con- 
sequence, this difficulty exists in a greater degree after 
the operation of the medicine than before. The promi- 
nent system has been relieved, only for the moment, 
while the disease thus masked lias acquired fresh power. 
All the indications for the radical cure of constipa- 
tion are, on the other hand, completely fulfilled by 
movements. If the case be of great severity, the dupli- 
cated movements are called for; but the single move- 
ments are competent to subdue the complaint, where 
there are no perplexing complications, if applied with 
due accuracy, care, and discretion. 
The following formula of movements will be found 
powerfully remedial in an ordinary case of constipa- 
tion : 
1. Wing-stride back-support standing, curtseying. 
2. Wing legs angle standing, trunk vibration. 
3. Wing legs angle backward lying, thighs rotation 
4. Wing backward lying, legs rotation. 314 
CONSTIPATION, DIARRHEA, AND PILES. 
5. Elbow and foot sidewise lying, hips raising. 
6. Stretch kneeling, trunk sidewise swaying. 
7. Forward fall, head support standing, leg raising 
Change. 
8. Backward lying, abdomen deep kneading. 
9. Forward bent support standing, chin knocking. 
10. Shelter long sitting, trunk forward bending. 
11. Wing stride short sitting, leg outward stretching. 
Change. 
12. Shelter backward kick lying, legs separating and 
closing. 
All the above movements affect with more or less 
directness the abdominal and pelvic contents. There 
are several others which act more remotely upon the 
same parts. In making a formula of treatment, some 
three or four of the above movements may be selected, 
and these should be connected with such others as are 
derivative movements for the feet and hands, of a char- 
acter suited to the strength of the patient. 
example i. 
1. Standing, arms swaying. 
2. Wing sitting, legs twisting. 
3. Half-wing, half-stretch, step standing, trunk twist 
ing. Change. 
4. Wing, leg angle, backward lying, thigh rotation. 
5. Wing-stride standing, curtseying. 
6. Forward bent support standing, chin knocking. 
1. Arms angle kneeling, arms stretching. 
2. Support half standing, leg rotation. Change. 
3. Wing kick backward lying, legs separation and 
closing 
EXAMPLE 2. CONSTIPATION, DIARRHEA, AND PILES. 
315 
4. Wing backward lying, legs rotation. 
5. Leg angle swing standing, trunk perpendicular 
♦ bration. 
6. Backward lying, abdomen deep kneading. 
These movements may be repeated if necessary. As 
•..judliary to the treatment, the enema of tepid watei 
u.a 7 be employed from time to time; but its habitual 
me .should be avoided. The tepid hip-bath may also 
bo uued occasionally, if found agreeable to the patient. 
The reader will understand the futility of employing 
movements to restore the health of the digestive organs, 
while he is not at the same time careful to control 
his general habits, so that his general course of living 
shall contribute to the same end. If he is an habitually 
careless liver he will scarcely succeed in accomplishing 
much goi d for himself, however excellent may be the 
curative moans he may resort to, or however faithfully 
and judiciously he may apply them, nor ought he to 
expect it. Nature's laws were never made to be broken. 
The transgressor need never hope to escape the penalty 
of his folly. Nature pays no such premium on wrong 
doing. Every page of the history of every race, com- 
munity, and individual contains a warning addressed 
in thunder toned to nature's offending children. " The 
day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die!" It is 
terrible to think in how many men, this very day, has 
death begun its retributive work I 
Diarrhea.- Several causes may be concerned in the 
production of this symptom, and they may act either 
singly or concurrently. 1. Debility-general relaxa- 
tion of the tissues-is always present, and this condi- 
tion, as we have seen, is invariably referable to some 
imperfection of the primary actions that develop vital- 316 
CONSTIPATION, DIARRHEA, AND PILES. 
ity. 2. The presence of crude and irritating matters 
in the alimentary canal, occasioning spasmodic or un- 
certain action of the muscular coat, while at the same 
time absorption of the contents is prevented by the 
morbid state of the membrane, and the alimentary 
mass is consequently rapidly dismissed. 3. In case of 
sudden poisoning of the blood, either from spontane- 
ous metamorphosis, as in cholera, or the accidental or 
prescribed use of some injurious drug, the alimentary 
canal furnishes the most ready outlet whereby such 
destructive matters may be eliminated. Oftentimes 
diarrhea is manifestly a curative operation on the 
part of nature. In these latter cases the symptoms 
generally amount to something more than is generally 
understood by the term diarrhea. The flux, in these 
cases, is generally sufficient to remove the offensive 
cause, whereupon the health is restored. 4. An ulcer- 
ated patch may exist in the canal, and occasion diar- 
rhea. 5. The relaxation of the abdominal parietes and 
contents, by the consequent pressure upon the perineum 
and sphincter muscles, may excite action of the lower 
bowel and occasion urgent desire to go to stool and 
much straining-a reflex nervous effect of pressure 
upon the sphincter. In this case there is prolapsus of 
the bowels, either concealed or apparent. 
In each of the above cases, except where the action 
is manifestly acute, what is needed is the production 
of a greater tonicity of the vital structure. The vital 
organization is depressed and incomplete, and the true 
remedy must be something that will restore vital power 
and activity. The fluids of the system must be con- 
veyed from the digestive center outward to the re- 
mote parts of the body, and so become applied to 
normal use. The arterial action is low and requires 317 
OONSTIJ ATION, DIARRHEA, AND PILES. 
to be energized; there is venous plethora and feeble 
respiration. The muscular tissue is lax and weak, 
and all the organizing processes of the body are 
carried on slowly and unsteadily. All these diffi- 
culties are met and overcome by the application of 
movements. 
It is necessary that at first the movements prescribed 
should be of the passive sort. It is for this reason 
that those of the duplicated kind are so efficacious. 
Such exercises as riding, sailing, etc., are eminently 
serviceable to move the blood in the clogged capilla- 
ries, and thus restore their normal power. All vibra- 
tory movements applied to the abdomen produce good 
effects, and the extent of these good effects are found 
to correspond with the thoroughness and faithfulness 
with which they are applied. One may vibrate and 
knead his own abdomen in either or any of the sev- 
eral ways already noticed with much benefit. At the 
same time, it is very useful to apply movements to the 
extremities for the purpose of drawing the blood away 
from the central organs; also to promote the respira- 
tory process in order to restore the purity of this fluid. 
If the case be one of ulceration of the bowels, long, 
persistent, and careful constitutional treatment is re- 
quired. bkort, cold sitting-baths ought always to be 
resorted to frequently to aid the respiration and to en- 
courage the contractile efforts of the bowels. 
Piles.-This affection consists often of a distention 
of the veins at the posterior termination of the mucous 
lining of the intestine. It is accompanied by a sensi- 
tiveness caused by a sluggishness of the abdominal 
circulation, and generally an engorgement of the liver 
may be presumed. The coniition of the liver is such 318 
CONSTIPATION, DIARRHEA, AND PILES. 
as to retard the flow of blood in the portal veins, 
which return the blood to the heart from the digestive 
tube; hence the lower twigs of the veins that contrib- 
ute to the portal circulation become distended-an 
event which is greatly favored by the influence of 
gravity, which also retards the upward flow of the con- 
tents of these vessels. Abdominal plethora is also 
generally present. Inflammation succeeds distention 
of the hemorrhoidal veins, and they often become 
hardened, ulcerated, and disposed to bleed easily. 
Sometimes a considerable loss of blood occurs from 
this cause. 
Som<?limes, also, there is prolapsus of the rectum, 
which greatly aggravates the disorder on account of 
the constant straining efforts the patient is impelled to 
make to evacuate the bowels, which drives the blood 
down, or, rather, retards its upward flow, and the ves- 
sels of the sphincter become strangulated. 
The plain indications of treatment are, first, to re- 
lieve the liver of congestion, and reduce the abdom- 
inal plethora by an abstemious diet. This aids the 
contraction of the surcharged vessels, and also removes 
the impediment to the onward flow of the blood. Sec- 
ondly, to draw the abdominal contents upward to re- 
lieve the pressure upon the sphincter. Thirdly, to 
remove the capillary congestion of the parts. 
Surgical aid may sometimes be demanded, undoubt- 
edly, in grave cases of this disease; but after the prin- 
ciples of the Movement-Cure have become well under- 
stood, the proper subjects for such treatment will be 
scarce in the land. 
In lieu of the duplicated movement, single move- 
ments may be employed for this affection to great ad 
vantage. The object sought in their application should CONSTIPATION, DIAKEHEA, AND PILES. 
319 
be to affect the liver and arouse the abdominal circu- 
lation to greater activity. The following movements 
are recommended for this purpose : 
Elbow and toes lying, holding, or hips raising. 
The following movement is also useful: 
Wing, leg-angle backward lying, hips raising. 
Also: 
Stretch grasp forward fall-standing, holding. 
Stretch (weight held) backward lying, holding. 320 
DEFORMITIES OF THE SPIKE. 
glinetttn. 
DEFORMITIES OF THE SPINE. 
The application of the Movement-Cure to the correc- 
tion of spinal curvatures is especially successful and 
satisfactory. Not that the relief obtained in these 
cases is more certain than in many others, or that the 
difficulty to be overcome is so much greater, but be- 
cause we are constantly furnishing to the friends of the 
patient ocular demonstration of the good effects of the 
treatment-effects of a kind that admit of no dispute. 
One clearly marked instance of cure of this kind, in 
the popular estimation, is more creditable to the skill 
and resources of the practitioner, and redounds more 
to his honor, than would any amount of skill and judg- 
ment expended upon the more difficult task of pre- 
venting the occurrence of these or other maladies, or 
even in curing many other forms of diseases of less con- 
spicuous character. 
In order to arrive at just conclusions regarding the 
treatment suitable for this class of invalids, it is neces- 
sary, first, to inquire into the origin of spinal deformi- 
ties. This is to be sought in the anatomical character 
and relations of the column itself and of its supports. 
The column consists of twenty-four light, spongy bones, 
resting by their flat surfaces upon each other, with a 
cushion of elastic cartilage between. This interposi- 
tion of cartilage is necessary in order to secure the DEFORMITIES OF THE SPINE. 
321 
requisite amount of flexibility and elasticity, to enable 
it to resist the shocks to which it is so often subjected, 
and to give the trunk that pliability and freedom of 
motion necessary in assuming the various positions and 
performing the various actions of man's daily life. 
We see at once, from the form and construction of 
the spinal column, that of itself it could not possibly 
maintain an erect position, but would, unless supported, 
be falling into shapes and inclining in directions that 
might be quite at variance with the will or wishes of 
the individual. But in the living body this column is 
entirely under the control of muscles which are at- 
tached to it at many points, and which give a degree 
of motion in any direction to every portion of it, and 
are capable of supporting it in every position. The 
muscular connections of the spinal column with other 
parts are extensive and various; the arms and legs are 
connected with it by muscles, and consequently the 
character of their motions is related to the positions of 
the spine, and the movements of these members, as we 
shall see, are to a considerable extent capable of modi- 
fying its form. 
The spinal column, in its normal condition, is far 
from being straight; it has several curves : one, for- 
ward at the neck, another at the lumbar region, and 
one backward, in its dorsal section, and another at the 
loins. These curves increase the elasticity of the col- 
umn, and are necessary to the symmetry of the body, 
and are evidently intended to favor the natural action 
of the muscles, if they are not produced thereby, as 
some affirm. 
It is manifest from this that a lateral curvature of 
the spine is not primarily a fault of the column itself, 
but of certain muscles whose function it is to control 322 
DEFORMITIES OF THE SPINE. 
the movements and general posture of the trunk. If 
the natural curves of the spine exceed their appointed 
limit, there will result some deformity of shape; this 
occurs from weakness of muscles which should maintain 
the column in a posture more nearly straight. In this 
case the weight of the body is not well supported, and 
the supple column yields at the weakest point. 
Lateral curvatures are however more positive evi- 
dence of muscular weakness, and form a class of cases 
fcr which the movements furnish an entirely satisfac- 
tory remedy. 
Lateral curvatures may be single or double. In the 
former case the middle portion of the column deviates 
from the straight line, causing the body to form a more 
convex line upon one side than upon the other ; while 
in the latter case the shape of the column somewhat 
resembles the italic f, deviating from the straight line 
one way at the upper portion, and in the opposite di- 
rection at its lower portion, the one acting as a sort of 
counterpart to the other. In far the greater number 
of cases the superior convexity is to the right, and the 
inferior, or that of the lumbar region, to the left. 
There is also a twisting of the trunk, the side of the 
projecting shoulder being carried backward so that the 
transverse plane of the chest and pelvis do not agree. 
Spinal deformities assume very many different shapes, 
scarcely two cases being exactly alike; all of these re- 
quire a competent physician to distinguish and prop- 
erly prescribe for. The cause for the greater frequency 
of right lateral curvatures is evidently connected with 
the greater use, and consequently power, of" the right 
arm and the muscles of the right side, which causes 
the dorsal vertebrae to be drawn with greater frequency 
and force in that direction DEFORMITIES OF THE SPINE. 
323 
Another influence, generally unsuspected, is also 
active in determining curvatures to the right, and this 
is, the greater habitual use, and consequently greater 
development, of the right than of the Z<g/7-leg. There 
exists in most persons the same disposition to a greater 
proportional use of the right leg as of the right arm. 
One puts the right leg forward oftener, and more fre- 
quently rests upon it, than the left-a habit that is not 
a matter of usual observation, but the ill effects of this 
habit in persons possessing weak muscles, though in- 
sidious, are certain. While one is thus resting upon a 
single leg, the horizontal plane of the pelvis is caused 
to incline toward the side imperfectly supported ; con- 
sequently the spinal column, which rises from the plane 
of the pelvis at right angles, is forced to deviate from 
the perpendicular and to incline to the same side. 
But since this direction of the spine would soon carry 
the center of gravity of the body beyond the base, 
which would cause it to fall, it necessarily curves in 
the opposite direction, and goes far enough beyond the 
perpendicular axis of the body to compensate for the 
deviation to the left. It will be seen that the effect of 
this is to increase the amount of the curve in the tho- 
racic region. 
The reader will now understand that lateral curva- 
ture of the spine is the product of one of two causes. 
Either the weakness of the muscles is so great as to 
leave the column unsupported, in which case it yields to 
the weight of the superior portion of the body, or the 
greater use and development of one side of the body 
interferes with the harmonious action of the opposing 
muscles of the two sides, and the different portions of 
the column are constantly forced into opposite direc- 
tions. In either case the change in the shape of the 324 
DEFORMITIES OF THE SPINE. 
bones must ultimately take place, and the deformity 
under all ordinary treatment continues, and the exe- 
cutive power of the body is permanently impaired. 
The character of the deformity, however, is subject to 
much variation, scarcely any two cases being alike; 
it may be modified by a variety of circumstances- 
such, for example, as the natural shape of the body, 
the influence of particular habits and postures, such as 
a habit of reclining on one side, studying, writing, or 
other occupations that employ chiefly one or the other 
side of the body, whether in the sitting or standing 
posture; and it may even follow as the effect of dis- 
eases of the internal organs. 
Curvature of the spine may also result from the 
scrofulous diathesis. In this case ulcerative absorp- 
tion of some portion of the vertebral column takes 
place, most commonly at the front in the dorsal region, 
where the inner edges of the contiguous vertebrae are 
subjected to the most pressure. The effect of this is to 
cause the vertebra in which this process is going on 
to acquire more of a wedge shape, or, perhaps, the in- 
ner edge of the bone is quite worn away, allowing the 
column to bend at this point and producing an unsight- 
ly prominence or angle. In this case the cartilage 
being removed, the bones become irremediably united, 
or, technically speaking, anchylosed. 
In all the above-mentioned cases, while the causes 
here set forth continue, the deformity has a tendency 
to increase, which it sometimes does to an extent which 
becomes extremely prejudicial to the health. The in- 
ternal organs may, in consequence, become misplaced, 
so much so as to prevent the performance of their func- 
tions, or the spinal cord may become compressed, pro- 
ducing neuralgia or partial paralysis of the lower ex DEFORMITIES OF THE SPINE. 
325 
tremities. No remedies supplied through the stomach 
are of the least avail here, and generally the only re- 
course of the physician has been artificial supports and 
mechanical extension. 
The result of the kind of treatment here referred to, 
usually at first flattering, is afterward anything but satis 
factory. The reason is apparent. The mechanical sup- 
port affords relief to the fatigued parts and removes the 
undue and painful pressure on one side. But this very 
recourse is an effectual barrier to the nutrition and de- 
velopment of the natural muscular supports, in conse- 
quence of which their condition, instead of improving, 
is certain to grow worse, and the disease and accom- 
panying deformity, instead of being removed, are per- 
petuated. The great majority of the spinal supporters 
in vogue were contrived to take the place of the muscles 
and to do their duty, which is manifestly an impossi- 
bility, and their influence is unqualifiedly harmful, if 
not actually fatal. They subject the tender and sickly 
child or youth to a torture that is not only unneces- 
sary, but to the last degree injurious to the general 
health. 
Spinal deformities are the fruit of muscular weakness, 
which the reader knows is the product of imperfect 
muscular nutrition, often referable to a vicious stomach 
and defective digestion. The trouble is, no doubt, often 
aggravated, and indeed, in some cases, induced by ir- 
regular innervation, producing spasm, or at least a 
rigidity and tendency to spasm of certain muscles. 
But in all ordinary cases the therapeutic indications 
are simple, plain, and unequivocal, and consist in 
leveloping the power of the digestive, and especially 
9f the muscular system, thus enabling the latter to do 
the duties it has hitherto failed to perform. The means 326 
DEFORMITIES OF THE SPINE 
for effecting these objects do not consist in any wonder- 
ful and nauseating decoctions to be swallowed at cer- 
tain times of the day and night nor in mechanical sup- 
ports and complex modes of extension, but simply in 
exercise under proper regulations and restrictions; in 
other words, in the practice of movements, which are 
the only proper and efficient means of calling the 
needed nutrition into the disabled parts, so as to cause 
their development and reinstate them in health and 
power. 
In directing the treatment of deformities by single 
movements, it is only necessary to say that the move- 
ments should be directed exclusively to the develop- 
ment of the weaker parts. For instance, in right lateral 
curvature, the movements should be directed to the left 
side, and in the ordinary exercises of the invalid the 
left side should always have the preference, while much 
exertion of the muscles of the right should for a while, 
at least, be avoided. If studious attention be paid to 
this suggestion, the nutrition of the two sides of the 
body will soon be equalized, and their muscular forces 
balanced. 
It is not difficult by means of duplicated, and even 
by single, movements to improve the shape of the 
spinal column to a certain extent in nearly every case 
that will present itself, and if the vertebrae are in 
sound condition, the restoration of symmetry to the 
form will be complete. But if the vertebrae have 
become considerably diseased and misshapen, the de- 
gree of improvement attained will be less. In such 
case judicious mechanical aid is useful, but this must 
not be afforded at the expense of the muscles. This 
assistance should be directed solely to the rectifi- 
cation of the shape of vertebral bones, and consists DEFORMITIES OF THE SPINE. 
327 
simply in applying pressure to the projecting point, 
wherever that may be. This is accomplished by means 
of ingeniously contrived instruments, nicely adapt ed to 
the purpose. But these aids are never to be used save 
in connection with appropriate and vigorously applied 
movements, for without these the artificial appliances 
are valueless, if not harmful. 
In a case of simple curvature to the right, the invalid 
may employ such movements as the following with 
great advantage: 
1. Hanging (left arm). 
2. Curtseying (left leg). 
3. Left curve (weight held) wing, step standing, 
trunk to the right bending (four times). 
4. Left stretch, right wing backward lying, legs to 
the left guiding. 
5. Left stretch, right wing stride short sitting, trunk 
to the right bending. 
6. Left stretch, right wing stride sitting, trunk for- 
ward falling. 
7. Stretch grasp to the left fall standing, holding. 
8. Shelter stride, to the right bent sitting, trunk ro> 
tation. 
9 Stretch right side balance lying, holding. 328 
FEMALE DISEASES. 
FEMALE DISEASES. 
The women of America, probably to a greater extent 
than those of any other country, suffer from diseases 
peculiar to the sex. I am convinced from observation as 
well from the testimony of distinguished medical men 
and others at home and abroad, that such diseases of 
this class are far less common in European countries 
than here. Diseases of this class are likewise scarcely 
known among the rude, uncultivated people of any 
part of the world. 
There would indeed appear to be something in the 
habits and customs of our domestic life particularly 
calculated to engender and foster these distressing and 
disastrous maladies. We shall hardly succeed in as- 
certaining the causes of the prevalence of these affec- 
tions among us by entering upon an analysis of isolated 
facts or of the habits of the individual or of society. 
It is probable that these causes are numerous, and of 
such a nature that, regarded singly, they would seem 
very unimportant. We are nevertheless justified in 
making the inference from analogy as well as from 
facts that the class of diseases under consideration, like 
so many others, are to be regarded simply as the 
effect of such causes as tend to restrain or impede the 
development of the physical system and interfere with 
its functional actions. We may enumerate as prom- 
inent among these causes, dark, rooms, rooms overheat- FEMALE DISEASES. 
329 
cd, illy ventilated apcrd/me/nts, luxurious upholstery, 
foul air, such labor as necessitates the excessive exer- 
cise of single regions of the body, habits of indolence. 
To these may be added others of another class, but 
quite as important, that often co-operate with these, 
although alone sufficient to produce the results. There 
are causes derived from the mental and nervous system ; 
of these may be mentioned, household cares and anxie- 
ties, the annoying whims and caprices of unruly serv- 
ants, the foolish rivalries of fashionable and unfashion- 
able society, the excitements of parties, balls, the theater, 
sentimental novels, and tragical romances. 
A prime cause of the universal deterioration of the 
organic systems of our women we believe to be ascrib- 
able largely to the undue culture and development of 
the sensibilities resulting from their too great devotion 
to the light literature of the day. The morbid effect 
which this style of reading does confessedly exert upon 
the mind must extend to the body, which it controls. 
The extent and complexity of the sympathetic actions 
of the female system, under the influence of this love- 
lorn and trashy sentimentalism, can only be estimated 
by one who has studied the feminine branch of human 
nature in its most obscure and embarrassing phenom- 
ena. By the means here adverted to, the nerves con 
nected with and controlling the most delicate and 
sympathetic function of the female, are subjected to a 
morbid influence, resulting but too often in grave local 
as well as general disorder. 
The symptoms attendant upon the class of diseases 
under consideration are such as might naturally be ex- 
pected to result from the causes above mentioned. The 
laxity of muscular fiber in these cases is a conspicuous 
feature. This is manifested even in the expression of 330 
FEMALE DISEASES. 
the countenance and in the style of the carriage. There 
is always inability to walk any considerable distance 
without fatigue, which, as a general rule, is feJt mostly 
in the back and loins, and thence down the limbs. 
Generally the pain in the back is very persistent. The 
ct of ascending stairs is not only laborious and diffi- 
ult, but is followed by an aggravation of the distress- 
ing symptoms peculiar to the complaint. There is 
also, generally, tenderness of the lower portion of the 
abdomen, accompanied by a dragging sensation and 
pain, urinary derangement, sensitiveness of the lower 
extremity of the spinal column, often by annoying dis- 
tress in the head, and other symptoms, local and gen- 
eral, of an extent and severity proportionate to the 
gravity of the case. 
The mental phenomena attendant upon this disease 
are not less conspicuous than those just described. Ner- 
vous excitability and irritability of mind, with fre- 
quent depression of spirits, are among the commonest 
symptoms. Hysterical paroxysms frequently occur 
after unusual fatigue or mental exertion. One great 
cause of the depression experienced is the conviction 
the patient usually labors under, that her troubles are 
incurable. She feels that her disease must progress, 
and the unsatisfactory effects of the oft-tried pill and 
powder tend strongly to confirm her in a state of de- 
spondency and depressing irresolution. 
The ordinary physician, as well as the specialist, for 
whom the disease in question affords a grand field for 
experiment, reaps glorious harvests from this class of 
cases. The ill success of treatment constantly expe- 
rienced only seems to stimulate to trials of new doctors 
and new remedies; and so, while the patient grows 
w^**4** the good doctor grows rich. FEMALE DISEASES. 
331 
In common medical practice, the attempt is often 
made to sustain the body with mechanical supporters. 
These are destructive to the health of the muscles, and 
hence to that of the general system. It employs stim- 
ulant and tonic drugs, the temporary effect of which 
deceives the patient, and the ultimate effect impairs the 
assimilative and the general vital power. It pre- 
scribes inactivity, or suspension of the natural func- 
tions, as the grand condition for recruiting the strength. 
It employs local cauterization, which, though it re- 
lieves the congested membrane to which it is applied, 
yet in the end draws the circulation to the part in 
greater amount, and hence favors the congestion it is 
employed to relieve. It makes use of internal sup- 
ports, which distend and irritate the parts, and disturb 
their natural functions. These means alternately tan- 
talize the sufferer with hopes and depress her with 
fears, and prevent both herself and her medical adviser 
from attending to the real fundamental causes of her 
misery, and from the employment of the appropriate 
means for its radical relief. 
The existence of the symptoms above enumerated do 
not always indicate the existence of local congestion 
nor local disease. Even in cases where they are pres- 
ent in a marked degree, I have often been obliged to 
differ from physicians whose judgment I sincerely de- 
sire to respect, in regard to the presence of organic dis- 
ease. And even when there is ulceration of the neck 
of the uterus, hypertrophy of that organ, leucorrhea, 
etc., the gravity of the case does not reside in these 
symptoms, but in the lack of vital energy which per- 
mits these symptoms to occur. The common practice 
demonstrates every day that these signs continually 
return when they have been treated by the abova 332 
FEMALE DISEASES. 
mentioned methods. No reliable and permanent cure 
can be effected while the disease is regarded as resid- 
ing in the symptoms, which should be considered as 
only proofs of its existence. 
A serious objection to the ordinary practice in uterine 
liseases is the frequently repeated examinations which 
it necessitates. The refined woman shrinks from these 
as from martyrdom, and with reason. In the method 
of cure advocated in this treatise, such examinations 
are dispensed with, except so far as they may be neces- 
sary in forming a diagnosis in a difficult case. 
Let us now take another view of this class of diseases. 
The real and essential pathology of these cases con- 
sists in such conditions as defective muscular nutrition 
and tone, defective peripheral circulation, central con- 
gestion, defective innervation, heightened nervous sus- 
ceptibility, and bad digestion, the latter three of which 
conditions are dependent on the first three mentioned. 
The condition of the muscles should not be j udged 
of by the amount of force exerted under any strong 
mental excitement; for, with the impulsive nervous 
habit, induced by the disease, great efforts of short 
continuance may be put forth, but the high degree of 
nervous action necessary to such display, proves the 
real lack of muscular power. Such exertion is always 
followed in these cases by exhaustion and permanent 
debility. 
The causes of the above-mentioned states, consti- 
tuting the disease, have been already alluded to, and 
consist of defective early culture, uncorrected by sub- 
sequent attention to the needs of both the physiologi- 
cal and moral nature. Society consigns the conditions 
upon which a woman's capacity for usefulness in lifr 
mainly depends, to habitual neglect and practical con FEMALE DISEASES. 
333 
tempt. Do we wonder that women complain of weak 
abdominal muscles? Why should these muscles be 
strong when so little used ? and how can they be other- 
wise than weak when they have been subjected to 
the constant bandaging necessitated by the prevailing 
mode of dress ? Do any wonder that she is pale and 
is addicted to sighing and tremors, while she sits the 
whole day, or a great part of it, at her needle-work or 
book, or languidly reclines upon the lounge? If she 
takes exercise, she is very careful that the important 
regions in question shall be disturbed thereby as little 
as possible. If driven by ennuis she walks j the pelvis 
is carried as tenderly as if made of glass. We admit 
there is a great deal to excuse the common aversion 
which women feel for any description of exercise, when 
the affection exists in any degree of severity, for the 
whole contents of the abdominal cavity which the 
muscles were made to sustain are suffered to obey the 
law of gravity, owing to the extensive relaxation and 
weakness of these supports, and the consequences are, 
as shown to some extent in the external appearance of 
the abdomen, a depression of the epigastric region, and 
a proportionate, unnatural fullness of the hypogastric 
region. The lumbar portion of the spinal column is 
dragged painfully forward, which displacement is com- 
pensated by an ugly rotundity of the shoulders, which 
gives the head an awkward forward pitch. 
The muscles of the abdomen in all these cases are 
soft and doughy to the touch, thin and inelastic. 
The exterior shape, however, conveys but a slight 
idea of the extent of the muscular weakness of this 
class of invalids, for there are a number of other mus- 
cles quite beyond the reach of direct observation, which 
are equally important to the health of these parts with 334 
FEMALE DISEASES. 
those of the abdomen; such as the internal musclee 
of locomotion, the rotary muscles of the thigh, and 
especially those of the floor of the pelvis. 
The health of the pelvic organs is dependent to the 
same extent, as are those of the abdominal, upon the 
oscillatory motion communicated by the diaphragm in 
respiration. A decrease of this motion favors conges- 
tion in the capillary cir- 
culation of those organs 
have but little mo- 
tion from causes within 
themselves, and which, 
therefore, become depend- 
ent on that received from 
neighboring muscles. 
It appears from this 
statement that the health 
of the pelvic organs is de- 
pendent very much upon 
the mechanical effects pro- 
duced upon them by res- 
piration. But the health 
of the chest and that of 
the abdomen are associat- 
ed in another manner. A 
glance at the outline cuts 
shows that with the distention of the lower portion ot 
the abdominal walls, and the gravitation of the contents, 
the diaphragm, which is the superior boundary of the 
abdominal cavity, must also descend. The ribs neces- 
sarily become much depressed, and the cavity of the 
chest becomes narrowed, and the breathing capacity 
consequently diminished. Now, if the ribs be elevated, 
the diaphragm, which is connected with them, will of 
Fig. 78. 
Fig. 79. 
Outline of the 
FEMALE FORM, WITH 
WEAK MUSCLES AND 
SYMPTOMS OF PELVIC 
PIS EASE. 
Outline of a 
HEALTHFUL FEMALE 
FORM. 335 
FEMALE DISEASES. 
course be raised, and there will be ncthing to force 
from their place the contents of the abdominal and 
pelvic cavities. 
We need not repeat the statement, that the proper 
digestion of food and healthful blood are also depend 
ant on vigorous respiration. Now, at the bottom of 
all this general muscular weakness of the female lies 
this faulty condition of the blood. But foul blood does 
a worse thing than produce weakness ; it creates con- 
gestion, and just where this congestion shall occur is 
decided by the law of gravity; the most depending 
organs, especially such as enjoy no voluntary muscu- 
lar contractility, as the uterus, are most likely to take 
on this state. The peculiar congestion preceding and 
accompanying the menstrual flux may become chronic 
from imperfection of the vital operation, and add to 
the trouble. When we consider the universality of 
these causes noticed, we can only wonder that so many 
of the women of our day and country manage to escape 
these difficulties. 
The remedy suited to this large and distressing class 
of complaints is suggested by their pathology. Indeed, 
it is in cases of displacements of-various kinds, con- 
gestion, ulceration, etc., of the womb, and affections 
of other organs associated with it, as the bladder and 
ovaries, that the treatment by movements has been 
proved efficacious far beyond any other known, whethei 
surgical or medical. By movements, the organs may 
be raised to their normal position, and their retention 
in place is not dependent upon any mechanical ap- 
paratus, but upon their restored power-this, too, with- 
out any of those indelicate manipulations being neces- 
sary which are required by the common treatment. 
By means of the most simple instructions relative to 336 
FEMALE DISEASES. 
the principles and practice of movements, the condi- 
tion of the health of the region in question is placed 
under the control of the patient herself. The very 
amiable reader may doubt the propriety of thus inter- 
fering with the doctor's business, but there must be a 
satisfaction even to the most amiable in doing thor- 
oughly for one's self what the most learned doctor can 
do for her not one half so well. 
The indications of treatment in these cases are gen- 
erally the following: 
1. To elevate the ribs and diaphragm, and increase 
the space of the superior portion of the abdominal 
cavity. 
2. To contract the space of the inferior portion of 
the same cavity by causing a permanent contraction 
of the muscular walls of this region. 
3. To develop the small muscles about the thighs 
and those constituting the floor of the pelvis. 
4. To remove the blood from the internal weak and 
therefore congested parts to peripheral parts, abdom- 
inal coverings, and extremities. 
5. To restore health to the mental and nervous sys* 
terns by diminishing nervous irritability. 
6. To impart vital energy to the whole system that 
shall be radical and permanent. 
The particular movements required to fulfill these 
indications depend much upon the temperament as 
well as the condition of the health of the patient. If 
there be great feebleness, the duplicated movements 
are indispensable to the successful treatment. At 
least, they must be employed in its beginning. If 
there be much tenderness of the abdomen, as there 
frequently is, vibratory and other passive movements 
for the central portions of the body will be interspersed FEMALE DISEASES. 
337 
with such as are more active, applied to the extremi- 
ties. After a few days the extremities will be better 
supplied with blood, and the visceral congestion will 
be diminished to a corresponding extent, so that press- 
ures, bendings, etc., will not only be easily borne, but 
be very grateful to the patient. After this is accom- 
plished, the patient may carry on the cure alone if cir- 
cumstances make it necessary ; or she may begin the 
treatment with the single movements, if the disease be 
not far advanced, with such as the following, for in- 
stance, confident of speedy beneficial effects. 
EXAMPLES OF PRESCRIPTION. 
1. Stretch (weight held) backward lying, holding. 68. 
2. Elbow and toe lying, holding, or hips raising. 58. 
3. Wing backward lying, legs raising. 26. 
4. Wing legs angle half lying, thighs rotation. 31. 
5. Wing legs angle lying, hips raising. 30. 
Repeat- 
1. Reclined arms angle kneeling, arms up stretch- 
ing. 43. 
2. Stretch long sitting, trunk forward falling. 53. 
3. Stretch twist sitting, trunk oblique backward 
falling. 34. 
4. Head rest forward fall standing, leg raising. 
Change. 22. 
5. Forward bent standing, chine knocking. 32. 
6. Wing long sitting, legs twisting. 24. 
7. Elbow and foot side lying, hips raising. 62. 
8. Wing short sitting, leg outward stretching. 16. 
9. Shelter backward lying, legs rotation. 29. 
10. Wing sitting, feet rotation. 5. 
In selecting movements for these affections, the na- 
ture of each case must be carefully considered. Gen- 338 
FEMALE DISEASES. 
erally, appropriate movements should be applied to 
the extremities at first almost exclusively. The feebler 
the case, the fewer the movements directly affecting 
the central organs should be employed. The move- 
ment should be taken once a day, and if there be suffi- 
cient ability, No. 2 of the first example, or Nos. 1 or 
3 of the second, may be repeated, according to the 
mode already described, several times in the course of 
the day. 
If the patient be afflicted with amenorrhea, the fol 
lowing movements are useful: 
Wing chine lean stride standing, curtseying. 9. 
Support half standing, curtseying. 10. 
Forward fall head support standing, leg raising. 22. 
Support half standing, leg rotation. Change. 23. 
Half wing support standing, leg outward raising. 21. 
Shelter backward lying, legs raising. 26. 
Shelter trunk backward lying, legs rotation. 29. 
Forward bent standing, chine knocking; and the 
foot and leg movements generally. 
The auxiliary means are important here. The pa- 
tient must observe a proper and healthful diet, abjure 
all condiments and stimulants; and all indigestible mat- 
ters and articles, within their chemical and physiologi- 
cal relations, may properly be styled poor, however re- 
cherche and costly. (See article on Diet.) She must 
also ride and walk in the open air, without regard to 
the humidity or disagreeable temperature of the atmos- 
phere-should also be rubbed with the wet hand over 
the whole cutaneous surface, and then, after drying 
with a towel, with the dry hand, and if convenient, a 
shower sitting-bath may be used for two minutes, once 
or twice in the course of the day. 
If she has anteversion, or retroversion, or other seri- FEMALE DISEASES. 
339 
ous displacements, her movements should be prescribed 
by a competent physician. Let this be remembered. 
By following the above rules and directions, the 
woman afflicted with the diseases of this-class will gen- 
erally, in a few days or weeks, find her strength to be 
greatly improving, and she will again be enabled to 
'mount stairs without difficulty, a faculty most desir- 
able in this age of tall dwellings. She will feel the 
blessed influx of health through all the tissues of 
her frame. She will rejoice and be glad ; and, if of a 
grateful turn, will be very sure to sing the praises of 
her deliverer, the Movement-Cure. 
The above formulas are given as examples only, and 
are not to be regarded as appropriate to every imag- 
inable case. 340 
MISCELLANEOUS APPLICATIONS JF MOVEMENT!. 
MISCELLANEOUS APPLICATIONS OF MOVEMENTS. 
Movements to Remove Fatigue.-It is net necessary 
for one to wholly abstain from motion, in order to 
secure rest from fatigue. On the contrary, the con- 
tinuance of exercise in many cases is more favor- 
able to restoration than a state of total inaction 
would be, provided always, that other than the 
fatigued parts be called into action. Hence the ad- 
vantage of a frequent change of occupation, especially 
for the weakly. One can accomplish a vast deal 
more in a given time by varying his work occasion- 
ally, than by expending his strength upon any one 
particular kind. All animals instinctively stretch 
themselves, that is, cause the muscles situated remote- 
ly from the central organs to act, in order to get relief 
from the sense of fatigue. The operators in the foreign 
Movement-Cure institutions, instead of resting as labor- 
ers commonly do, after two or three hours of the sever- 
est exercise, apply movements to each other, in order to 
become rested, selecting such portions of the body as 
were least brought into action by their professional 
manipulations. A favorite movement with the female 
assistants, I observed, was that termed backward and 
ley lying, holding. In this movement the legs are 
fixed, the body in the backward lying position, while 
the trunk is unsupported, causing powerful action of 
the muscles of the abdomen, in consequence cf which MISCELLANEOUS APPLICATIONS OF MOVEMENTS. 
341 
fatigue of the back (from which they most suffer) is re- 
moved. All patients, and especially the female por- 
tion, testify to the readiness and permanency with which 
habitual back-ache is thus removed. In explanation of 
this we need only refer the reader to the principles laid 
down in the first part of this work. Severe action of 
ai y portion of the body is effectual in calling the circu- 
lation, and especially the nervous influence, from other 
portions of the body, which in the instance in question 
are congested by the previous exercise. By causing 
different portions of the body to act alternately, they 
are enabled to act equally, their functions are harmon- 
ized, and the sense of fatigue is removed. 
The system of movements regards the body as a 
reservoir of force, upon which every action makes a 
a certain demand. If the demands upon the system 
for expenditure be moderate, the supply is readily kept 
up equal to the demand by means of the unceasing 
operations of the organizing processes. If the demand 
caused by the exertion of power be excessive, or if it 
proceed from several different portions of the system 
at the same time, then the organizing processes are not 
equal to it, is the consequence. Immunity 
from fatigue is experienced always in proportion to the 
degree of perfection attained by the nutritive or organ- 
izing processes. 
It must not be inferred from the above remarks, that 
movements are always the appropriate remedy for 
fatigue. If the fatigue be general, absolute repose is 
of course necessary. 
To Stop Nose-bleed.-The remedy for this affection 
is very simple; nothing more is generally necessary 
than to raise both arms to upward stretch 342 
MISCELLANEOUS APPLICATIONS OF MOVEMENTS. 
The efficacy of this action for the purpose named, ad 
mits of easy demonstration, but why the effect follows, 
is not, at first, so apparent. We would explain it in 
this way. It may be observed, that if the arms be 
raised to the perpendicular upright position, and then, 
after remaining uplifted for a short time, be permitted 
suddenly to drop, the hands will be found suffused 
with blood. Since a much greater impediment than 
usual is presented to flow of the blood to the uplift- 
ed hands, occasioned by the opposition of the force of 
gravity, the effort of the arterial vessels upon which 
this increased labor devolves becomes necessarily 
much greater than before; and since the arterial press- 
ure in direction of the arms is increased, that toward 
the head is correspondingly lessened. When, now, the 
impediment (consisting of gravity) is removed, while 
the arterial impulse is continued, the blood, rushing to 
the hands, produces a marked derivative effect upon the 
circulation of the head, and consequently the flow from 
the ruptured capillaries of the nasal membrane ceases. 
Another mode of stopping nose-bleed, presented by 
Branting, is as follows : The subject takes a fall stride 
sitting posture, the nose is grasped and rapidly vibrated, 
while at the same instant the trunk rises, and returns 
to the erect position. This action may be repeated 
several times. 
To Induce Vomiting.-The method of causing the 
stomach to discharge its contents by means of irritating 
the fauces was known long before Marshall Hall ex- 
plained the reflex powers of the nervous system, upon 
which the action of vomiting depends. This means of 
dislodging the contents of the stomach is generally 
adequate for the purpose, in those cases where this effe i 343 
MISCELLANEOUS APPLICATIONS OF MOVEMENTS. 
is really desirable, provided it be managed with suffi- 
cient tact. It is much better in most cases than to ir- 
ritate the stomach with powerful drugs, which course 
is necessarily followed by great debility, of the organ, 
even if lucky enough to escape inflammation, or more 
serious chronic disease. 
The proper method in these cases is to ply the 
stomach with lukewarm water in large doses, and often 
repeated, no matter how much this may be in opposi- 
tion to the feelings and'in spite of the protestations of 
the patient. When the feeling of nausea has arisen to 
a good degree, something (the finger will do) may 
be applied to the back part of the mouth. This will 
generally cause the stomach to contract spasmodically, 
and eject its contents. Should it refuse to do so, the 
hand of an attendant may be applied to the stomach, 
just below the pit, and by making a sudden, but not 
violent kneading motion in an upward direction, a 
contractile action of the stomach is suddenly induced, 
and its contents are discharged. 
To Remove Chilblains.-This annoying affection, in 
ordinary cases, may be quickly removed. The principle 
of cure is that concerned in the removal of congestion 
of internal organs by means of vibratory movements. 
The mode of operation is pointed out in No. 6, page 
164. Or, the leg of the afflicted foot may rest upon 
the knee of another person, who deals rapid but light 
blows upon the bottom of the foot, it being protected 
by a shoe or boot. 
The reason why the congestion of the capillaries con- 
stituting the disease is dissipated by this treatment, is 
quite obvious. The actual condition consists not only 
of a dilatation of the capillaries, but also in a change 344 
MT8CEIA.ANEOUS APPLICATIONS OF MOVEMENTS. 
in the quality of the blood and the occurrence of the 
gelatinous corpuscle, characteristic of inflammation, 
which, with the normal blood corpuscle, become ad- 
herent to the walls of the capillaries, effectually clog- 
ging the channel and preventing the onward flow. 
The motion communicated in the manner described 
excites the contraction of the distended walls of the 
vessels, and at the same time detaches adhering cor- 
puscles, which of course are carried through by the 
current sweeping onward from the heart. The fresh 
blood entering brings the conditions for restoring the 
normal state of the parts. The same reasoning proba- 
bly holds true for the application of passive vibration 
by the duplicated movements, in all cases of congestion, 
and, if properly managed, of inflammation even, wher- 
ever situated. 
To Relieve Headache.-1. Energetic friction ap- 
plied over the longitudinal, lateral, and basilar sinuses 
will frequently relieve this affection. The reason 
seems to be, that contraction is thus induced in the 
venous walls, which consequently urge the blood for- 
ward, relieving them of their distention. This may be 
done by one's self, or by another. The procedure is 
as follows : partly close the hands, placing the backs 
of the fingers in contact, raise the hands to the head, 
placing the tips of all the fingers over the longitudinal 
suture, or middle line of the head. Now carry the 
fingers, thus placed, backward and forward on the mid- 
dle line, making considerable friction upon the scalp. 
The fingers may now divide and pass down the back 
of the head at each side to the base, and then along the 
base at the roots of the hair, continuing the same de- 
gree of friction through the whole course. MISCELLANEOUS APPLICATIONS OF MOVEMENTS. 
345 
2. If a land be very tightly applied about the head, 
and, after remaining a few minutes, be suddenly re- 
moved, a similar effect is experienced. This effect is 
probably due to the impulse thus afforded to the circu- 
lation in the venous sinuses. 
3. Movements tending to warm the feet are always 
useful in headache. 
4. Headache is more frequently caused by a fault in 
the quality rather than in the quantity of the blood 
-in which case, all those means whose influence is to 
purify or deterge the system ought to be used, and to 
an extent corresponding with the gravity of the case. 
In moderate cases, a long walk in the open air is suffi- 
cient. If this is not enough, abstinence must be prac- 
ticed till tile stomach is purified, the liver relieved of 
the tenderness and congestion that usually in such 
cases exists, and the secretions set free. To promote 
vomiting, in the mode above described, is sometimes 
necessary ; but persons liable to periodical attacks of 
this affection should learn to avoid them by an im- 
proved hygiene, rather than to cure them by any pro- 
cess. Nervous headache requires rest and sleep, which 
may be induced by duplicated movements. 
Worms in Children.-These parasites feed upon 
the imperfectly digested residual of the alimentary 
tube, and they can never occur without the existence 
of such food for their sustenance. It is the lad dige» 
tion, giving rise to worms, rather than the worms them 
selves, that constitute the disease, and it is evident 
that they can not exist when the cause is wanting. 
The appetite of the child-which in these cases is al 
ways voracious-must be restrained, and the action of 
the digestive organs promoted, in order that all the 346 
MISCELLANEOUS APPLICATIONS OF MOVEMENTS. 
food taken shall be completely disposed of. 'When 
this is eifected, the parasites will be expelled. The 
abdomen of the child must be subjected to a thorough 
kneading, as described in a former chapter, three or 
four times a day, ten or fifteen minutes at each time. 
The abdomen, in these cases, is generally tumid, but 
the kneading increases the natural motion of the mus- 
cular walls of the canal, promotes absorption, and re- 
stores a healthy tone to all the visceral contents. The 
child, if possible, should also be made to ride much in 
a springless vehicle in the open air. Worms are often 
expelled from the bowels after a few days' practice of 
the plan here directed, and this result should be re- 
garded as a consequence, rather than the cause, of the 
restoration to health. 
Heknia.-This occurs generally in consequence of 
weakness of the muscle of the lower portion of the ab- 
domen, the hernial region. The fibers of these mus- 
cles are liable to separate, upon a sudden muscular 
effort being made, thus permitting the intestine to pro- 
trude. In many cases of this affection the truss has 
been dispensed with, and the difficulty removed, through 
the effect of the strengthening processes of the dupli- 
cated movements. 
The proper movement for self-treatment is No. 51: 
Half stretch, half wing, half kick step standing, trunk 
twisting. This movement is at first to be performed 
with one side only, the trunk twisting toward the re- 
laxed side, that is, the side of which the foot is raised. 
After some progress is made, the twisting should be 
done in the opposite direction. The kneeling twisting, 
Nos. 42 and 48, also Nos. 56, 26, and 61, might be em- 
ployed to good ad' antage. 347 
miscellaneous applications of movements. 
Prolapsus of the Womb and Bowels.-In all cases 
of this kind there is great weakness of the muscles of 
the chest, abdomen, perineum, etc. The affection is 
immediately relieved by practicing the mpvement No. 
61. To strengthen the parts that are weak, so as to 
prevent a return, the muscles belonging to all the re- 
gions above mentioned require to be developed by 
judicious practice of the movements affecting the 
parts. To accomplish this object, such movements as 
the following are recommended: Nos. 43, 47, 48, 56, 
36, 30, and 31. 
To Relieve Back-ache.-When caused by fatigue, 
such movements as cause the abdomen to act are use- 
ful. But this symptom is often caused by laxity of 
muscles, allowing the visceral contents to gravitate. 
In this case the movements above recommended for 
prolapsus will be found effectual. 
Amenorrhea.-All processes tending to strengthen 
the body, tend to overcome menstrual obstruction. 
The movements particularly to be recommended are, 
Nos. 14, 18, 27, 29 30, 31, and 32, and, indeed, such 
movements are also useful for constipation. 
To Excite Action of the Lower Bowel.-A move- 
ment highly useful for this purpose is wide stride leg 
angle standing, trunk vibration, No. 65. The position 
for this movement is the same as the terminating posi- 
tion of No. 9. Also the examples Nos. 29, 31, and 32 
are very useful, as well as kneading, No. 66. 348 
VARIOUS COMMON EXERCISES. 
<&fea:gi£r f to t n t g -1 to a. 
DIFFERENT EFFECTS OF VARIOUS COMMON EXER. 
CISES UPON PERSONS IN HEALTH. 
Walking.-This is the most agreeable and natural 
of all exercises. In walking, the body is free and un- 
constrained, most parts of it are subjected to gentle 
action with but a slight degree of expenditure of mus- 
cular or of nervous force, these powers being econo- 
mized to the greatest extent, and the action may con- 
sequently be continued for a longer period than almost 
any other that engages the will. Walking causes the 
blood to circulate freely in the extremities, skin, and 
lungs, to refresh, nourish, and invigorate these parts, 
strengthens the spine, and relieves all tendency to con- 
gestion of the internal organs and head. It also sup- 
plies the most perfect condition for mental action and 
enjoyment. It is almost the only exercise which in- 
valids of nearly all classes may engage in without a 
prescription. But it does not supply all the system 
requires of exercise. It fails to call into sufficient 
action either the abdominal or the breathing organs, 
and other exercises adapted to these purposes are re- 
quired by those who have no occasion to engage in 
work. 
Running.-A good run of a few moments is very 
exhilarating to the spirits and stimulating to the frame. 
It causes a great expansion of the chest, and a power- 349 
VARIOUS COMMON EXERCISES. 
ful pressure of the blood into the capillaries of the gen- 
eral system as well as those of the lungs. It rapidly 
produces a large amount of animal heat, soon causes 
the surface to be wet with perspiration, and increases 
the discharge by the kidneys. Although a good tonic 
for the well, especially for those who have a capacious 
chest, it too rapidly exhausts the powers of the feeble 
and might produce unpleasant, and perhaps dangerous 
pulmonary congestion in persons of narrow and feeble 
breathing organs. 
Dancing.-This exercise has been employed by all 
nations in all ages, to exhilarate the mind, and to give 
expression to the feeling of abounding good health, 
which there is no doubt it contributes to maintain. It 
has the advantage over most other exercise, in being so- 
cial. Being accompanied by music, both the mental 
and muscular powers of all those engaged are united in 
executing the same movements, which is consequently 
effected without much exertion of the will, so that 
it secures a large amount ot exercise with but trifling 
fatigue. Dancing harmonizes with the general plan 
of the organic movements of the body, in being also 
rythmical, so that it is here allied to the involuntary 
movements. Dancing ought to be cultivated in every 
family, as an antidote to the effects of the wearisome 
toil and worry of our modern life. 
Sewing.-This and many other sitting occupations 
in which females engage, call chiefly into action the 
superior portion of the body, while the trunk and 
lower extremities are left nearly motionless. Those 
who are thus occupied should therefore counteract 
the ill effects flowing from a too constant attention 350 
VARIOUS COMMON EXERCISES. 
to such labors, by much walking in the open air, tc 
equalize the circulation. The health is much endanger- 
ed in persons of naturally feeble constitutions by the 
restraint exercised upon the action of the diaphragm, 
and respiratory and abdominal muscles by excessive use 
of the needle. Those who are compelled to devote 
themselves to such labors should habitually practice 
such movements for the lower extremities and trunk as 
are described in this work. 
Sewing with the machine, on the contrary, affects 
chiefly the lower extremities, and no doubt there are 
numerous instances in which the life of the feeble sew- 
ing-woman has been preserved by this machine, through 
its tendency to remove that incipient congestion of the 
chest and lungs, which is the certain prelude to pul- 
monary disease. It also affords more time to engage 
in other and more genial occupations. This exercise 
is, however, insufficient for the purposes of health, since 
it does not contribute enough to the expansion of the 
chest of the weakly female. 
Agricultural Labors.-The healthful tendencies of 
these employments are proverbial, when engaged in by 
the well, and even by those slightly ailing. The ener- 
getic action of the extremities throws the circulation into 
these parts, while the amount of force expended neces- 
sitates a large supply of air, and consequently a great 
expansion of the chest. The respiration is generally 
not materially quickened, but the air entering the lungs 
is retained and somewhat compressed, in consequence 
of the great exertion required by such exercises as saw- 
ing and chopping wood, mowing, raking, pitching, 
shoveling, and many other operations required of the 
farmer. The health of the feeble is, however, ei> VARIOUS COMMON EXERCISES. 
351 
dangered by engaging in many of these kinds cf exer- 
cise, especially if pursued too continuously, for then they 
would be likely to induce congestion of delicate parts 
of the body. The weakly must remember that the de- 
velopment of strength depends on a careful steady pro- 
cess of training, and it is destructive for them to exert 
more power than the system is capable of easily sup- 
plying. Such persons must therefore undergo the 
processes whose tendency is gradually to fit them for 
greater exertion. 
Painting, Sculpture, Engraving. - Labor of this 
kind generally requires the conjoint exercise of the 
brain and sensorial nerves, as well as that of the arms 
and chest. When these parts are used to an immoder- 
ate degree, to the neglect of exercise of the lower ex- 
tremities, it becomes harmful. Such occupations ought 
therefore to be alternated with a great deal of walking, 
and other such appropriate exercises as are described 
in their proper place. 
Study.-The health enjoyed by the studious class is 
generally conceded to be below that of the laborer. It 
would be wrong to infer from this that study is in itself 
unwholesome. On the contrary, the exercise of the in- 
tellectual powers is entirely compatible with good 
health and long life. The cause of ill health in these 
cases lies in omitting to exercise the general muscular 
system, and permitting the nervous to be almost exclu- 
sively worked, for this disturbs the equipoise of the 
system. 
It is not enough in order that the studious may se- 
cure the conditions of good health and long life, that he 
occasionally relieve the fatigued brain and disturbed 352 
VARIOUS COMMON EXERCISES. 
circulation by a forced walk. He should develop a 
reserve force to enable him to withstand the accidents 
that are continually occurring in life, which every 
one is being forever unexpectedly called upon to en- 
counter. He must resolve on the start, that life shall 
not be a wretched ineffectual conflict with disease, 
yielding no satisfactory experience or real profit, but a 
hopeful, determined, steady, manly march-a stout 
persistent contest with/bes without. 
Life is a race, a warfare. A man needs all his fac- 
ulties and gifts, and they can not be too highly trained. 
His whole intellectual, physical, and moral nature 
should be disciplined to the highest possible degree. 
He can not afford to dispense with a single weapon 
that nature has furnished for his use. A man to do 
much good in the world must have a good stomach, 
and a long wind, and a stout grip, as well as staunch 
principles and a shrewd brain. He must expand and 
invigorate his narrow and feeble chest; the relaxed 
diaphragm must be toned up; the weak abdominal 
muscles energized ; the liver, and kidneys, and pores 
be made to do their duty as well as the thinking 
organ. MOVEMENTS ADAPTED TO SCHOOLS. 
353 
Chapter ® to tn 1ftr tt. 
MOVEMENTS ADAPTED TO THE USE OF SCHOOLS. 
No argument would seem to be requisite to convince 
the world of the importance of physical culture for 
children and youth, while that of mental culture is so 
generally acknowledged as the basis of civilization and 
the condition of progress. Why the former has been 
so much left to chance, or whim, or to charlatanry, 
while so much attention is paid to the latter, is quite 
unaccountable. This inconsistency has been long ap- 
parent to the instructors of youth, and various attempts 
have been made, in modern times, to develop all the 
powers and faculties of the human system equally and 
in connection. These endeavors have met with but 
moderate success-a success probably far inferior to 
that realized by the ancients. 
The prevalence of incorrect ideas on this subject 
which characterizes the times, makes it necessary that 
something should be done to attract the attention of 
the people to those principles which have been so long 
and so studiously ignored. 
The difficulties in the way of the successful training 
of the mind and body together, have been both prac- 
tical and theoretical. The faults in the ordinary prac- 
tice of gymnastics have been pointed out (page 124). 
Besides being heterogeneous, disorderly, liable to abuse, 
and injurious to weak organs, such exercises require 
expensive apparatus, much space, and demand more 354 
MOVEMENTS ADAPTED TO SCHOOLS. 
time for their successful practice than can always be 
conveniently devoted to them. 
Well qualified teachers are also necessary. The 
physical powers of the child can no more properly be 
directed without care and study than can the mental; 
and the consequences of misdirection are far more 
likely to be permanently injurious in the former than 
in the latter case. 
Calisthenics, for the reason that they have not been 
considered obnoxious to some of the above objections, 
have occasionally been used in schools ; but the class 
of exercises bearing this name really are scarcely less 
objectionable, for they, too, require a greater propor- 
tional action of the nerves than of the muscles; and 
hence, though the respiration and circulation may 
thereby be driven up to a higher degree of activity, 
yet the nerve-forces, already overtasked by study, are 
thus too rapidly expended. (See page 112, et seqi) 
The government of the kingdom of Sweden and 
Norway, with great wisdom, long ago directed the use 
or gymnastics in all the common schools throughout 
the realm. The intention of this decree has never 
been satisfactorily realized, owing to causes that we 
have explained. Prof. Bran ting, Director of the Cen- 
tral Gymnastic Institute, pupil and successor of Ling, 
has attempted to introduce there what he terms the 
Sitting Gymnastic Exercises. To this end, he has pub- 
lished a formula of movements intended to be per- 
formed in the intervals of the lessons, without appa- 
ratus of any kind, noiselessly, and even sometimes 
without the pupils leaving their seats. These move- 
ments may be resorted to at any time, as, when the 
school has been long confined, or suffering from too 
severe and continuous application. These exercises 355 
MOVEMENTS ADAPTED TO SCHOOLS. 
are entirely accordant with the principles advocated 
in the present work, and consist, ih the main, of move- 
ments analogous to examples herein given. The Swe- 
dish movements are not, however, exactly adapted to 
our use on account of the difference in the arrangement 
of seats in the schools of the two countries. I would 
therefore propose a formula slightly different from the 
Swedish, but essentially the same, which it is hoped 
will be found not only practicable, but salutary. 
ORDER OF COMMAND FOR THE FREE-SITTING MOVEMENTS. 
No. 
Name of Movements. 
W?rdi of Command. 
I. 
Primary Sit- 
ting Position. 
To movements attend. 
n. 
Half Stretch, 
Half Wing 
Sitt'g, Trunk 
Twisting. 
1. Left hip-hold. 
2. Right arm-upward stretch. 
3. To the right-turn. 
4. Forward-turn. 
6. Change position of arms. 
6. To the left-turn. 
7. Forward-turn. 
8. Arms downward-stretch. 
in. 
Heel Rest Sit- 
ting, Ankle 
Stretching 
and Bending. 
1. Hips-hold. 
2. Knees-stretch. 
3. Ankle stretch-bend, one ! two! 
4. Rest. 
IV. 
Stretch Stride 
Sitting, Head 
Forward and 
Backward 
Bending. 
1. Arms upward stretch, one ! two ! 
2. Head backward bend, forward bend, one I two 
3. Head upward stretch. 
4. Arms downward stretch, one ! two I 
V. 
Wing Stride 
Sitting, Knee 
Stretching. 
1. Hips-hold. 
2. Left leg-raise. 
3. Left knee-stretch. 
4. Knee-bend-stretch, one! two 1 
5. Change position of legs. 
6. Right knee-stretch-bend, one! two 
7. Rest. 
VI. 
Stride Sitting, 
ArmsUpward 
AND BaCKW'd 
Raising. 
1. Arms forward-stretch. • 
2. Arms upward-raise, one! two ! 
3. Arms downward-stretch. 
VII. 
Stretch Stride 
Sitting, Head 
Rotation. 
1. Arms upward stretch. 
2. Head turn to right, to left, one I two! 356 
MOVEMENTS ADAPTED TO SCHOOLS. 
ORDER OF COMMAND-Continued: 
Ko. 
Name of Movements. 
Words of Command. 
VIII. 
Stretch Stride 
Sht'g, Trunk 
Sidewise 
Bending. 
1. Arms upward stretch. 
2. Trunk to left-bend. 
3. To the right bent, one ! two I 
4. Rest. 
IX. 
Shelter Stride 
Sitt'g, Trunk 
Twisting. 
1. Hands to the head-grasp. 
2. Trunk to left-turn. 
3. To right-turn, one I two I 
4. Rest. 
X. 
Wing Stride 
Sitting, Legs 
Twisting. 
1. Hips-hold. 
2. Knees-stretch. 
3. Legs inward-turn. 
4. Outward-turn, one I two ! 
5. Rest. 
In executing the above movements, the scholars re- 
main in their seats. At the first word of command 
they drop their books, and proceed to imitate the slow 
movements of the teacher, who stands in front, in full 
view of all the pupils. At the signal, one! two! a 
vocal exercise commences. At the word rest, the 
hands of each pupil fall to his sides, and the body re- 
turns to its natural sitting posture. 
The intelligent teacher will be able to change the 
formula from time to time as occasion may seem to 
require, or form entirely new ones, by selecting appro- 
priate examples from Part II. of this book. In this 
way he may be always supplied with a variety, and 
avoid wearying his pupils with a monotonous routine. PART IV. 
MASSAGE. 
Ouentn-four. 
TREATMENT OF INVALIDS TOO FEEBLE FOR SELF-HELP, BY 
THE EMPLOYMENT OF SINGLE MOVEMENTS. 
The application of the principles explained in preced- 
ing portions of this work involves the expenditure on the 
part of the invalid of some degree of muscular power- 
which, by well-directed processes, becomes available in 
promoting its own renewal and increase-and also an 
ability on the part of the system to afford power, which 
is practically the same thing as health. It has been shown 
that the effect of muscular effort by no means terminates 
in the muscles employed. Such effort arouses in every 
department all those auxiliary activities which make up 
the sum of healthy life. The restoration of muscular 
energy involves the restoration of that by which it is 
sustained ; the reviving influence extends throughout the 
whole nutritive system, including both the assimilative 
and the eliminative stages of organic activity. 
But the expenditure of muscular energy altogether 
fails of curative efficacy except under certain conditions, 
the necessity of observing which can scarcely be too 
strongly enforced. One of these conditions is localiza- 
tion of muscular action, and of the series of physiologi- 
cal changes to which such action gives rise. This con- 
357 358 
MASSAGE-TREATMENT. 
centrated influence carries the local effects, particularly 
those of a chemical nature, to their highest degree, thus 
accomplishing the chief purpose of all therapeutic en- 
deavor. Localization of the muscular action prevents a 
too rapid expenditure of force, thus placing the feeble on 
an equality with the strong in this respect. Moreover, it 
directs the supply of energy obtained in this way to the 
precise point where such reinforcement is demanded, in- 
stead of permitting it to be dispersed and in great part 
wasted, as it inevitably must be when improperly ap- 
plied. 
Another element to be taken into account in obtaining 
remedial effects from the processes of Massage, is that of 
time. In order to renew the energy of the whole organ- 
ism, it is necessary for its several departments to be suc- 
cessively reinforced. All vital power is the result of nu- 
trition, which is only complete when the nutritive mate- 
rial has passed through several stages, viz., the mechani- 
cal, in which it assumes various forms; the chemical, 
which brings it into new relations; the vital, and once 
more the chemical. These changes, indeed, are rapidly 
made, but still they require time, without a proper allow- 
ance of which no complete regenerative effects from the 
method treated of are possible. This is the lesson which 
must first of all be learned by whomsoever would find 
health in the paths herein indicated. Even well-chosen 
muscular acts, or their equivalent processes, will fail of 
desired effect, unless each and all of them are afforded 
time for the fulfilment of their object. 
HOW THESE PRINCIPLES ARE AVAILABLE BY THE FEEBLEST 
INVALID. 
None are too weak and helpless for successful treat- 
ment on the principles of Massage. For, the mechanical MASSAGE-TREATMENT. 
359 
energy it employs may be derived from the muscle of 
another individual-an assistant, operator, or masseur-- 
whose hands are in pressure-contact with the person of 
the invalid. It is perfectly feasible to transmit mechani- 
cal energy to any substance whatever-to the living body 
as well as to inanimate objects. In the case of the living 
body, which is composed of a multiplicity of minute 
parts, it is evident that the motion thus communicated is 
distributed among these parts. • It is also to a consider- 
able amount disposed of for various physiological uses. 
It strengthens feebly performed vital processes, entering 
into the operations both of assimilation and of growth, 
and especially into those by which organic materials are 
resolved into simpler and innocuous forms. 
One great advantage belonging to the curative method 
here described will now be fully apparent. Its processes 
are capable of being directed to any special physiological 
failure or defect, with more promptitude and efficiency 
than any other remedies. For example, they may be 
employed to incite the activity of the nerves in general, 
or of any separate nerve-centres, or they may be skil- 
fully applied so as to diminish the manifestations of 
nerve-power, when this is evidently in excess. In like 
manner, particular processes may be addressed to the 
respiratory, the digestive, the circulatory, the heat-pro- 
ducing, or any other special function, either to increase 
or to moderate its activity. In other words, transmitted 
mechanical energy may be directed to the control of func- 
tion. 
A ll properly directed processes for transmitting me- 
chanical energy (whether such energy proceed from the 
living operator or from any other adequate source), and 
not demanding expenditure on the part of the invalid, 
are included under the term, Massage. 360 
MASSAGE-TREATMENT. 
As already stated, such manipulations appear to have 
formed an important part of medical practice from the 
earliest times and in the most untaught communities. 
This shows that human beings are instinctively prompted 
to these remedial endeavors. The natural impulse that 
inclines the benignant hand of the friend or relative to 
press the aching brow of the prostrate sufferer, or to 
soothe by gentle passes the limbs wearied with pain, has 
been trained and directed by modern physiological science 
until now its efforts correspond with the whole range of 
organic activities, and affect the most energetic as well 
as the most delicate of the vital processes. 
In short, the curative effects of massage find their ex- 
planation in its practical recognition of fundamental 
philosophical as well as physiological principles which 
have been almost totally neglected in ordinary medical 
practice, and to which no other therapeutical agency 
bears the slightest relation. 
TRANSMISSION OF ENERGY. 
The hands of the operator, or Masseur, are the instru- 
ments which transmit the mechanical energy emanating 
from his organism, and taking form in his muscles. This 
energy may be considered as producing the same or at 
least similar effects in the person receiving it, as would 
be experienced if it proceeded from his own muscles. 
The operator expends power; the patient receives it, to 
the same degree and in the same form. Energy is never 
lost; it is only transferred, and in this case it is also 
largely transformed ; it merges into, and becomes an in- 
tegral part of, processes occurring within the invalid's 
own organism. But these processes being more or less 
imperfect, defective, it is plain that this addition is an 
increase of physiological activity which enables them to MASSAGE-TREATMENT. 
361 
be more completely performed, and therefore tends 
strongly in the direction of health. 
The immediate effects of the treatment confirm this 
statement. The transmitted energy is at once detected 
in the form of increased heat of the part subjected to 
the mechanical process, which increased heat, it is need- 
less to explain, would equally appear in the case of any 
inanimate body similarly acted upon. It is by the glid- 
ing contact of minute bodies that motion is most easily 
converted into heat; hence, such conversion is effected 
with peculiar rapidity within the organism, which is but 
an aggregation of the smallest particles conceivable. 
A portion of the motion transmitted from the oper- 
ator's hand is a mechanical impulse which immediately 
blends with the motion of the fluids within the vessels- 
as well as of those outside of them and directly concerned 
in the nutritive processes-and thus aids in accomplishing 
the objects of that motion. No transformation of energy 
is here required; the borrowed mechanical assistance is 
directly helpful, and to that extent diminishes the task 
imposed upon the organism. The rate of the heart-beat 
is lowered. 
Another portion of the mechanical energy imparted by 
the operator's hand is resolved into an equivalent of 
chemical action, and effects, silently and gently, purposes 
often vainly sought to be accomplished by the agency of 
drugs. For, the mechanical impact of atoms and mole- 
cules, which is only secured by motion, always intensities 
chemical affinities previously weak, or may even create 
them when non-existent. It increases the amount of 
chemical products passing from the system, and even de- 
termines the nature of such products. The additional 
power conferred by motion facilitates the disengagement 
of vital energy through the nutritive processes, from 362 
MASSAGE TREATMENT. 
which alone such energy normally proceeds. When 
brought to bear upon the spent products of nutrition, it 
converts them from incomplete chemical forms to those 
which are perfectly adapted to their purpose-i. e., it car- 
ries them forward to that destined goal of all non-vital 
substances within the organism-the last stage of oxida- 
tion. A constant factor in the production of disease is a 
depressed state of chemical activity throughout the sys- 
tem, and the consequent retention of waste material in 
some intermediate condition of chemical change, whence 
arise both mechanical obstacles in the minute circulatory 
vessels, and spontaneous perversions of organic metamor- 
phosis. 
Massage is a treatment entirely capable of intensifying 
the organic chemical activities and raising them to the 
standard of health, and in this respect it is more than the 
peer of all other remedies. By it the same effects are 
secured for the weakly and disabled that are normally ob- 
tained by the healthy, as rewards attendant on a proper 
use of their physical powers. 
LOCALIZED MASSAGE. 
Two conspicuous effects follow from the operation of 
Massage on a limited portion of the body. One is the 
assistance it affords the vessels of the part in the task of 
urging forward their contents, and removing local impedi- 
ments to the circulation. The other consists in the re- 
newal of the fluids outside the circulatory vessels-very 
much to the advantage of the local nutrition. And, ap- 
plied in the vicinity of circumscribed swellings-even 
such as are inflammatory and painful-the mechanical 
assistance thus rendered causes the reduction of sub-ox- 
ides, thus neutralizing or withdrawing the immediate 
source of mischief, and at the same time returning the 363 
MASSAGE-TREATMENT. 
altered and non-irritating material into the blood-cur- 
rent, where it is resubmitted to the chemistry of the 
organism. 
Still another, and often a very desirable, result of local- 
ized massage, is an increased flow of blood into the part 
subjected to the process. Even when the operation is 
confined to the skin, a limited redness soon appears, due 
to a dilatation of the superficial vessels. When applied 
so as to include all the underlying tissues, a proportion- 
ately greater effect of the same kind is necessarily pro- 
duced. Medical science has no resource at its command 
at once so ready, so effective and so permanent, for secur- 
ing increase of nutritive support to any part of the body 
suffering from imperfect development, however caused. 
Since the vital system is maintained on a principle of 
equipoise, and equal distribution of nutritive material and 
support among its various members and functions, the 
agency under consideration is available to diminish any 
excess of blood and any abnormal vascular distention, 
wherever they may occur, but especially in the larger de- 
partments of the organism, as the head, heart, stomach, 
abdomen, or pelvis. 
Here again Massage displays itself as a unique as well 
as an indispensable resource, alike rapid and certain in 
its operation. To bring into use any organ or limb, 
is to cause a flow of blood into it, and at the same time, 
as a necessary concomitant, a corresponding flow from 
any part which is overburdened by an excessive supply. 
MASSAGE AND THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 
In nervous affections of various and apparently oppo- 
site kinds, and even in their advanced stages, Massage 
demonstrates superior curative power. This arises in part 
from what has been above referred to as its oxidizing 364 
MASSAGE-TREATMENT. 
effects, whereby the nutritive fluids are purified, their 
nerve-irritating qualities removed, and nutritive material 
rendered better adapted to its uses-in part from the in- 
fluence of these processes in controlling the circulation of 
the blood, so that the cerebro-spinal centres may at any 
time be relieved if habitually congested, or replenished 
when suffering from deficient nutrition. 
While, therefore, Massage fulfils its object by what is 
known in medicine as revulsion (which means an increase 
in the volume of the blood in one part for the purpose of 
securing its diminution in another), it is to be regarded, 
not as a forced or temporary expedient, but as effecting a 
permanent restoration of physiological equipoise, by regu- 
lating the nutritive action, and consequently the amount 
of nutritive support. 
To understand clearly this power of Massage as a 
remedy for nervous diseases, it is necessary to draw the 
proper distinction between massage and exercise. The 
former is energy in the form of motion received; the 
latter is energy given, yielded, or expended. Massage 
depends on sources outside of the individual to whom it 
is applied ; exercise is at the expense of the interior re- 
sources of that individual. The one involves no effort on 
the part of the patient, and therefore demands no nutri- 
tive action for the support of nerve-centres; the other is 
incited by his will, and demands primarily increase of 
blood in nerve-centres to maintain the nutritive action 
engendered by the effort. This refers to the healthy 
state. But in disease the difference is much greater. For 
while, in health, exercise affords equal incitation to nutri- 
tion and to the two main sources of vital energy, the 
nerves and the muscles-and therefore maintains their 
counterpoise of nutritive support-it is very different 
when the vital powers become disabled and energy is MASSAGE-TREATMENT. 
365 
diminished. In this case greater proportional expenditure 
is found necessary to incite the enfeebled muscles and 
temporarily sustain their exertions. This correspondingly 
increases the blood-supply to nerve-centres, but at the 
same time actually withdraws it from the muscles, thus 
making a bad matter worse. Hypersemia is soon super- 
induced, disability follows, and consequently the excessive 
supply of material in the blood becomes useless for nutri- 
tive purposes. Thus it is explained how both excess and 
deficiency of blood may correctly be predicated of many 
forms of nervous disease. 
The practical therapeutic lessons to be deduced from 
these physiological postulates may be briefly stated : The 
physician, by supplying incentive to muscular nutritive 
activity, obviates the causes both of excess and deficiency 
of blood-supply to the nerve-centres, and at the same time 
removes the adventitious chemical and physical impedi- 
ments to wholesome, and therefore remedial, nutritive 
operations of other important parts. No other measures 
can, in the nature of things, prove so efficacious as mas- 
sage, because by no others is it possible to incite muscular 
nutrition and a demand by muscle for nutritive support, 
without at the same time arousing the nutritive activity 
of nerve-centres. 
The processes of Massage evoke the normal chemistry 
of the entire organism, so far as relates to the ultimate 
disposal of its imperfect waste products; and thus a 
source of the greatest embarrassment to the physician is 
almost at once removed.  
CONDITIONS ESSENTIAL FOR MASSAGE.* 
The methods of applying the pressure-motions and the 
passive extensions and contractions of muscular parts 
which are the principal operations of massage, admit of 
considerable variation; indeed, this is often necessitated 
by the location and condition of the parts to which these 
operations are applied. Besides, the degree of force 
applied, the extent of the motions, the order in which 
successive operations are employed, and the variations in 
the application of the processes will often depend on the 
intention of the operator and his conception of the nature 
of the case, in relation to effects desired. All these cir- 
cumstances afford occasions for varying the nature, order, 
and method of the processes, and demand intelligence, 
quick perception, and practical tact on the part of the 
operator. 
A portion of the processes to be described are appli- 
cable to all parts of the body, while a portion can be used 
only for the special parts to which they relate. These 
differences arise chiefly from anatomical and mechanical 
necessity. While the special uses to which massage proc- 
esses are subservient must be intrusted to the judgment 
and tact of the operator, there are certain definite prin- 
ciples, whose development is herein attempted, which he 
must understand, and rules based on these which he must 
* The following chapters, relating to the application of massage, 
are from a new work on the subject by Dr. Taylor, entitled " Mas- 
sage." Price, $1.50. Fowler & Wells, Publishers. 
366 CONDITIONS ESSENTIAL FOR MASSAGE. 
367 
obey if be hopes to attain a modicum of success in his 
use of massage. 
The most important of these rules may be outlined as 
follows: 
1. Whatever the nature or location of the disease 
(which must be chronic), massage should be applied at 
such regular daily time as suits the mutual convenience 
of patient and operator. These regular applications 
should not be deferred or omitted for slight reasons. 
Irregularity is always an embarrassment of the phys- 
iological system. Temporary illnesses, as transient fever, 
may cause exceptions to this regularity. 
2. The time of a visit of the masseur or operator is 
occupied by a number of definite, distinct processes, each 
of which is applied to a restricted portion of the trunk, 
or to a limb. The number of the processes and the 
force with which they are applied, will progressively 
increase to correspond with the improvement attained 
by their use. 
Massage is by no means a continuous process, extend- 
ing over the whole body. Such applications might be 
hygienic, but not medical. It is the purpose of massage 
to increase and perfect nutritive activity in special des- 
ignated parts, which implies unequal distribution of its 
processes. 
3. The commencing processes should usually be at the 
extremities, more frequently the lower. This corresponds 
to the natural habit and requirements of the healthy 
organism. Operations for the lower limbs should alter- 
nate with those for the upper, the trunk being approached 
by stages. 
The very nature of chronic invalidism implies inability 
to expend energy in and through the limbs, its principal 
instruments; these therefore suffer from defective heat, 368 
CONDITIONS ESSENTIAL FOE MASSAGE. 
blood, and nutritive activity, which the massage is adapted 
to restore. The trunk is treated last, and in the early 
part of the treatment the least. 
4. The processes should be brief, each requiring one or 
two minutes only. This rule is imposed by the limited 
power of the operator, and the necessity for economizing 
his power. The more rapidly this power is drawn upon, 
the less he can do, and the less will the patient be ben- 
efited. Rapid expenditure of power does not imply large 
expenditure-for the latter, time is required when the 
power is supplied by an operator. 
There is, in general, an enormous disparity between 
the capacity of an operator to give and that of a chronic 
invalid, even a feeble one, to receive motion. These are 
made equal only by means of deriving energy from com- 
mon mechanical sources, instead of that of an operator. 
5. An interval of time should elapse between all proc- 
esses, at least three or four times that occupied by the 
process-five to ten minutes are usually necessary. During 
this interval the patient lies in an easy position, entirely 
quiet. Reading and conversation should be tabooed. 
This interval is not for rest-for no effort or will-power 
having been expended, there is no fatigue. The interval 
is necessary for the consummation of the effects super- 
induced by the preceding process. 
The necessity for intervals is easily shown. A local 
massage process increases the blood in the part subjected 
to it, so that its nutritive ingredients may be applied to 
nutritive uses. The onflow superinduced, and the sub- 
sequent vito-chemical changes constitute a series of acts 
requiring time for full consummation. Limited time in- 
volves imperfect consummation of the effects inaugurated. 
A process quickly following prevents completion of effects 
inaugurated by the previous one, by interposing some- CONDITIONS ESSENTIAL FOR MASSAGE. 
369 
thing else; the effect becomes diffused, wasted, instead 
of localized and completed. Processes without intervals 
produce only imperfect and unsatisfactory effects, at 
most crudely hygienic, but far from medical in their 
character. 
Another reason for intervals of quiet is still more im- 
perative : every process is liable, especially in new patients, 
to superinduce peculiarly agreeable feelings, implying 
some degree of stimulation of the nervous system. A 
decided break in the continuity of this form of impression 
is necessary to assure the preponderance of physical 
effects contributory to general nutrition, over those shown 
in nervous action, which imply cerebro-spinal effects. 
During the intervals the nervous system subsides into 
repose, which implies diminished nutritive activity and 
lessened blood supply, while the muscular system assumes 
the nutritive consequences superinduced by the process. 
6. The degree of force of the processes applied must 
be apportioned to the degrees of irritability of the dif- 
ferent parts of the body, and must be greatest to the 
least irritable parts. Sensitiveness to impressions is an 
approximate measure of irritability. Unnatural and un- 
healthy irritability of diseased portions is diminished by 
artificial increase of irritability by massage of contiguous 
and even of distant parts. Very sensitive parts should 
be entirely omitted in the distribution of processes in the 
early stages of treatment. 
The proper distribution of processes is a vital point in 
the treatment by massage; this is disregarded only at the 
peril-of success; but it is a principle which the neophyte 
seems determined to ignore. The first aim of the unin- 
structed operator appears to be the part least able to bear 
any process whatever; and his leading process is often 
one which a correct apprehension of the case would alto- 370 
CONDITIONS ESSENTIAL FOR MASSAGE. 
gether omit. The cause for disastrous failure is hence 
apparent; and the low estimate of the principles held by 
physicians who have never given them special attention, 
and by the public, who judge of them chiefly by their 
misrepresentation in practice, is easily accounted for. It 
thus happens that massage is relegated to the category of 
hygiene ; when, properly understood and applied it is quite 
as specific, as well as inclusive, as other remedies. 
7. It follows that parts affected by localized disease 
must always be approached gradually and tentatively, 
so as to avoid, even indirectly, the production of dis- 
agreeable sensations. With the processes properly ad- 
justed, the irritability and liability to local pain disappears 
as the local diseased organs are approached, and no other 
than agreeable sensations are evoked by the processes. 
8. An hour or two spent in the application of the proc- 
esses, with their intervals, is quite sure to superinduce 
a feeling of, and a desire for, repose, which often culmi- 
nates in sound sleep. This quietude, under the circum- 
stances, is positive evidence of the following effects: 
preponderance of nutritive activities in the muscular 
sphere; diminution of the same in the nervous; improved 
quality of nutritive fluids by oxidation ; improved distri- 
bution of the blood, and proportionate rectification of 
the causes, without which no disease can exist. 
Advantage must be taken of this tendency to nervous 
inaction and quiet, and it must be freely indulged. In 
general, an hour, or even more, of absolute quiet and 
repose must be had immediately following the applica- 
tion of the series of processes. After this, the patient's 
own inclination as to the propriety of exercise may be 
trusted. If sleep should not occur, the quiet should be 
maintained, the same as though it did, for it is this ter- 
minal interval that is most valuable to secure fixation and 
perpetuity of the effects of the processes. Qyhr fimtg-sh. 
DESCRIPTION OF SPECIAL PROCESSES OF MASSAGE APPLI- 
CABLE TO THE WHOLE BODY. 
Of first necessity is a suitable couch on which a patient 
may so rest as to be easily accessible by the operator 
at every point. It is folly for him to fritter away the 
strength which he intends to apply to the patient, in 
reaching for his work at a painful mechanical disad- 
vantage ; and equally so for the patient to be in an uncom- 
fortable, disadvantageous position. 
The couch should be capable of raising the shoulders 
to any desired degree; narrow, to permit easy access to 
all parts of the body, head, lirnbs, and feet; and should 
be upholstered rather hard, and without springs. 
1. TRANSVERSE PRESSURE-MOTION. 
Position.-Lying on the back, shoulders raised. If 
with face downward, lying quite flat. 
Action.-The operator, standing beside and bending 
slightly over the patient, places both hands across the 
part to which the action is to be applied ; he presses with 
his hands, by throwing upon them as much weight as is 
perfectly agreeable to his patient, always with enough to 
secure perfect adhesion of the clothing both to the skin 
and to his hands; then by one effort, conjointly of his 
body and arms, he communicates a reciprocating, or to 
and fro motion to the soft tissues upon which pressure is 
made; hands, clothing, skin, flesh, all move as one insep- 
371 372 
DESCRIPTION OF SPECIAL PROCESSES OF MASSAGE. 
arable mass. After three or four repetitions in one place, 
the hands are slid along to the adjoining part, to which 
a similar motion is applied, and so on till the designated 
portion of the body has been thoroughly submitted to 
the action. This process is equally applicable to all 
parts of the body and limbs. 
Effect.-Increase of heat and of blood in the parts sub- 
jected to the action are the first and most conspicuous 
effects. The diminution of blood in other parts is the 
no less certain consequence. Diffusion of heat through- 
out the body follows. Nervous activity, in all its forms, 
is diminished. 
Another effect is mechanical divulsion. This is of the 
highest value in orthopaedics, especially cases of stiffness 
of joints, rigid and fixed contraction of special groups of 
muscles, producing deformity. The fibres of muscular 
and connective tissue which, in consequence of some pre- 
vious inflammation or other cause, have long adhered 
together and resisted all mechanical efforts to straighten 
a limb, soon become separable, pliable, contractile, and 
resume their function, the deformity often entirely dis- 
appearing without instrumental aid or the application of 
tractile force. 
In case of defective development or deficient growth 
of an extremity from any cause, the persistent local ap- 
plication of massage is the only effective remedy. These 
two classes of local defect frequently exist in the same 
individual, and massage in its varied forms supplies 
a rational, philosophical, and practical means of cure, and 
should be thoroughly applied. In cases which have ex- 
isted for a long period, mechanical massage applied by 
machinery driven by some adequate power is essential. DESCRIPTION OF SPECIAL PROCESSES OF MASSAGE. 
373 
2. LONGITUDINAL PRESSURE-MOTION. 
Position.-The same. 
Action.-This form of massage is like the preceding, 
except that the motion is applied in the general longitu- 
dinal direction of the limb and its fibres, instead of the 
transverse or crosswise. It is therefore necessary for the 
operator so to place himself as to cause his motions to act 
lengthwise the body. Care is required to compress the 
flesh by the fingers, or the heel of the hand, so as to pre- 
vent slipping; also to make short motions for the same 
reason. 
Effect.-These are similar to those of No. 1, and this 
process may usually alternate with that. As the motion 
is in the general direction of the circulatory vessels, 
including lymphatics, it affords special aid to the move- 
ments of the fluids contained by those vessels. 
3. CIRCUITOUS PRESSURE-MOTION. 
Position.-The same. 
Action.-One or both hands of the operator, as is most 
convenient, is applied with considerable pressure to some 
portion of the body, trunk or limbs. 
Instead of performing a transverse or longitudinal 
reciprocating motion, the hand of the operator moves in 
a circuit, and with it the mass of flesh it compresses. 
The extent of the motion and diameter of the circuit de- 
pends on the elasticity of the fleshy mass to which it is 
applied. Motion should be given in each direction in 
alternation. 
The favorite locations for applying this form of mas- 
sage are the shoulders, the hips, the chest, the abdomen, 
the thighs and calves. See No. 5. 374 
DESCRIPTION OF SPECIAL PROCESSES OF MASSAGE. 
Effect.-This motion favorably combines those whose 
descriptions have preceded. 
4. FINGEBS AND THUMB GBASPING. 
Position.-The same. 
Action.-The operator applies his two hands to any 
sufficiently prominent mass of flesh in such a manner as 
to include between the opposing fingers and thumbs as 
large a mass of flesh as he can conveniently grasp* and 
this is rendered feasible by the softness and elasticity 
of the tissues into which the fingers slightly sink by their 
pressure. An effort is then made partly to close the 
hands, thus firmly compressing the included flesh, which 
is momentarily held under this pressure. The hands then 
relax, allowing the flesh by its elasticity to recede to its 
former position. The same motion is repeated at a short 
remove from the preceding location, and the process is 
continued until the extremity or other region has been 
thoroughly subjected to the operation. The action is a 
modified form of pinching, with the difference that flesh 
is compressed rather than the skin, while the effect on the 
skin is insufficient to awaken any sensation whatever. 
All portions of the body may be subjected to this form 
of massage. The back portions of the thighs, the calves, 
the shoulders, the abdomen, etc., afford excellent fields for 
this process. It is specially applicable to the heavy mus- 
cular masses each side of the spinous processes of the 
vertebrae. 
Effect.-This mode of massage probably produces more 
intense local mechanical effects than the others described. 
It compels interchange of fluids, removes physical 
impediments to capillary circulation, urges forward the 
venous blood, favors the transudation of nutritive sup- 
plies from the arterial side of the capillaries, and pro- 375 
DESCRIPTION OF SPECIAL PROCESSES OF MASSAGE. 
duces such forcible contact of the atoms destined to 
chemical change as shall secure the perfected degree of 
chemico-physiological action. Motion with pressure is 
resolved into chemical effects in proportion to the posi- 
tiveness of its application, and the interchange between 
the interior and exterior of the vital cell where all vital 
energy is disengaged is correspondingly promoted. 
This form of massage applied to the heavy masses of 
muscle at either side of the spinous processes of the ver- 
tebrae is an efficient and favorite mode of controlling 
spinal congestion (hyperaemia), the constant concomitant 
of super-sensitiveness (hyperaesthesia). The muscular in- 
citation induced by the process renders it a revulsive means 
of extraordinary merit. It is also a means of great power 
in removing vertebral disease, even in the active stage of 
Pott's curvature. 
This form of massage is usually inappropriate in early 
stages of treatment. The tissues should have acquired 
considerable elasticity and resisting power, by previously 
described processes, and those whose descriptions follow. 
Otherwise there may be liability to the production of un- 
sightly discolorations in the flesh, which preliminary 
hardening by milder forms of the process renders impos- 
sible. 
5. FINGERS AND THUMBS POINT-PRESSURE MOTION. 
Position.-The same. 
Action.-The operator gathers the fingers and thumb 
of one or both hands to as concentrated position as pos- 
sible, and applies them with strong pressure; at the same 
time making either reciprocating or curvilinear motions, 
affecting all the tissues compressed except the skin. 
Modification.-This process may be performed by the 
heel of the hand, the fingers being elevated. 376 
DESCRIPTION OF SPECIAL PROCESSES OF MASSAGE. 
Effect.-This form of massage applied to any circum- 
scribed location is adapted to produce those revulsive 
effects which diminish local pain. It is for this purpose 
applicable to each side of the spine, to the vicinity of the 
emergence of the sciatic, the facial, and other nerves 
liable to neuralgia. 
6. KNUCKLE-PKESSUKE MOTION. 
Position.-Reclining or lying. 
Action.-The operator, having his fingers closed or 
clenched tightly, applies the outer portion, that is, the 
first phalanges of his fingers, with firm pressure to any 
soft, muscular part of the body, and at the same time 
communicates motion to the included flesh beneath the 
pressure. The motion may be either lineal, curved, or 
twisted, care being taken to cause the part underneath to 
move with the hand. After a half-dozen motions the 
hand of the operator may be removed to another part, 
repeating the process in this way till the whole body, or 
such parts as is judged expedient, have been subjected to 
the process. Either one hand of the masseur, or both, 
may be used in this process, and they may act together, or 
reciprocally, at the two opposite sides of a limb or other 
part. 
Effect.-This, which is one of the Japanese forms of 
massage, is particularly efficacious for the amount of 
power expended. The hold on the flesh is firmer and 
more persistent than in other modes of reaching the flesh, 
and a proportionally larger amount reaches the deep tis- 
sues. It is particularly useful applied to the abdomen 
with deep pressure to excite peristalsis; to the hips and 
thighs in cases of neuralgia of the large nerves ; to the 
spinal muscles, for revulsion, in nervous and in vertebral 
diseases. DESCRIPTION OF SPECIAL PROCESSES OF MASSAGE. 
377 
SURFACE RUBBING, FRICTION, OR STROKING. 
Position.-Lying, reclining, sitting, or standing. 
Action.-The two hands of the operator are drawn 
with light pressure over the surface of the body. This 
is done in long sweeps, over the length of a limb or the 
body, or with shorter motions, touching the body in both 
the direct and the return movement, or only in one. 
Often only a small surface is included in the operation, 
which is repeated at the contiguous portion, and so on, 
till the whole skin has been subjected to the process. 
Effect.-As this operation includes a large part of what 
is popularly, and even professionally, understood as mas- 
sage, it is due that the physiological effects be stated in 
some detail. 
The effects may be widely varied, according to circum- 
stances, which in themselves may appear to the inex- 
perienced as insignificant. 
(fl) DIRECT FRICTION OF THE SKIN. 
When the hand or hands of an operator are passed 
over the uncovered skin, touching it but slightly, no 
disturbance is produced in the subjacent flesh, and little 
or none of the usual effects of massage, as impulse to 
the fluid transformation of tissue, the production of 
water and carbonic acid, can follow. The slight heat de- 
veloped arises from the transformation of motion, and 
not from chemical and nutritive changes, and is not self- 
sustaining. 
The principal effects of the process are the conse- 
quences of traversing the nerve ends adapted to receive 
sensory and reflex impressions. All such impressions 
are instantly represented by corresponding nutritive 
changes in the spinal cord; increased nutritive support 378 
DESCRIPTION OF SPECIAL PROCESSES OF MASSAGE. 
of the activities of the spinal centres are the direct result. 
The special form of the effect produced depends largely 
on the special nature of the impression; it may incite 
sensibility, or reflex action in which certain corresponding 
muscles participate. A part of the influence of mechan- 
ical impressions may extend to the cerebrum, and prove 
mildly stimulating to the cerebral functions. 
The principle of physiology to be kept strictly in view, 
is this. The effects of the incitation superinduced by 
massage confined to the skin, are centered in the cerebro- 
spinal department of the nervous system, and increase its 
nutritive support, while the nutritive operations of the 
general system participate but feebly. The relevancy of 
such processes will therefore depend upon the question 
of therapeutic indications, whether it be the muscular, the 
chemical and heat-making, and eliminative functions 
which require incitation, or the nervous functions. 
It is suspected that much of the popularity of massage, 
even in professional circles, is based on an inadequate 
and somewhat deceptive foundation. The test of value 
is too often confined to what is perceived by the feelings, 
sensations, and nervous susceptibilities to be the imme- 
diate effect of massage, rather than on the relations which 
incitation of these bears to the welfare of the organism at 
large. Indeed, the therapeutic indications may be quite 
the reverse of the effects solicited. The feelings alone 
are untrustworthy when acting under special incitation, as 
is liable to be the case under this form of massage. 
For, the exclusive use of surface processes produces the 
inevitable effect of increasing the function, and there- 
fore the substance, of the nerves, while the muscles and 
the tissues depending on muscular functions, are as 
inevitably diminished. This effect is exactly the reverse 
of the needs of the average chronic invalid; at least the DESCRIPTION OF SPECIAL PROCESSES OF MASSAGE. 
379 
therapeutic indications for the remedy to be thus em- 
ployed must be rare indeed. 
The above considerations may be deemed unduly theo- 
retical, but the principles stated are fully justified by 
practical experience. Nervous and excitable chronic 
invalids of various classes have, by unadvised use of 
skin massage, suffered serious exaggeration of all their 
symptoms in numerous instances. These sufferers are 
sooner or later driven to suspend the use of such ill- 
adjusted processes, and perhaps to adopt instead some 
empirical drug remedy which, however, might prove less 
injurious. 
The more fortunate event is when lack of discrimi- 
nation on the part of the operator prevents anything like 
precision in the process; the patient might then receive 
imperfectly applied but mixed processes, with corre- 
sponding effects from which but little disadvantage is 
liable to flow, and to which more praise than blame may 
rightfully belong. 
Skin friction may be very actively applied, so that the 
amount of heat arising from transformation of motion 
may be considerably increased. The physical texture of 
the hand and the skin, which are elastic and adhesive, 
conduce to maximum conversion of motion to heat. The 
heat thus produced affects the superficial capillaries like 
heat applied to the surface, causing their dilatation and 
filling them with blood. The same effect of diminished 
chemical change, as arises from hot applications, of neces- 
sity follows, with superficial revulsion and temporary 
diminution of pain. It is probable, also, that the inci- 
tation of spinal nutritive activities may temporarily change 
the quality of the products of nerve action, so that disa- 
greeable feelings and pain are displaced by those that 
are agreeable. 380 
DESCRIPTION OF SPECIAL PROCESSES OF MASSAGE. 
This mode of changing the quality of the sensibilities 
from the painful to the more agreeable, is ephemera] 
because not based on radical and permanent principles. 
For since the expenditure is at the surface, and eventuates 
in nutritive changes chiefly in the sources of sensory and 
reflex power, it fails to secure muscular counterpoise 
or general oxidation, or sensibly to promote the eli mi- 
natory processes, or any of the leading and most essential 
departments of physiological activity, and the pathological 
conditions remain, therefore, virtually unaltered. 
It is sometimes claimed by massage operators, and even 
by their patients, that electrical excitation of a curative 
kind and degree is produced by the skin massage. So 
far as the evidence of this effect arises from the feelings, 
the testimony of which is invariably appealed to, its cause 
and value have been above sufficiently explained, and the 
assumption of electricity is gratuitous. Besides, the elec- 
trical practice does not choose moist, even wet surfaces, 
like the hand and skin, from which to develop either static 
or current electricity. 
When the hands of the operator, instead of gliding 
upon the unprotected skin, performs that act upon some 
dry covering of the skin, as the clothing, so that the fric- 
tion is between the clothing and hands instead of the skin 
and hands, a kind of massage is produced which requires 
separate examination. Appropriate tests indicate the 
presence of static electricity, which by polarization extends 
to, and includes the surface of, the body; as nothing has 
been proved of either its beneficial or its injurious effects, 
further notice of it will here be neglected. 
In this mode of applying the process, the pressure 
afforded by the hands is much greater than the uncovered 
(6) RUBBING OVER THE CLOTHING. 381 
DESCRIPTION OF SPECIAL PROCESSES OF MASSAGE. 
skin permits. The rubbing or stroking with pressure, 
therefore, sends a wave of motion down through the skin 
into the subjacent muscular and other tissues constituting 
the flesh. It has before been shown that mere pressure 
upon the skin without friction fails to excite its usual 
nervous functions. 
The mechanical wave thus propagated through the tis- 
sues causes displacement and replacement of the molecu- 
lar constituents of all the parts subjected to the operation; 
and is, in fact, a mild form of muscular as distinguished 
from skin massage. 
The process, however, results in profound effects in the 
nervous centres, which need to be understood. The pas- 
sage of the gliding hand fails to produce distinct sensory 
impressions. The great sensory and reflex capabilities 
of the spine appear to become merged into a unit, but 
the impression is too weak to become transmitted to the 
cerebrum. Whatever incitation is produced is limited to 
the spinal centres, and excluded from the cerebral. The 
distribution of nutritive support of necessity follows the 
incitation, and in corresponding degree the increase of 
spinal nutritive support is temporarily inhibitory of the 
cerebral; and it is this effect, manifested as quietude, to 
which attention is drawn. 
The verification of the facts of cerebral quietude super- 
induced by massage, is best supplied by experimental 
physiology. When an individual is thus treated, it is 
found that he becomes progressively oblivious to external 
things, and may fall into profound slumber. 
To superinduce bodily and mental quiet by the proc- 
esses described, may serve very desirable and even im- 
portant temporary remedial ends; but this recourse is 
necessarily limited to emergencies. In this respect in- 
hibition of special nervous function is comparable with 382 
DESCRIPTION OF SPECIAL PROCESSES OF MASSAGE. 
the effects of the general and local applications of heat, 
previously described ; or to the inhibition of cerebral 
activity superinduced by a variety of drugs. But like 
those ordinary medical resources, it has little, often no 
effect in advancing the health or removing the causes of 
the inharmony it is used merely to relieve. Neither the 
process nor its effect convey any lesson useful to the 
patient in any form, whereby his individuality and man- 
hood are increased or at least preserved. 
8. PERCUSSION. 
This is the application of a series of short, sharp blows 
to any portion of the body. The hand may be used flat- 
wise or edgewise for this purpose, or a light instrument 
with short handle may take the place of the hand. 
Percussion may be administered, in any convenient 
position, to all parts of the body in succession, beginning, 
like other forms of massage, with the lower extremities- 
avoiding, however, the back, the head, the joints, and 
bony parts of the body. Percussion may be self-applied 
to the feet in chilblains and cold feet, and even to other 
parts of the body. 
Effects.-Percussion penetrates the tissues in the form 
of short motion-waves. Like other forms of massage, it 
is the communication of physical energy contributory to 
physiological activities. As it brings the changing mate- 
rials into very energetic contact, it is specially adapted to 
promote the completion of the chemical side of physio- 
logical action. We have proof of its efficacy in this 
direction, by the rapid development of heat the percus- 
sion causes. 
The therapeutic applicability of percussion must be 
judged with some caution. This must depend on the re- DESCRIPTION OF SPECIAL PROCESSES OF MASSAGE. 
383 
lation of the incitement produced to the pathological 
condition. 
A large amount of the energy conveyed by this process 
is expended in the skin, and its reflex and sensory powers 
are highly stimulated by the application. It therefore 
follows that for invalids of nervous temperament and 
habits, whether natural or acquired by disease, especially 
if associated with weak muscles, this process should in 
general be withheld ; general percussion-massage in these 
cases would be liable to increase the preponderance of the 
nervous symptoms. Benefit would more probably be 
derived where the muscles are well developed but require 
incitation. 
Wherever incitation of nervous and reflex function is 
required, no process is so efficacious. In paraplegia, the 
natural sensations and control of limbs have many times 
been seen to return under the use of this process. In 
these cases, percussion-massage should be applied to the 
soles of the feet, covered by the shoes. 
In certain conditions of the liver, made evident by 
tenderness, heaviness, and fulness at its region in the 
right side, local percussion often produces admirable and 
prompt effects. Short attacks of bilious diarrhoea have 
many times been superinduced by the process. The stand- 
ing position of the patient, the arras so raised as to allow 
the short ribs to receive a part of the shock, and the 
rapid and careful percussion by the outer edge of the 
right hand of the operator, at the edge of the floating, 
ribs of the right side, are the best means of securing de- 
cided and agreeable effects. (Qaphr &totnin-stbnx. 
MASSAGE OF THE LOWER EXTREMITIES. 
The indications for the due apportionment of the proc- 
esses of massage, to secure therapeutic ends, must, in 
general, be based on the physiological distribution of 
function, whose derangement is an inseparable part of 
disease. 
In health, the demand for and expenditure of musctdar 
energy in the lower limbs far exceeds that of other por- 
tions of the body. The plain and direct inference is, that 
any prolonged suspension of this natural and healthful 
habit of muscular action, such as is enforced by a great 
variety of chronic affections, not merely of the limbs, but 
of any portion of the body, is an impediment to recov- 
ery ; a wholesome, and even necessary, counterpoise to the 
activities of the upper portions of the body is diminished 
or lost when the lower limbs are disused. It follows that 
these upper portions, or at least some portion of them, 
are embarrassed by the presence of material whose fit use 
is elsewhere; the embarrassment is a first stage in the ap- 
proach to suffering. Defective action of the limbs also 
correlates with repletion in other, probably central parts, 
and is liable, if continued, to ultimate in localized disease 
at any unguarded and unsuspected point. 
And as all use involves elimination of materials used 
by the act and at the point of use, it follows that the sus- 
pension of activity at so important a part as the lower 
extremities involves peril to the health. 
384 MASSAGE OF THE LOWER EXTREMITIES. 
385 
It follows that the rational mode of restoring lost equi- 
poise of function must consist in increasing functional 
activity in the defective parts. 
It furthermore follows that when hypersemia occurs at 
any point, whether it be regarded as cause or consequence 
of localized disease, whether it be called congestion or other 
name, and whether of the head, chest, digestive organs, or 
any limited portion of these, the relief which all physicians 
seek, is rationally found by leading the circulating blood, 
which bears nutritive support, to the greatest distance 
from the affected parts. The lower extremities are always 
receptive of such supplies. 
The ways by which the lower extremities are physio- 
logically connected with the remainder of the body may 
be summarized thus: 
1. The difficulties to be encountered by the return or 
venous circulation are in the lower limbs increased by 
gravitation. The capillary circulation, and therefore the 
heat of the part, depend largely on this return. This 
indicates that more muscular action, which is conductive 
of the return, is required here than elsewhere. 
2. The position of the feet and legs exposes them to 
greater loss of heat than other parts. They are by posi- 
tion in a cooler air; the feet exposed to greater cooling 
effect of damp. The lower limbs are hence naturally 
supplied with stronger incentive to heat production and 
its associated energies than any other part of the body. 
3. In locomotion the feet and legs are subjected to an 
intense form of natural massage; the feet are percussed 
against the earth or hard floor at every step ; this act 
serves through life as a constant spur to functional activ- 
ity, enjoyed by no other part. 
4. The limbs not only bear the whole weight of the 
body, which far exceeds the work of other voluntary 386 
MASSAGE OF THE LOWER EXTREMITIES. 
muscles, but all expenditures of muscular force upon ex- 
terior objects, as in work, is so much addition to the mus- 
cular expenditures of the lower limbs. When one lifts 
or pulls a weight, whether small or large, the whole of 
this exertion is transmitted to the lower limbs, which 
finally resist to that additional extent. 
Such facts as these relating to natural use are doubtless 
inseparable from healthy needs. These needs are not 
limited to the physiological condition, but are even more 
imperative in those less than physiological-the patho- 
logical conditions. That medical treatment of chronic 
affections which takes no cognizance of elementary prin- 
ciples, must, to say the least, labor under embarrassing 
restrictions, which are certain to abridge its usefulness. 
The recognition of the need is the suggestion of the 
remedy. It will be difficult to find another that, like the 
various forms of massage, is entirely adapted to increase 
permanently the blood and the heat of the lower extremi- 
ties, to develop their muscular power, to diminish excess 
of both in important central organs, to increase the prod- 
uct of water, carbonic acid, and urea, and to diminish all 
forms of sub-oxides in the blood and fluids, whose pres- 
ence in chronic disease is a perpetual incentive to the use 
of local and specific remedies of no permanent value. 
THE FEET. 
The feet, which have a preponderance of bony, sinewy, 
and therefore resisting material, and a deficiency of mus- 
cular and fleshy masses adapted to the ordinary massage 
or pressure-motion, require other forms of its processes 
than have been described. 
These forms are chiefly ways of producing passive 
stretching and relaxation of the tissues of the feet by 
calling the joint into action, and thus alternately increas- MASSAGE OF THE LOWER EXTREMITIES. 
387 
ing and diminishing the distance between muscular at- 
tachments. 
Pressure with motion may also be obtained wherever 
the twisting of a part may be had. Twisting always ap- 
proximates the fibres of, and gives motion to, the pressure 
to the part subjected to the processes, and is therefore 
true massage. 
9. FOOT ROTATION. 
Position.-The patient is in the reclining position, with 
limbs extended horizontally, the lower leg of one side 
resting on the lap of the operator. 
Action.-The leg is maintained immovable by being 
grasped near the ankle with one hand of the operator, 
while his other hand very lightly seizes and holds the toe- 
end of the foot and causes it to describe a circle as wide 
as the length and structure of the foot will allow, going 
three or four revolutions in one direction, and then 
changing to the opposite direction, in which it revolves as 
many times, being all the while strongly urged by the 
hand of the operator. The foot in this motion describes 
the periphery of a cone, of which the ankle joint is the 
apex. 
Effect.-All the muscles of the foot, and a part of 
those belonging to the lower leg, are by this motion 
alternately stretched and relaxed independent of effort or 
control by the nerves. The resulting physical and physi- 
ological changes are therefore in the muscular tissues of the 
limb, and extend but feebly to nerve centres. The minutest 
components of the foot are by this motion brought into 
strong contact with friction. A large amount of local 
heat is developed with increase of blood in the local tis- 
sues, producing quietude and marked diminution of cer- 
ebro-spinal activity. 388 
MASSAGE OF THE LOWER EXTREMITIES. 
10. FOOT TWISTING. 
Position.-The same. 
Action.-The heel being firmly and immovably held by 
one hand of the operator, while his other hand grasps the 
outer or toe-end of the foot, a twisting is given to the 
foot from the toe-end to the extreme limit of its capacity 
to receive the motion. The motion may be given in each 
direction alternately, and repeated a dozen times, w'ith 
moderate rapidity. 
Effect.-The muscles, tendons, connective tissue, ves- 
sels, and nerves are alternately strongly compressed and 
relaxed, with gliding motion, resembling in form and 
effect the pressure-motions previously described, with the 
same consequences to the physical side of physiological 
activities, of which the increase of heat is the primary 
evidence. 
11. FOOT BENDING OR STRETCHING. 
Position.-The same. 
Action.-Instead of the twisting, as above described, 
the foot may be directly bent at the ankle joint, up or 
down, a dozen or more times in both directions. 
Effect.-In all respects similar to the above as regards 
the foot, but stronger and more efficacious as regards the 
ankle joint and the muscles of the leg by which the joint 
is usually operated. 
Position.-Reclining. 
Action.-The foot to receive the process is directly in 
front of the sitting operator, who places his two hands 
flatwise against the sides of the foot and compresses it 
strongly between them ; at the same time he communi- 
12. DOUBLE PRESSURE-MOTION TO THE FOOT. 389 
MASSAGE OF THE LOWER EXTREMITIES. 
cates to it a rapid reciprocating motion, much the same 
in form as when the two hands are rubbed against each 
other with nothing included between. In this way the 
foot is in reality rolled, the massage consisting of the 
pressure and motion against each other of the constituent 
fibres composing the part. The hands must not glide 
upon the coverings of the foot. This process may con- 
tinue for a few moments, or till the operator's power de- 
clines. To secure effects of the process, mechan- 
ical apparatus driven by sufficient power is necessary. 
Effects.-Similar to those previously described : phys- 
ical energy communicated by the processes merges with 
and reinforces physiological processes, conspicuous, first 
as heat; next as increase of local blood ; then as diminu- 
tion of local suffering in other parts of the body, as head, 
spine, etc., and cumulatively, as improved distribution of 
the circulation, contributing with associated processes to 
increase of vigor and health. 
13. LEG WRINGING. 
Position.-Reclining on a couch in easy position, one 
leg extended horizontally so that the operator may have 
free access to it. 
Action.-The two hands of the operator grasp the 
limb from each side so as partly to encircle it with each 
hand, the thumb and the finger extending in either direc- 
tion so as to grasp as far as possible, the two hands hav- 
ing an inch or two of space between them, one being 
placed above the other on the limb. A twisting motion 
is now given by each hand in opposite directions ; that 
is, one hand twists the flesh it firmly holds in one direc- 
tion, say to the right, while the other hand moves the 
contents of its grasp to the left; the double action pro- 
ducing a wringing of the flesh, much the same as when 390 
MASSAGE OF THE LOWER EXTREMITIES. 
water is pressed or wrung from wet clothes by means of 
the tightening of its fibres secured by a similar process. 
This action is repeated two or three times under the 
same double grasp, when the hands are moved so as to 
include a fresh field of action, where it is repeated in a 
similar way, and so on till the whole limb has been sub- 
jected to the process. 
Effect.-Mechanical displacement of fluids, both within 
and without the circulatory vessels, and which includes 
not only the blood of both kinds, but the contents of the 
lymphatics. The process promotes muscular, and corre- 
spondingly diminishes nervous nutritive support, and ef- 
fects proportionate changes in the manifestations of these 
two orders of vital energy. 
14. LEGS TRANSVERSE PRESSURE-MOTION. 
This is the special application to the lower limbs of 
No. 1, under which the process is described. In case the 
limb or some portion of it is too large for the proper ap- 
plication of No. 13, the transverse pressure-motion is sub- 
stituted for it. For the thighs, in the forward lying 
position, it is peculiarly applicable. 
Effect.-The same as No. 13. 
15. THIGH ROTATION. 
Position.-Reclining. 
Action.-With one hand the operator grasps the leg 
near the ankle, with the other he seizes the knee and 
raises the thigh till it is at right angles with the body. 
He then causes the knee to describe as broad a circle as 
possible, by carrying it near to the body, then laterally 
and downward nearly to a line with the foreleg, and 
thence returning at the other side of the circle to the 
starting-point. In performing this rotary motion it is MASSAGE OF THE LOWER EXTREMITIES. 
391 
essential that the foot, which is guided by the other hand 
grasping the ankle, also describes a similar circle of the 
same size, being cautious during the process to preserve 
perfect parallelism between the axis of the foreleg and 
the axis of the body. If this caution is observed, the 
processes will be perfectly agreeable to the patient. If 
the parallel of the axis of the foreleg and body is not 
maintained, it is possible that the ligament joining the 
leg to the body (hip-joint ligament) may be unduly 
strained by the twist which is thus given it. The process 
may be repeated a half, dozen times in each direction, 
and applied to both legs, unless a special infirmity re- 
quires restriction to one leg. 
Effect.-Rotation of the thigh causes alternate tension 
and relaxation of all the small muscles, interior and ex- 
terior, which connect the thigh with the pelvic bones. 
The motion described causes the distance between the 
points of attachment of the muscles which connect the 
pelvis with the thigh bone, to increase and to diminish 
alternately to the greatest extent that the mechanism 
of the parts will allow. By this means the fibres and 
the cells constituting the muscles engaged are subjected 
to the mechanical changes of form, and the nutritive fluids 
in contact to the same changes of. place as occur in exer- 
cise, but with the radical difference that the will and the 
nervous system are in abeyance. 
The consequence is that the fleshy masses about the 
hips located either side of the pelvis are made the recip- 
ient of increased nutritive support which immediately 
detracts from the surplus contained by the pelvic organs. 
These latter are, in other words, unloaded of their excess 
of blood, and hypersemia of these parts, including the 
lower bowel and the generative intestine, is relieved. 
This effect is usually denominated revulsive, but dif- 392 
MASSAGE OF THE LOWER EXTREMITIES. 
fers from that produced by other means, in being per- 
manent, and every repetition of the process increases the 
tendency to self-perpetuation of the improvement. 
Position.-The same. 
Action.-With the lower leg resting on the knees of 
the operator, he grasps the foot with one hand and the 
knee of the same leg with his other ; then turns the leg 
on its axis so that the foot lies as far as it may to one 
side, and immediately returns it to the opposite side also 
as far as the mechanism of the parts will allow, thus caus- 
ing the leg to be twisted on its axis; the motion may be 
repeated a dozen times. 
Effect.-This is similar to that produced by No. 15, ex- 
cept that fewer muscles of the thigh are engaged and a 
larger number of those of the leg, affording correspond- 
ing differences in details of effects produced. It is ap- 
plied for the same purposes. 
16. LEG TWISTING. 
17. LONGITUDINAL PRESSURE-MOTION OE THE LEG. 
This is special application to the lower extremities of 
No. 2, which see for description of process. 
Effect.-This is usually applied in connection with 
other processes for the legs, to increase local nutrition, 
the local heat production, and the concomitant revulsive 
effects. (QHphr &toentn-dgjjt. 
UPPER EXTREMITIES. 
HANDS. 
18. FINGER ROTATION. 
Position.-Reclining or lying. 
Action.-A hand of the patient is firmly held in one 
of the operator's, while a single finger is grasped by his 
other hand and caused to rotate in as large a circle as the 
parts will bear. The circuit of motion may be described 
a dozen times in each direction. After this another fin- 
ger is subjected to the same process, and so on with each 
finger till all, including the thumb, have been thoroughly 
subjected to the process. 
Effect.-The joints are rendered supple, the muscles of 
the fingers and also of the hand are increased in power, 
and the local heat developed. 
19. FINGER TWISTING. 
Position.-The same. 
Action.-The hand being firmly held, one finger is 
grasped between the thumb and fingers of the operator 
and gently twisted to the right and to the left, on its 
axis,' a half dozen times or more. This process is applied 
in turn to all the fingers and to the thumb. It is made 
agreeable to the patient by beginning gently and gradu- 
ally increasing it in extent, while at the same time the 
grasp of the finger is renewed at slightly differing loca- 
tions as the process progresses. The same remark applies 
393 394 
UPPER EXTREMITIES. 
to similar processes at other parts of the body and 
limbs. 
Effect.-Adds to suppleness, removes stiffness and 
swelling (chronic), and serves other general purposes of 
massage. 
Position.-The same. 
Action.-A hand of the patient being very firmly held 
at the wrist by one hand of the operator, he seizes the 
same at the fingers, so as to include them in his grasp ; he 
then, with a suitable twisting motion, causes the hand of 
the patient to become twisted, first in one direction and 
immediately in the opposite. This twisting may be re- 
peated in each direction ten or more times, with a degree 
of force adjusted to the feelings of the patient. 
- Effect.-The interosseous muscles and all other fibres 
connecting, tendonous and otherwise, are made alternately 
tense and relaxed, with the addition of the strong pressure 
always incident to the act of twisting. This superinduces 
in the part subjected to the action all the best effects of 
massage, as previously detailed. 
20. HAND TWISTING. 
21. WRIST ROTATION. 
Position.-The same. 
Action.-The forearm is grasped firmly, just above the 
wrist, by the operator, while he also grasps the hand of the 
patient with his other hand, and causes the hand thus 
fixed and grasped to move in a circle as wide as the 
mechanism of the parts will allow; it may be made to 
rotate a dozen times in each direction. 
Effect.-This process engages the muscles in general of 
the lower arm to the elbow, whose functions consist in 
effecting ordinary movements or exercises of the hand. 
It strengthens the muscles, renders the parts supple, and 395 
UPPER EXTREMITIES. 
produces the usual effects of massage in respect to heat, 
circulation, nutrition, revulsion, etc. 
Position.-Same as in 18. 
Action.-The operator holds immovably the arm of 
the patient, just above the elbow ; with his other hand 
he grasps the wrist, and with it describes a wide circle, so 
that at one part of the revolution the forearm is nearly 
in a line with the upper arm, while at the opposite part 
of the circle described it is almost in contact with the 
upper arm. Although the elbow-joint is a hinge, the 
rotary motion is practicable because the action of the 
shoulder-joint compensates for the deficiency of the elbow- 
joint in performing the motion. 
Effect.-The same form of massage (without pressure) 
is supplied by this process, as has been described of the 
wrist and. other parts, when the effect is due to stretching 
and relaxing the muscular and connective fibres. 
22. FOREARM ROTATION. 
23. ARM WRINGING. 
Position.-Reclining, the arm extended at right angles 
with the body. 
Action.-The arm of the patient is seized at the shoul- 
der by both hands of the operator, which grasp and in- 
clude the flesh of the arm at a little distance apart. 
Now, by causing both hands to move independently in 
opposite directions, the mass of included flesh is subjected 
to a vigorous wringing, as has before been described, in 
speaking of the leg. The process is applied to every por- 
tion of the arm as the hands of the operator recede from 
the shoulder and glide downward, applying the process 
at each stage till the whole arm has been subjected to 
process. 396 
UPPER EXTREMITIES. 
Effect.-This application combines in the highest de- 
gree the special effects of massage by reason of the su- 
perior mechanical conditions. The arm is easily included 
in the double grasp; the motions are easily given with 
great pressure, and the compression caused by slightly 
twisting of fibres is additional to the direct pressure af- 
forded by the grasping. It urges fluids in their appointed 
courses, whether contained within the vessels or in the 
stage herein designated as inter vascular. It urges blood 
to the skin, increases heat, removes excess of blood from 
the head and upper portion of the spine. The process 
fulfils in a high degree all the chief purposes of massage. 
24. ARM ROTATION. 
Position.-The same. 
Action.-The arm of the patient is taken hold of by 
the operator, both at the elbow and hand. The elbow is 
then caused to traverse a circle as broad as the length of 
the upper arm will allow, of which the shoulder is the 
centre. Care should be taken that the upper portion of 
the circuit traversed be made as broad as the lower, by 
carrying the arm in the upper part of its course near to 
the head, so that all the muscles connecting the arm with 
the chest may be thoroughly and equally acted on. Six 
or eight revolutions in each direction may be given. 
Effect.-The motion alternately stretches and relaxes 
all the muscles connecting the chest with the arms, affect- 
ing them similarly to the longitudinal pressure-motions 
described in No. 2. This effect extends beyond those 
directly attached to the arm, to those of the shoulder, 
shoulder-blades, and even to those connecting the ribs. 
Many of these, particularly the intercostals, subscapular, 
etc., are quite beyond the reach of ordinary or pressure- 
motion massage, being protected by bone. UPPER EXTREMITIES. 
397 
This process also has the direct effect of increasing the 
capacity of the chest and the power and extent of its 
rhythmical or breathing motions. 
The rotary or circular motions above described, and 
applicable to the legs, arms, and trank, may, for distinc- 
tion, be called the non-pressure processes of massage, be- 
cause the processes are limited to stretching and contract- 
ing the muscles engaged in the motions. The advantages 
of this class of processes are that they are always agree- 
able to the patient, can never exceed the capacity of ten- 
der and sensitive parts to receive motion, as is possible in 
case of pressure-motions, and that, if regarded as a spe- 
cies of exercise, they are entirely passive, which implies 
that the muscular nutrition, and therefore muscular power, 
are increased by their use, while nervous manifestations 
are correspondingly diminished. 
25. DOUBLE PRESSURE MOTIONS OF THE ARMS AND LEGS. 
Position.-Reclining. 
Action.-The two hands of the operator are placed 
against opposite sides of the part of the limb nearest the 
body ; then while compressing strongly the flesh, a rapid 
alternate, or reciprocating motion is applied to the part; 
the hands slowly glide downward, so as to include a fresh 
portion of the limb, while the motion and pressure is 
continued, and so on till the whole of the flesh of the 
limb has been submitted to the process. The same proc- 
ess may be applied in turn to all the limbs. 
Effect.-The motion with pressure is in this process 
applied transversely to the average direction of the tibres, 
nerve conductors and vessels. The mechanical effect is 
that of separation-divulsion of the fibres that are from 
any cause adherent. It therefore becomes a most effect- 
ive means for removing adhesions producing stiffness, 398 
UPPER EXTREMITIES. 
contractions, and consequent deformities of the limbs. 
The motion is also a powerful incentive to nutritive 
changes in the vital muscle cells, and therefore opposes 
nervous irritability. It increases oxidation, and therefore 
removes obstructive sub-oxides from the fluids. The very- 
large amount of interior friction of fibres, cells, mem- 
branes, and fluids, causes unusual development of heat, 
the physiological alternative of vital energy, which is 
therefore promoted by the action. The above-described 
process is true massage, in the best understanding of the 
term, including both method and effect. The one diffi- 
culty about the process, however, nearly precludes its em- 
ployment in the mode described. This is the rapidity 
with which the power of the operator is transmitted to 
the invalid, thus becoming contributory to his power. 
To apply conjoint pressure and motion, through both the 
operator's hands, speedily exhausts the most affluent re- 
sources of the most robust operator. This he feels, and 
in consequence instinctively avoids applying any consid- 
erable amount of those processes which contribute most 
to increase the energy of the patient. This is indeed his 
wisest course ; for since his power is limited, it is em- 
ployed to best advantage when well husbanded. 
It, therefore, follows that there is a stage in the advanc- 
ing progress of every invalid toward health, when the 
power afforded by the living operator is inadequate to the 
needs, and insufficient for the receptive capacity of the 
invalid. This stage in general arrives when the various 
parts entering into the structure of the body have ac- 
quired a certain increase of capacity for physiological 
change and " metamorphosis " of tissue. This may occur 
long before the localized disease, if this consist of patho- 
logical alterations of structure, or local accumulations of 
organic substance of low vitality, or any matters capable UPPER EXTREMITIES. 
399 
of resisting the ordinary physiological provisions for oxi- 
dation, is removed. The curative efficacy of processes 
applied by the operation in these cases becomes insuffi- 
cient, the deficiency being not in kind, but in quantity and 
degree of the remedial application. 
Hence, it is apparent that energy proceeding from a 
more abundant, or rather from an inexhaustible source, 
is required to perfect cures in cases of serious localized 
disease. 
The process last described is applied by mechanism, 
adapted to this special use, under the perfect control of the 
patient, however helpless, and practically secures far 
more massage than can possibly be attained by hand.  
THE DIGESTIVE ORGANS. 
Inertia of the digestive organs is an almost invariable 
accompaniment of chronic invalidism under whatever 
name. Digested products find their way with difficulty 
through the obscure channels they must pass to enter the 
circulation, and residual products and rejected matters 
with difficulty make their exit from the body. Sponta- 
neous chemical changes are immanent or active in nutri- 
tive material thus unemployed, even within the vital organ- 
ism. These new products greatly harass the feelings, giv- 
ing rise to new and strange manifestations, while the de- 
cline of organic rhythmic motions, which in health 
engages the digestive organs in perpetual mechanical 
change, becomes painfully obvious. 
One reason for sluggish digestion is the slow and 
imperfect demand on the part of the system at large for 
digested products. It is clear that need of support by 
the active tissues is the natural incentive to digestion, and 
that to increase the amount of food ingested does not, 
as is frequently presumed, increase its use by the sys- 
tem. It follows that the primary obstacle to digestion 
is in the tissues, which have little need, and therefore 
make small demand, for support. It is the purpose of 
massage to legitimately increase such need by removing 
all physical obstacles, such as interstitial uncompleted 
chemical products, and the mechanical impediments in 
the course of the career of nutritive supplies. Nutritive 
400 THE DIGESTIVE ORGANS. 
401 
supplies require to be urged along the appointed course 
whereby they fulfil nutritive uses, instead of offering 
physical and chemical impediments in the secretions and 
to normal acts of physical change. 
Another cause of sluggish digestion is the imperfect 
removal both of waste and of residual. The former is 
removed by oxidation, the latter by the spontaneous mo- 
tions of the digestive organs, consecutive upon move- 
ments of respiration. This motion causes the very 
extensive serous coverings of the digestive tubes to glide 
upon each other; a motion eminently calculated to 
promote absorption of digested products and secretion 
of the fluids whose use and effect is to reduce aliment to 
a state of fluidity. The same cause also promotes those 
motions of the digestive cavity which urge the alimen- 
tary contents along their appointed course, and terminate 
in excluding the exhausted residue. 
The constant necessity for these mechanical changes 
of the digestive organs, during both sleeping or waking 
hours, is thus manifest. Digestion is otherwise incom- 
plete. And since motion of the organs is a necessary 
part of their functions, no restoration of digestive power is 
possible that does not also include the restoration of this 
mechanical or muscular property. The direct cultivation 
of the conditions for and power of spontaneous motion 
is, therefore, the philosophical, as well as the most rational 
and practical resource of the dyspeptic, whatever be the 
special subjective symptoms from which he may suffer. 
This view of the connection of mechanical motion with 
the digestive needs is fully justified by observation of 
the adaptation and requirements of the lower animals. 
The mechanical structure of all quadrupeds enforces the 
communication to the digestive organs of a very large 
amount of motion by every form of locomotion. These 402 
THE DIGESTIVE ORGANS. 
organs being suspended between the four limbs, are sub- 
jected to reciprocating motion, both perpendicular and 
lateral, at every step. The human being has similar 
needs, which, however, requires often to be supplied by 
art, especially when the faculty has been long lost, as in 
chronic ailments; to cultivate the power of spontaneous 
healthy motion of the abdomen is the leading require- 
ment. This cultivation for the weakly must begin with 
some of the forms of massage. 
26. KNEADING THE ABDOMEN. 
Position.-Reclining; the knees a little bent. 
Action.-One or both hands of the operator are pressed 
flatwise upon the abdomen of the patient, so much as to 
prevent gliding or slipping, and so that the abdominal 
mass to which the hands thus placed adhere, shall, on 
moving, be moved with the hands as a single object. 
A rather slow transverse motion is now transmitted 
from the hands to the parts upon which they rest; the 
pressure must be sufficient to cause motion and displace- 
ment of the interior contents of the abdomen at every 
motion of the hands of the operator. 
27. KNEADING SECOND METHOD. 
For more decided effect.--One hand wholly or partly 
clenched as a fist is placed firmly against one side of the 
abdomen, while the other is placed at the opposite side, 
the operator standing and leaning over the patient. One 
hand now presses very steadily and strongly against the 
abdomen at right angles to its surface, sinking into its 
soft mass, w'hich yields before the pressure. The pressure 
of the hand is then removed, and simultaneously there- 
with the same kind, degree, and direction of pressure is 
applied with the other hand at the opposite side. The 403 
THE DIGESTIVE ORGANS. 
included substance of the abdomen is thus impinged 
upon with sufficient force to disturb and even shift the 
position of the contents to the. right and left, alternately. 
The position of the two hands should be changed from 
time to time, so as to include all the different portions of 
the abdomen in the action described. This operation 
may be continued for several minutes, always deferring, 
as to time and force of impingement, to the feelings of 
the patient. It may be remarked that in case of special 
weakness, and especially if there be tenderness and sensi- 
tiveness developed under the operation, the manner of 
the application should be modified to suit the case, and 
that, in general, the method No. 1 should precede and 
prepare the way for No. 2. 
28. KNEADING THIRD METHOD. 
The most effective form of kneading the abdomen re- 
quires the position of the patient to be face downward, 
lying. The location of the digestive organs is then, 
similar to that of inferior animals. The advantages of 
the position are these: Every impingement upon, or 
action received by, the depending part is doubled by the 
gravitating counteraction which necessarily follows. This 
doubles the motion and its effect. Besides, in the forward 
lying position the gravitation of the unsupported digestive 
organs is from instead of toward the pelvis. This re- 
moves from the lower bowels such obstacles as are caused 
both by pressure and by folding of parts. This alone is 
not unfrequently a potent curative aid, for the removal 
of mechanical obstacles to the pelvic circulation is practi- 
cally equivalent to removing local pelvic hyperaemia and 
its various outgrowths. 
To apply kneading to the abdomen in this position is 
awkward and difficult for the operator, especially as the 404 
THE DIGESTIVE ORGANS. 
invalid usually desires a large amount of it. The process 
can be well and sufficiently performed only by means of 
suitable apparatus, which also affords the advantage of 
being self-adaptable to the feelings of the invalid. The 
good effects attainable by apparatus may be appreciated 
by trying the following method: 
The patient lies face downward, the breast being sup- 
ported by a cushioned bench or the seat of a wide chair, 
while the thighs are supported in a similar way, the abdo- 
men being between the two supports, and free. The 
operator, bending over and extending his arms around 
the patient, reaches the abdomen with his clenched hands, 
and applies the kneading by alternate applications of 
motion to either side of the abdomen. If the patient is 
large, it will be best to apply to one side only at a time, 
with a rather slow and gentle, but strong, impinging 
motion. 
29. KNEADING BY TRUNK ROTATION. 
This method combines massage of the contents of the 
abdomen with semi-massage of the walls containing the 
digestive organs. 
Position.-The patient sits perfectly erect on a broad 
seat, with the legs wide apart, to increase the base of 
support; the feet should be kept firm on the floor by being 
placed under some convenient piece of furniture; feet as 
far apart as possible to prevent deviation of position; 
the two hands, clasped together, resting on the top of 
the head. 
Action.-The operator takes hold of the top of the 
shoulders, and, having command of the trunk, causes the 
upper portion of the body to gyrate in a wide circle, 
while the patient remains firmly seated. The motion of 
the trunk describes an inverted cone, of which the seat THE DIGESTIVE ORGANS. 
405 
is the apex, while the head and shoulders revolve around 
the base. The trunk may revolve five or six times in 
one direction, and then execute the same in the opposite 
direction. 
Effect.-Like the direct kneading before described, this 
process causes the gliding upon each other of all the con- 
tents of the abdomen. It promotes absorption and secre- 
tion (the fundamental activities of digestion), develops 
the muscular power of the digestive canal, and removes 
inertia of the bowels. 
The semi-massage of the walls of the abdomen, pro- 
duced by the alternate tension and relaxation of its 
muscles, increases their nutrition and power, and therefore 
their reaction upon the contained digestive mass. 
30. TRUNK TWISTING. 
Position.-The same. 
Action.-The operator, standing behind the patient 
and taking hold of both elbows, turns the body to one 
side upon its axis, the head remaining perpendicular over 
the trunk and turning with it, while the seat remains 
fixed and entirely unmoved, thus causing a partial twist 
to be given to the whole body from the seat upward. The 
motion resembles that before described as applied to the 
arms and legs. The body is then turned in the opposite 
direction, past the starting point, and as far as its 
mechanical adaptations will allow. This motion may be 
repeated eight or ten times, with moderate rapidity after 
both operator and patient have become accustomed to its 
use; or it may be performed very slowly. 
Effect.-This is similar to No. 29. When applied slowly, 
the muscles of the trunk are subjected to very direct and 
active massage, which of course includes such interior 
underlying muscles, as subscapular, the intercostals, and 406 
THE DIGESTIVE ORGANS. 
others which it is impossible to reach by directly applied 
pressure-motions. 
It will be observed that by the process of twisting a 
part of the body, as a limb or trunk, there is motion com- 
bined with pressure of the anatomical constituents of the 
part, no less than when such pressure and motion are 
imparted by the overlying hand. The twisting method, 
however, includes more substance in the process, and is 
therefore less localized. 
Twisting motions are converted into movements of the 
duplicated variety, when an effort is made by the patient 
and resistance is coincidently made by the operator. This 
converts the process into a sort of wrestle, and confers 
upon it new therapeutic characters, which it is no part of 
the present purpose to describe further than to mention 
that the process, however applied, produces a lifting 
effect upon the contents of the abdomen, including the 
pelvis, and therefore strengthens the natural support of 
the abdominal and pelvic contents.  
MASSAGE OF THE HEAD. 
Massage should be applied to the head as a whole or 
to special portions of it only after its application to other 
portions of the body, for reasons heretofore made suffi- 
ciently plain. The only deviation from this rule permis- 
sible is when the processes are not given for a curative, 
but only for its temporary effect, as a palliative of local 
disagreeable sensations. 
31., 
Position.-Reclining. 
Action.-The masseur, standing or sitting behind the 
patient, places his two hands on opposite sides of the pa- 
tient's head, compresses it to an agreeable extent, and 
imparts semi-rotary and reciprocating motions to the 
scalp, which, being but loosely connected to the underly- 
ing skull-bone, moves freely upon it. The clasp of the 
operator's hands may be moved from time to time, so as 
to include each portion of the head successively, till the 
whole has become subjected to the process. One hand 
may also be placed on the forehead and the other at the 
base of the head, and the pressure with motion applied as 
before, the two hands acting at opposite parts of the head, 
and the motion they impart being in opposite directions. 
The application may be intermitted and resumed several 
times. 
Effect.-General revulsion; motion is incited in the 
contents of the vessels of the brain, and especially in the 
407 408 
MASSAGE OF THE HEAD. 
venous sinuses, by which blood stasis is removed and the 
nutrition of the brain is refreshed by displacement and 
replacement of materials from which nutritive support is 
derived. 
A similar effect, but perhaps in less degree, has some- 
times been produced by applying a common tourniquet 
(such as surgeons use), to the head at its greatest circum- 
ference. After tightening the band, it must be suddenly 
let loose. The pressure on the blood-vessels caused by 
arrest of the flow of the currents appears to superinduce 
vital contraction of their walls, which becomes active on 
removing the obstruction to such a degree as to empty 
the vessels, and therefore to remove hypersemia. These 
and similar processes demonstrably strengthen the circu- 
lation and remove mechanical impediments. 
32. THROAT. 
Position.-Same as in 31. 
Action.-The operator, standing above or rather be- 
hind the head of the patient, places his finger each side 
his throat, bearing with suitable firmness upon the tissues 
of the neck in front. A reciprocating motion is now com- 
municated to the tissues under compression, which in- 
cludes those of both sides of the neck. This may be re- 
peated fifteen or twenty times, or till the skin had assumed 
a thoroughly reddened appearance. 
The area over which the process is applied may extend 
from the angle of the jaw to the base of the neck, giving 
special attention to the sensations evoked, and avoiding 
all harshness or disagreeable feeling. 
Effect.-Revulsive; useful in chronic tonsilitis, catarrh, 
foillicular enlargement, hoarseness, and all forms of sore 
throat except the acute. MASSAGE OF THE HEAD. 
409 
33. NECK. 
Position.-Lying face downward. 
Action.-The operator, at the head of the patient as 
before, applying both hands to the neck with pressure, 
communicates reciprocating motions to the muscular 
masses which constitute the back of the neck, from the 
base of the head downward to the top of the shoulders. 
This location admits the application of the different forms 
of pressure-motions heretofore described, as the circular, 
the thumb and finger compression, the transverse, the 
longitudinal, etc., and in urgent cases these may be ap- 
plied in series at the same sitting, and while the patient 
remains in this favorable position for access to the parts. 
Effect.-This process affords great relief in cases of 
prolonged hyperaemia of the brain ; and in connection 
with the preceding should be used in cases of suspected 
pathological changes in the substance of the brain, to 
promote absorption of mechanical obstructions or of re- 
tained products of imperfect nutritive charge, local sub- 
oxides, etc. Athasia and related symptoms present ex- 
amples for the trial of these applications of massage. 
34. NOSE. 
Position.-Reclining. 
Action.-The forefinger of each hand of the operator 
is applied with mild pressure to each side of the nose of 
the patient, and the reciprocating pressure-motions previ- 
ously described may be thoroughly applied. 
Effect.-Aids contraction and gives tone to the capil- 
laries of the mucous secreting membrane of the nose, re- 
moves obstruction in the local circulation of the parts 
connected therewith, and is curative of all forms and 
stages of catarrh, except the acute. The reader is re- 410 
MASSAGE OF THE HEAD. 
minded that this and the other forms of massage de- 
scribed in this connection should be regarded as useless, 
except in connection with general, supporting massage. 
35. EARS. 
Position.-As above. 
Action.-Both ears are loosely grasped by both hands 
of the operator, who stands behind the patient, and who 
also at the same time gently compresses the adjoining 
tissues against the skull; he then gives a slow, gentle, 
rotary or circular motion to the compressed mass, which 
includes not only the ears, but all the tissues held by the 
conjoint grasp and pressure. The circle of motion should 
extend so far as to cause agreeable traction of not only of 
the external ears, but also of the continuous membrane 
extending into and forming the lining of the cavity of 
the ear terminating with the drum. Motion thus con- 
veyed to the drum is communicated to the internal ap- 
paratus of the ear, including the fluids and contents of 
vessels. The circular pressure-motion with traction may 
be applied in each direction several times. Similar press- 
ure-motions may also be applied to the bony prominence 
below the ear, which contain the mastoid cells. 
Effect.-Similar to that of other modes of massage, re- 
freshing and reinforcing local nutrition ; it is also revul- 
sive, a potent stimulant to the organs and the function 
of hearing, and has cured deafness. 
36. EYES AND TEMPLES. 
Position.-Same. 
Action.-The ends of the fingers but little separated 
are pressed against the tissues a little beyond the outer 
angle of each eye at the sides of the head. Motion is 
given to the compressed tissues in a circuit as wide as the MASSAGE OF THE HEAD. 
411 
elasticity of the tissues will allow, which compels the in- 
cluded tissues to accompany the fingers in the circuit, care 
being taken to avoid gliding and friction of the outer 
skin. The direction of the motion may be frequently 
changed till the parts subjected to the action have become 
thoroughly reddened. 
Effect.-Revulsion ; promotes absorption from the in- 
terior of the eyes. 
37. EYELIDS. 
Position.-The same. 
Action.-The middle finger of each hand is applied to 
the inner angle of each eye, and compressing the tissues 
upon the interior portion of the orbit, the fingers are 
slowly moved outward till the outer angle of the eyes are 
reached. The eyeball is slightly compressed and the 
lower lid more so, in the outward motion. 
Next, the fingers of the operator are replaced in the 
same commencing position, at the inner angle of each 
eye, and again moved outward to the outward angle, but 
this time travel over the upper border of the orbit and 
upper lid in place of the lower; also slightly compress- 
ing the ball and the upper lid, as much as is borne with 
comfort by the patient. This pressure-motion may be 
applied in alternation to the lower and upper portions of 
the ball and the two eyelids several times. The feelings 
of the patient must be constantly observed, to be certain 
that the impression made by the massage described is 
agreeable, in which case its ability may not be doubted. 
Effect.-This process appears to assist nutritive changes 
of the contents of the eyeball, and therefore to improve 
the vision. It is curative of chronic affections of the 
eyes, in connection, of course, with general massage. It 
has cured cataract. PART V. 
HYGIENE. 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF HYGIENE. 
Br the term Hygiene we mean, simply, that assem- 
blage of rules and regulatio/js applied to our conduct 
and mode of living which teaches us what in our 
modes and practices is right and what wrong-what 
w and what is not conformable to physiological law. 
Of the importance of knowing something about this 
matter, we do not feel called upon to give any formal 
demonstration. 
The absurdity of employing medical treatment for the 
cure of disease, while at the same moment a dozen dis- 
ease-producing causes are in active operation, needs no 
proof. The inconsistency of such procedure seems still 
greater when the remedial treatment consists in a special 
application of Hygiene, such as the Movement-Cure has 
been explained to be. Hence a work like the present, 
designed for popular instruction on a particular branch 
of Hygiene, would be incomplete and almost useless 
if the importance of attending to the subject in all its 
particulars and relations, both as a preventive of disease 
and as a remedy, were not pointed out and enforced. 
We take it for granted that a compliance with the THE PHILOSOPHY OF HYGIENE. 
413 
conditions of health is within the ability of every indi 
vidual; and further, that such compliance is spon- 
taneous and intuitive in a natural and unperverted 
condition of the system. For it would be monstrous 
to suppose that God, who is the great and all-wise 
Friend of his creatures, should so impress his original 
constitution as to bias him at the outset in the direction 
of error and misery. Such a supposition would be 
compounded of absurdity and blasphemy in about 
equal parts. 
Foody dr inky air, temperature, light, exercise, and 
mental pursuits are subjects that have entered more 
or less into previous discussions, but it is due to their 
importance that a portion of them, at least, should re- 
ceive some more especial attention in this place. 
Food.-That is food, which, being introduced into 
the stomach, is capable of sustaining the vital actions 
of the system. We may consider food in relation to 
quantity, quality, modes of preparation, times of eat- 
ing, etc. It fails to serve its purposes in proportion as 
it deviates in the above particulars from a correct 
standard. 
Quantity.-The matters which serve nutritive pur- 
poses are removed from the system through the instru- 
mentality of oxygen ; consequently, the quantity proper 
to be used is limited by respiration and those causes 
which influence this act. We are wholly unconscious 
of the rate, and even of the existence, of the oxydizing 
processes going on within the body by which its con- 
stituents are removed, and so are guided, in our use of 
food, almost entirely by our sensations. The necessi- 
ties of the system, indeed, are absolute, but the sensar 414 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF HYGIENE. 
tions are subject to variation and modification from 
many, and different, and ever-varying causes; so that 
to decide as to the proper quantity of food to be eaten 
at a given time may be a matter of much difficulty, 
especially in those persons whose gastric nervous sys- 
tems have become deranged. 
Errors in quantity are liable to occur from the fol- 
lowing causes: 
1. In disease, whether acute or chronic, the amount 
of oxydized products eliminated from the system is 
much reduced, and the amount of food taken should be 
correspondingly diminished. In acute disease, the re- 
sults of lessened affinity of the blood for oxygen are 
rendered conspicuous in the character of the urine, the 
fur of the tongue, and the quickened pulse and respira- 
tion-which latter is an attempt to compensate for this 
lessened affinity. In either case no restoration is pos- 
sible while there continues an excess of food over 
respiration. 
2. Bodily inactivity reduces the need of the system 
for food, and the ill effect of partaking of the same 
amount as when actively employed, soon becomes ap- 
parent in lessened vigor of health. 
3. Elevated temperature necessarily diminishes the 
amount of carbonic acid and water produced in the 
system, and consequently the amount of food required 
is less than is demanded at low temperatures. 
4. Confinement in close rooms, out of the reach of 
currents of air, diminishes the amount of air taken 
into the system both by skin and lungs, and conse- 
quently less food is needed. 
5. Anything taken into the stomach that unduly 
stimulates it, such as spices, sweets, and the various 
condiments, as well as drugs prescribed for the pup THE PHILOSOPHY OF HYGIENE. 
415 
pose, perverts and blunts the sensibility of the or- 
gan, and inclines it to solicit an undue quantity of 
food. 
All that portion of alimentary material taken into 
the system over and above its wants, must be regarded 
as so much foreign matter over which the organism 
can at best exercise an imperfect control. 
No absolute rule can be given in regard to the 
amount of food which the system requires. To attempt 
to give any such rule would not only require a super- 
human acquaintance with all the internal and invisible 
present actions and relations of the system, but also 
the ability to anticipate those changes in its condition 
that, under the influence of accidental circumstances, 
may within a brief period occur to it. But while the 
digestive powers are unperverted by bad habits or by 
disease, there is little occasion for concern in regard to 
this matter, since the sensations intended to control 
the alimentary process afford a reliable indication of 
what the needs of the system are. When, however, the 
sensations and instincts are blunted or perverted by 
the above-mentioned causes, there is always great lia- 
bility to err in this matter. 
Quality.-Food consists in part of material capable 
of being organized or transformed into the vital struc- 
ture-in part of matters which are not imbued with 
this vital quality, but are only oxydized in the body, 
and thereby reduced to a form easy of elimination. 
The former class contains nitrogen-the latter does not. 
The nitrogenized class is of uniform composition, rep- 
resented by albumen, and by its modifications, fibrin, 
gluten, casein, etc. No other substances containing 
nitrogen are capable of being transformed by vital 416 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF HYGIENE. 
operations into the instruments of life. The non-nitro- 
genized class is represented by starch, sugar, vegetable 
acids, etc. 
Certain saline matters, forming the ash of food, are 
equally indispensable in the organizing processes of the 
body as the others named. 
The errors common in the quality of food are chiefly 
the following: 
1 The distinction between food proper and other 
matters destined to oxydation in the system, is fre- 
quently lost sight of. In this way such substances as 
alcohol, and its various mixtures, have come to be con- 
sidered as food. 
2. A good proportion of the saline constituents oi 
food is generally lost in the mechanical separation 
effected by the miller. This is a great error, for which 
the system must suffer. As well might an abundant 
harvest be expected to spring up from a worn-out soil 
as that the organizing processes of the system shall be 
perfectly conducted while a portion of the elements 
essential to the process is deficient. 
3. The habitual use, especially by the sedentary, of 
much soluble food-of food soluble in water-is a fruit- 
ful source of evil. The system provides secretions in 
proportion tc its need for nourishment. Now if food 
be taken already dissolved, or soluble in water, it must 
pass into the circulation, though it may prove exceed- 
ingly injurious, and the system has no means of pro- 
tecting itself against it. 
Ordinary food is not soluble except by these secre- 
tions, and therefore, if eaten in proportion beyond the 
need of the system, is cast off in a disguised form, and 
is not liable to produce injury, even though in excess 
as to some of its elements. THE PHILOSOPHY OF HYGIENE. 
417 
4. Very common is the erroneous supposition that 
the spices, 'etc., that are added to food are essential or 
useful parts of it. Such matters only detract from the 
nutritive value of food, and do harm by forcing the 
system to labor in their elimination. 
5. A disproportion in the nutritive elements received 
into it to the needs of the system, is a common error. 
Indulgence in sweets, while it loads the blood with 
hydro-carbons, diminishes the relative proportion of the 
nitrogenized and organizable constituents of food- 
therefore renders it poorer in quality. 
Salt. - Physiologists agree that the salt of the 
animal fluids does not require constant replenishing, 
but is retained by the blood to serve its purpose in the 
economy over and over again. Accordingly, the lower 
animals require salt only occasionally. That which 
appears in the excretions is therefore mainly but the 
excess of the needs of the system, and, if given in large 
quantity, it can not but overtask and diminish the vital 
power. Christison regards salt as poison, and gives 
several cases of poisoning by it. 
The common practice of employing preparations of 
the alkalies, soda, potash, etc., to a large extent in 
food, is extremely prejudicial to health. These are 
potent chemicals, and can not act otherwise, when in 
excess, than to deteriorate the quality of the blood. 
Alkalies have an affinity for fibrin, and destroy its 
coagulating property, and by their strong affinities 
they oppose the vital force and detract from its influ- 
ence, and hence supply an important condition of dis- 
ease. The excessive use of saline substances, whole' 
some enough in the natural and proper quantity, is the 
gravest error in modern dietetics. 418 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF HYGIENE. 
The various causes above enumerated tend power- 
fully to modify the regular vito-chemical actions of the 
system, frequently arresting the oxydizing process at 
some point short of the final, in which the materials 
which have served the vital chemistry are prepared for 
dismission from the system.. These modifications and 
this retention are the origin of morbid matter, and are 
the causes of disease. 
What the system needs is such a mixture* of the differ- 
ent elementary ingredients of food as shall correspond 
with that characterizing those edible plants upon which 
all herbivorous animals depend for their sustenance. 
Preparation of Food-Cooking.-Man has been call- 
ed the cooking animal. This does not indicate that his 
nutritive wants, considered in a physiological light, 
differ from those common to all animals, but that, by 
the use of his reason, he may husband his expenditures 
for the purely animal wants, and so gain time and 
opportunities for the cultivation of his intellectual and 
moral capacities. The object of cooking, then, is not 
to change the intrinsic chemical qualities of edible 
substances. So far as such changes are produced in 
the processes of cooking, the nutritive qualities of the 
food are not benefited, but rather injured. A few in- 
stances may be excepted, where noxious qualities be- 
longing to plants are destroyed by the elevated temper- 
ature required for cooking. The legitimate province 
• " It seems placed beyond a doubt by these experiments, that the proportions in 
which these factors of nutrition are mixed in the food, exert the most decided in- 
fluence on the welfare of the organism, and that the intermixture of the different 
factors of nutrition is essential for the metamorphosis of matters. Great as are the 
fluctuations which nature allows in these proportions, an undue preponderance 
of one or other of the factors always acts injuriously upon the due course of the 
processes of nutrition. No single part of this process can go on without the «oacui» 
fence of all these factors,"-Mmann, THE PHILOSOPHY OF HYGIENE. 
419 
of cooking may, in general, be regarded as confined to 
overcoming the mechanical impediments to digestion, 
so as to render the nutritive properties of the substance 
promptly available to the digestive organs. This is 
effected by the aid of heat and moisture. By this 
means the areolar structure of meats (composed of gela- 
tin) is softened or dissolved, starch granules are open- 
ed, woody fiber divided and rendered soft, gluten 
swollen and rendered porous and pervious to the diges- 
tive fluids, and the mechanical labor of the digestive 
organs reduced to the lowest practicable point. In this 
way the nutritive elements existing in food are all 
turned to an immediate account, and the powers of the 
stomach are not exhausted by mechanical efforts, or its 
nerves irritated by the same cause. 
The errors of cooking are chiefly the following: 
1. By long custom we come to prefer food which has 
been subjected to too high a degree of heat, which, by 
decomposing it; injures its nutritive properties, and it is 
thus made to perform the part of a spice. Bread, for 
instance, is toasted, and the juices of meats burned, to 
gratify an acquired taste, greatly to the detriment of 
their quality. 
2. Injurious additions are made to food in cooking, 
the effects of which have been previously described. 
Sugar, oily matters, alkalies, etc., are commonly added 
to edible preparations, in utter disregard of the propor- 
tions of these elements really demanded by the system. 
3. Food is also injured by rendering it so porous 
and soft, that it is swallowed without due mastication, 
which deprives it of a portion of the saliva so necessary 
to its proper digestion. 
Pbopbb Times bob Eating.-It is difficult to lay do-a M 420 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF HYGIENE. 
rules upon this subject. People engaged in business 
are generally compelled to take their food after long 
intervals, and if these intervals are not so lengthy as 
to transgress natural law, thus inducing alternate ex- 
haustion and repletion, the health is apt to be favored 
thereby rather than otherwise. 
In sedentary life, especially with invalids, whose 
thoughts are too much occupied with the questions, 
what they shall eat and what they shall drink, the 
temptations to take nourishment are more frequent and 
urgent because not tempered by wholesome occupa- 
tions. To guard the reader against errors that are often 
very damaging, it may be remarked : 
1. That in a diseased state of the stomach or system 
in which physiological actions are either perverted or 
retarded, generally both, the demand upon the diges- 
tive organs for a supply of nutritive material thereby 
lessens, and the digestive process itself is conducted 
with less energy, and so the need for food is experi- 
enced less frequently. In such condition for one to 
take food as often as in health, must necessarily operate 
A good rule to observe in these 
cases is, to take no food into the stomach while a re- 
sidual of the preceding meal remains. The presence of 
the residual, acting as a ferment, hinders the succeed- 
ing digestive effort. It is even necessary, in many 
cases, that the distance between meals for a time be 
greatly extended, in order to effect a wholesome puri- 
fication of the solvent fluids. 
2. In a state of health the digestive process requires 
time for its thorough accomplishment. It proceeds by 
stages, and an introduction of food at the wrong time 
tends to arrest the process and render it abortive. THE PHILOSOPHY OF HYGIENE. 
421 
Drinks.-There is in nature but one substance which 
performs in the system the purpose of a wholesome 
beverage, and this is water. All artificial drinks con- 
sist of various mixtures, infusions, or solutions of other 
matters, either solid or liquid, with water, which has 
become simply the medium of conveying these to the 
system. Thus, tea, coffee, vinous and spirituous liquors 
are beverages only on account of the water they contain. 
To consider the physiological relations of these drinks 
is to investigate the effect of the potential chemicals in 
question upon the vital structures. These effects have 
been shown, in another place, to consist, not of nutrition, 
but of irritation, stimulation, and destruction of organ- 
ized substance, in various modes and degrees. Their 
use, in any form, then, is reasonably inferred to be in- 
compatible with any remedial treatment, although it 
may be consistent with the palliation of certain dis- 
tressing symptoms, generally first sought by the drug 
method of medical treatment. All drinks save water 
are therefore proscribed in a strict and consistent 
hygienic practice. 
Milk.-Tin's fluid is frequently drunk by adults as 
well as by children, for whom alone it is intended by 
nature. It consists of about 80 per cent, of water, 
holding about twenty per cent, of solid matter in solu- 
tion, the largest portion of which becomes immediately 
precipitated upon reaching the stomach. This propor- 
tion of dry solid to the watery portion is scarcely less 
than is found in potatoes, and is much greater than ex- 
ists in edible fruits and roots. It is hence seen, that 
though milk may be drank when fresh, it is not properly 
a beverage, in the strict sense of this term, and the in- 
ference is legitimate, that to use it as such, is at best 422 
the philosophy of hygiene. 
but to clog the system, by loading it with nutritive 
matter, under the pretense of quenching thirst. This, 
to be sure, may be of little consequence to the growing 
or laboring person, but will become a source of ill 
health to the sedentary, and is quite incompatible with 
& systematic employment of Remedial Hygiene. ttoiL 
TEMPERATURE. 
Physiological Effect of Cold and Heat.-To un- 
derstand the real relations that the thermometric and 
barometric changes of the atmosphere bear to the sys- 
tem, would relieve men of much of the anxiety they 
habitually experience in regard to their effects upon the 
health. Invalids, especially, are fond of ascribing their 
depressed spirits to the state of the weather, and often 
attempt to get rid of a disagreeable sense of personal 
responsibility by persuading themselves that their 
symptoms are attributable to some uncontrollable at- 
mospheric cause. This is convenient; but I am per- 
suaded that a correct understanding of the intentions 
of nature toward us in these changes would lead us to 
regard them, severe and untoward as they seem to us, 
when we sedulously unfit ourselves for their effects, as 
really most friendly to us, and wisely and mercifully 
adapted to maintain, and even to restore the health. 
The average temperature of the air in this climate is 
not far from 55° Fahr.-the temperature of our bodies 
98°; hence the average difference between the heat of 
the body and that of surrounding things is not far 
from 43°; but the thermometer sometimes falls con- 
siderably below zero, effecting a great increase of this 
difference, from which it is apparent that it is the in- 
tention of nature that the animal body should be sub- 
jected not only to a high or a low, but to a variable tem- 424 
TEMPERATURE. 
perature. It is the nature of heat to be forever seeking 
an equilibrium. Hence all bodies, whether animate 
or inanimate, having a temperature above that of the 
atmosphere, soon lose their excess, unless constantly 
replenished. The rapidity with which an object loses 
heat depends on the amount of difference between its 
temperature and that of contiguous objects. But the 
living animal body loses more heat in a given time 
than an inanimate body of the same size, weight, and 
temperature, because it not only, like the stone, parts 
with its heat by radiation to surrounding things, and 
by contact with them, but in other ways peculiar to 
itself. The surface of the animal body is always moist, 
and evaporation from it is a most potent cooling agent. 
The body also parts with its heat through the action 
of several excretory organs, and a great deal is carried 
off by the large body of air which is constantly being 
warmed in the lungs. 
The loss of heat which the body is thus compelled 
to sustain is perpetual, but is exceedingly variable in 
degree. The temperature of the atmosphere not only 
has its yearly and daily, its regular and therefore its ex- 
pected vicissitudes, but it is also subject to hourly and 
unexpected ones. We never know that the tempera- 
ture will not rise or fall in a few hours a number of de- 
grees above or below the average point for the season. 
This uncertainty and variableness of temperature ob- 
tains to a greater or less degree in all climates, and 
may be considered as ordained by the Creator for the 
benefit of his creatures; and we may suppose that a 
uniformity of temperature would, contrary to the usual 
opinions of the invalid, be prejudicial to the health. 
Let us look now to the arrangements of the human 
system with reference to temperature, that we may the TEMPERATURE. 
425 
more easily understand those hygienic principles that 
relate thereto. 
All atmospheric changes so impress the system as 
to modify its vital and its vito-chemical actions. All 
parts of the body are pervaded by sensory nerves, 
which receive such impressions and convey them in 
every direction. When the surface of the body, or any 
portion of it, receives an impression of external temper- 
ature, every part of the organism related to it in any 
way is immediately affected thereby. 
That function of the body which is directly /elated 
to external impressions of temperature, is the heat- 
making process. The point of temperature at which 
vital actions take place being fixed, and the bodily 
heat being dependent upon its own resources, it follows 
that the production of heat is accelerated or retarded 
to an extent exactly proportionate to the loss experi- 
enced-the process undergoing an amount of variation 
just about equal to that to which the sensory system 
is subjected. 
This regulation of the bodily temperature is connect- 
ed with the employment of the materials which are 
necessary to the production of vital phenomena. The 
system is thus relieved of any surplus of heat which it 
may have acquired by means of an increased evapo- 
ration from the surface, while the want of heat that is 
felt stimulates the respiratory organs to greater activ 
ity. Thus it appears that impressions from without are 
as sure to affect the production of heat, either to lessen 
or to augment it, as pressure upon the key of the piano 
to elicit a musical sound. The slightest observation 
verifies these statements. To place the hand, or foot, 
or any portion of the warm surface of the person, in 
contact with a very cold substance, as a piece of ice. 426 
TEMPERATURE. 
Instantaneously causes an expansion of the ribs and a 
depression of the diaphragm, and consequently an wn- 
usually profound inspiration, which is involuntarily 
continued till the heat that is thus lost be fully restored. 
The heat of the body, or of any part, may for a short pe- 
riod be depressed without injury, because it requires 
time for the physiological changes now described to com- 
plete their effects upon the economy. No artificial sup- 
ply of heat is required in order healthfully to maintain 
the bodily temperature ; and when, by our fine civilized 
modes of life we depress the heat-producing operations 
of the body, we must remember that at the same time 
we are impairing the respiratory acts, and are doing 
ourselves more or less harm in proportion to the extent 
of our misbehavior in this respect. 
We may now understand some of the consequences 
of inattention to the relations borne by the system to 
temperature. In hot weather, and in hot climates, the 
respiratory stimulus being less, respiration is conse- 
quently diminished, and then results a retention of the 
materials that should be excluded from the system 
through this agency. Such materials are not com- 
pletely reduced to carbonic acid water and urea, but 
the process is arrested at an intermediate point, and 
the state popularly termed biliousness, which implies 
the presence in the blood of the proximate elements of 
bile, inevitably succeeds, unless the person so exposed 
becomes very cautious as to his diet. 
Origin of Colds.-The symptom or the form of dis- 
ease styled " a cold" can never occur except in the con- 
dition of the system above described. But it further 
requires that the body part with its heat under con- 
ditions which do not produce a corresponding increase TEMPEKATUEE. 
427 
of respiration. In this case, the blood, loaded with the 
materials to be discharged from the system, fills the 
capillaries of the respiratory membranes, and not meet- 
ing with the requisite oxygen is necessarily retained, 
causing congestion of the membranes in question, and 
those other very unpleasant and annoying consequences 
familiar to every one. A prolonged exposure to a 
cold atmosphere would, in all of these cases, render the 
respiratory effect more profound and efficient, complete 
the physico-chemical change designed and commenced, 
but now incomplete, and would effectually prevent the 
occurrence of the symptom in question. The disease is 
called a cold, from the popular fancy that low temper- 
ature is the occasion of it, while the truth is, no means 
are so effectual as this for its cure; for by cold, just 
those physiological effects are secured which are re- 
quired to relieve the system of the injurious cause. 
The conditions essential to the production of the dis- 
order in question may now be stated: 
1. There must be a surplus of materials in the sys- 
tem requiring a certain quantity of oxygen for their 
elimination. 
2. These are moved forward to the respiratory pas- 
sages by the normal stimulus, which, however, is in- 
sufficient to effect its purpose. 
This view of the cause readily suggests the remedy. 
A more free and abundant exposure to low atmospheric 
temperature, aided by abundant exercise, is the best 
protection against colds, and the best remedy when the 
disorder is once contracted. 
When we say that cool air is the most natural 
and important condition of health, it is not implied 
that those arts of civilization which protect us against 
its impressions are utterly useless or mischievous. It 428 
TEMPERATURE. 
is only the abuse or the excess of these appliances that 
we need to fear. The objects of life, in the physiolog- 
ical point of view, are attained in the development of 
the greatest possible amount of the available force 
The arts of civilization can serve us only as they econ- 
omize our powers, not as they impair or prodigally 
waste them. 
It is, then, vicissitude of temperature, and not that 
avoiding of it that is attempted by means of our heated 
dwellings and our thick and impenetrable clothing, 
which the human cdnstitution requires to preserve its 
integrity and force; and we shall see that, to restore 
the health, alternations of heat and cold, artificially 
brought about, are among the most potent instru- 
mentalities at our command. 
Effect of Continued and Great Extremes.-In 
both very high and very low latitudes the physiolog- 
ical necessities imposed on man by climate are not 
favorable to the development of his nobler powers, but 
he becomes the slave of his climatic condition, as he 
often does, in temperate latitudes, to his sensorial facul- 
ties. In cold climates, because the system loses much 
heat, it must produce much, and man becomes an 
apparatus for the combustion of carbon ; while in hot 
climates the system is compelled to supply much water 
to the surface for evaporation, and becomes accord- 
ingly an hydraulic machine. In both cases the due 
physiological balance essential for the development 
of the highest powers is wanting. But, on the other 
hand, the frequent changes of temperature which 
our systems experience in temperate climates, is most 
compatible with health and the highest development 
of the bodily powers. TEMPERATURE. 
429 
Importance of Cold.-Chronic invalids are geu 
erally the victims of the falsest notions respecting 
temperature. They have become, by long habits of 
effeminacy, incapable of bearing the amount of cold 
fitted to the respiratory needs of the body. They ex- 
hibit the greatest suspicion and fear of the most benefi- 
cent designs of nature. They shrink from the very influ- 
ence which elicits and vivifies their powers, and so they 
continue to repress and cramp their already weakened 
faculties. The importance of developing to a suitable 
and healthy extent the heat-making faculty is quite 
equal to that of exercise, and is among the first things 
to which the attention of the chronic invalid should be 
directed. 
The propriety of subjecting the system to the influ- 
ence of cold is not always to be decided by the sensa- 
tions, for these, except in perfect health, are not to'be 
trusted unless corroborated by the other faculties. The 
effect of cold is to infuse into the system an agreeable 
vigor and elasticity; but in a weakened state of the 
system and perverted condition of the nerves, the sen- 
sations, being abnormally acute, will often rebel. This 
indicates the need of discipline, the very process re- 
quired to reinstate the health. It is only under cir- 
cumstances when the withdrawal of heat from the 
system is not attended with a corresponding increase 
of respiration, that exposure to cold can be in any de- 
gree hurtful; for it is only then that the refuse matter 
of the system is retained to be subjected to that spon- 
taneous chemical action which will of course conflict 
with the vital processes. 
The Water-Cure.-A medical practice, of exten- 
sive reputation for its empirical success, has been 430 
TEMPERATURE. 
founded upon the use of temperature as a remedial 
means. The Water-Cure, though a special, is a legit- 
imate practice, because based on important, though 
perhaps as practiced, insufficient number, of the plain 
principles of physiology. The practice consists in 
causing an artificial demand to be laid upon the 
system, or some limited portions of it, to produce 
heat, and also in repressing the natural production of 
heat in various parts by withdrawing the incentive 
thereto. In this way the most important changes may 
be induced in the circulation, innervation, and nutrition 
of various portions of the body, often sufficient, when 
skillfully managed, to restore the harmony and health 
of the organism. 
In this practice, water, instead of air, is employed, 
because it furnishes the means of applying temperature 
quickly, vigorously, and extensively, and is thus emi- 
nently adapted to meet the emergencies of sickness, 
especially of acute disease. In bathing, it is the tem- 
perature of the water, rather than the water itself, 
which is to be regarded as the source of the effects 
which we often realize by the operation. 
The Cold Bath.-This may be either general, ap- 
plied to the whole surface, or local, applied to some 
portion of the body, as the hands, feet, seat, etc.; in 
either case the general effect is similar, though the par- 
ticular effects may be widely different. The first im- 
pression of the cold, to whatever part the water may 
be applied, acting through the sensory nerves, causes 
the ribs to become everted, and a profound inspiratory 
effort to be made. The respiration continues thus 
exalted so long as the body, or any portion of it, is 
parting with an unusual amount of heat. Nor does TEMPERATURE. 
431 
even this cease immediately, for if heat be not pro- 
duced as rapidly as it is being abstracted by the artifi- 
cial method in question, it continues to be produced 
through the influence of greater respiration till the 
equilibrium is restored. 
The practical effect of such a process is very ap- 
parent, and is susceptible of demonstration. The water 
coming in contact with the warm body has acquired 
heat, all of which is compensated by increased respira- 
tion and increased respiratory effect upon the blood. 
A sitting bath, the temperature of which is elevated 
two degrees, will have caused the absorption by the 
blood of the oxygen from four or five cubic feet of 
air, enough to raise a half-pint of water from the 
freezing to the boiling point, and will have elimi- 
nated from the system more than a half ounce of its 
solid material 
The Warm Bath.-When the temperature of the 
air is considerably below that of the body, we know 
that it receives heat from it at only a very moderate 
rate; but water does not feel warm to us till its temper- 
ature approximates very nearly our own. At 98° it 
ceases to receive heat from us, and therefore, when the 
body is submerged in a bath of that temperature, the 
ordinary incentive to the production of heat ceasing to 
act, all the physiological processes are retarded, respi- 
ration becomes slow and difficult, and the system soon 
suffers from retained matters. If there has been pain, 
the bath affords oftentimes a delightful sense of relief, 
and frequently checks morbid action. These effects 
become less apparent at slightly lower temperatures; 
and when still further reduced, the effects experienced 
are those of the cold bath to a moderate degree 432 
TEMPER ATURE. 
The Hot Bath.-In a bath of this sort, heat is im- 
parted to the body, the effect of which is to compel it 
to take on a reciprocal action and return what it has 
received, by producing moisture at the surface, to be 
evaporated. The skin, under the influence of the hot 
bath, breaks out in a copious perspiration, this effect 
following with a rapidity proportioned to the temper- 
ature. When this effect is produced, the superficial 
capillaries are tilled with blood, and central portions 
of the body consequently relieved from their engorge- 
ment, often, especially in severe internal congestion, to 
the temporary relief of the complaint. The effect here 
described can not long be continued, for obvious rea- 
sons, without serious detriment to the organism. 
The reader will note an important and radical differ- 
ence between the effects of cold and those of warm 
bathing. Cold baths, on account of their effects on 
respiration, are an agency for the removal from the 
body of its solid materials ; while warm and hot baths, 
by the effort they assist the system in making to relieve 
itself of heat, remove fluid and saline matters there- 
from. In many cases of disease both of these agents 
are required. 
Local Baths.-The application of the bath to a lim- 
ited portion of the body is governed by the same gen 
eral principles as govern its application to the whole 
surface. But the response made by the system to the 
impression of the local bath is peculiar. If the bath 
be cold, the process causes the heat of the body to 
depart from it through a circumscribed surface. Now, 
since the heat is supplied to the cold part through the 
blood which flows thitherward, the process of local 
bathing becomes one of calling, or deriving the circula- TEMPERATURE. 
433 
tion from the general system in the direction of the cold 
part. This effect is eminently useful in aiding similar 
effects produced by movements for the removal of 
visceral congestions. 
Effect on the Nerves.-It will be noticed that tem- 
perature, especially a low degree of it, acts primarily 
upon the nerves, and it is through the intervention of 
these that its effects upon the circulation, respiration, 
nutrition, etc., are chiefly wrought. The great majority 
of people, whose sensory surface is too little exposed, 
are greatly benefited by the stimulation and vigorous 
tone that is afforded by the daily morning bath.. It 
counteracts in the sedentary the ill effects of warm air 
confined next to the person by clothing, and for all 
wrho are not constantly out of doors, is an important 
means for maintaining the health. But serious ill effects 
may, and very frequently do, arise from too much, 
and injudicious bathing. The abuse here alluded to 
arises from an ignoring of the principles relating to 
the harmony of function, insisted on in this volume. It 
W'ill be understood that all impressions made upon ex- 
ternal sensory nerves are accompanied by corresponding 
action of the nerve-centers situated in the brain, spinal 
cord, and especially those of the trunk, at the seat of 
the nerves of organic life. Stimulant impressions, if 
habitually resorted-to, induce hypernutrition, and con- 
sequent excited and unbalanced action of the nervous 
system, which is utterly incompatible with health. 
Persons who, for a length of time, subject themselves 
frequently to repeated and intense impressions of heat 
or cold, by means of water bathing, abuse themselves 
in a way that will certainly be followed by irregular 
nervous action, and the various grades of nervous dis- 434 
TEMPERATURE. 
ease-excitability, depression of spirits, neuralgia, hyp- 
ochondria, etc. Great caution should be used that this 
mode of stimulation be not made a substitute for the 
more common nerve stimulants which Hygiene con- 
demns. The Water-Cure, so called, is sometimes prac- 
ticed in the reprehensible manner here pointed out, 
considerably more to the detriment than to the benefit 
of many patients. 
Compresses.-These consist of linen or cotton cloth, 
several times folded, thoroughly wetted, and applied to 
some part of the body. If wrung out from hot water, the 
application is termed a fomentation. This is a very 
grateful application to painful parts, and affords relief 
on the principle before mentioned. If cold, it soon 
acquires the temperature of the body, and produces an 
effect upon the parts analogous to that of the warm bath. 
Wet compresses also supply the conditions for osmo- 
sis, or interchange of fluids between the different struc- 
tures of the body. They hence become exceedingly 
useful in congestions, because the absorption of fluid 
through the capillary walls into the vessels detaches 
the corpuscles which in this case are apt to adhere to the 
walls, and aids the escape of the clogged blood from the 
point of congestion. Compresses also remove the sur- 
plus heat of the part, and thus supply an important 
condition for the normal vital activities. The com- 
press should be continued upon any one part only a 
portion of the time, otherwise its good effects will be 
counteracted. 
PARTICULAR DIRECTIONS FOR BATHING. 
The Air Bath.-This consists simply in a full ex- 
posure of the whole body, divested of clothing, to the TEMP FEATURE. 
435 
air at the ordinary temperature, after the manner rec- 
ommended by Dr. Franklin. This may be continued 
a moderate length of time, and should be accompanied 
by light, rapid friction over the whole surface of the 
body with bare hands, or with a few of the examples 
of movements contained in Part II. The rubbing 
necessitates much useful bending and stretching of the 
body in all directions. The skin is greatly refreshed 
by this process. A good time for it is on going to bed, 
or on rising. 
The Cold General Bath.-This should never be 
employed while the stomach has food in it, nor when 
the system is fatigued by exercise; neither should it 
be taken while the body is cold from previous ex- 
posure. If cold from internal causes, exercise to in- 
crease the respiration should precede it, and it should 
be, moreover, of very short continuance. 
A serious mistake prevails in regard to the proper 
manner of taking a bath. The directions usually are, 
to begin by wetting the head and face. This direction 
arises from ignorance in regard to the true physiolog- 
ical effect of bathing, and of the conditions of the sys- 
tem, for the regulation of which it is useful. 
A valuable lesson on this subject may be learned by 
observation of nature. The dog, cow, and ox, etc., 
whom instinct (a better reason than belongs to some 
conceited bipeds) teaches to bathe, stand first in the 
water for a while, to cool off the feet, before making 
a general plunge. Our feet, even, in spite of effemi- 
nate precautions, are much exposed to the damp, cold 
earth. The effect of this is, to counteract the tendency 
of afflux of the circulation to the head, which is that 
portion of the body which employs the most blood, and 436 
TEMPERATURE. 
most continuously. To obviate this tendency, the feet 
and lower extremities should be bathed first, longest, 
and most. Baths of all temperatures below that of 
the body should be taken by commencing at the feet. 
It is sometimes said that bathing or showering the 
head affords relief, implying an effect in opposition to 
the principle above stated. In this case the temporary 
stimulus is evidently mistaken for a permanent effect, 
and if the observation be extended, the result will be 
found to be opposite that supposed. 
.Reaction.-After a time, greater or less according 
to the vigor of the system, the heat abstracted from the 
body by the bath is fully restored to it. This is pop- 
ularly termed reaction. The real beginning of this 
process is at the first moment, when the nerves are im- 
pressed with the sensation of cold. Reaction is often 
carried to a point beyond the limits of a healthful 
activity, producing irritability and tendencies to dis- 
ease, if not positive inflammation. 
The term, want of reaction, simply implies that the 
complete restoration of heat is slowly accomplished. 
In such cases, the effect desired is more promptly and 
thoroughly secured by the employment of movements. 
Baths should always be taken deliberately, and not 
with nervous haste, as this occasions fatigue, and tends 
to defeat the end desired. 
Shower and Douche Baths.-These are highly use- 
ful as local applications, readily inducing derivative 
effects in visceral organs, and at the same time exert- 
ing the same general influence as has been previously 
described. The shower is unfit for the delicate, be- 
cause it operates too severely upon the nerves. A TEMPERATURE. 
437 
small douche is more manageable and milder. ' In 
these baths, the mechanical impression made upon the 
surface by the running water adds to the stimulating 
effect. In every case, anything like shock should be 
sedulously avoided as harmful for the ordinary chronic 
invalid. 438 
LIGHT. 
LIGHT. 
The fact that light has powerful hygienic, and even 
remedial properties, is one too much overlooked. Light 
is well known to be a most potent chemical agent, both 
in nature and in the arts. It arouses the vegetable 
world into life and perfects its products, and without 
it all animate nature would soon perish for lack of sus- 
tenance. In the arts, modern science has wonderfully 
economized its powers, and makes it serve the most 
important uses. It is a most potent agent for deter- 
mining the chemical state of bodies, readily decompos- 
ing numerous chemical compounds, and re-combining 
their elements in new forms. 
That peculiar property of light whereby it is render- 
ed a most important hygienic agent, is manifested in 
its power to destroy noxious vaporous bodies existing 
in the atmosphere. The surface of the earth, covered 
with vegetable and animal matter in a state of decay, 
sends forth under the influence of heat and moisture an 
abundance of gaseous matter, which, mingling with the 
air, enters the lungs to poison the blood, and produces 
various forms of disease. Though existing in quanti- 
ties too minute to afiect the senses, or any known 
chemical test, yet, through the lungs, these parti- 
cles are constantly being conveyed into the system, 
where they accumulate and exert their chemical power 
in full force, in opposition to the conditions of health. LIGHT. 
439 
It is wen Known that in those localities characterized 
by a degree of heat and moisture favorable to the most 
rapid vegetable decomposition, fevers of various kinds 
abound. These effects can occur only when the nox- 
ious products in question are produced more rapidly 
than they can be destroyed by the agency of sunlight. 
We receive the most injury from insidious and dis- 
regarded causes. We seldom give a thought what 
may be the consequences of denying to the rooms in 
which we dwell, the wholesome and vivifying influ- 
ence of sunlight, but on the contrary take the most 
unwearied pains to exclude it. In the absence of light, 
the invisible causes of disease, entering by the windows 
and doors, or generated from the gaseous matters elim- 
inated from our bodies, operate with all their force. 
It is useless to try to counteract the effects flowing 
from these causes with drugs, or to combat them in any 
other way, while the causes themselves are operating 
m full force. Commonly the air and light are shut 
out together, which is much worse than if the air, newly 
acted on by the strong light, were freely admitted. 
The influence on the constitution of this custom of 
living in darkness is most favorable to the production 
of that condition of the blood and of the vital habit 
from which springs scrofula. The pale and dusky 
complexions, eruptive skins, flabby and weak muscles, 
and general sickly aspect, which are so frequently wit- 
nessed in young children, are, in many instances, mostly 
attributable to this cause. Of course, light is a most* 
important agent to be employed in the cure of affec- 
tions of this class. It is wonderful and delightful to 
see how soon a pale, attenuated, miserable child, after 
being freely exposed to the sunlight for several hours 
every day, will begin to improve, and the symptoms 440 
LIGHT. 
here described to disappear. Even scrofulous swell- 
ing of the glands of the neck, or other parts of the body, 
will quickly succumb under the magical influence of 
sunlight and pure air. 
Nursing mothers, especially, need these hygienic in- 
fluences to maintain the purity and vigor of their sys- 
tem, that they may not lay the foundation for lasting 
disease in their offspring, for the child is sure to suffer, 
even sooner than the mother, the grievous conse- 
quences of her physiological errors. 
Is it necessary that the parlors and sitting-rooms of 
our dwellings should be kept so dark and unwhole- 
some? The first reason always assigned by the house- 
keeper is, that only in this way can she preserve the 
colors of her carpeting and upholstery, as if the color 
of. a carpet or a curtain was more precious than that of 
the cheek and lip. In a hygienic point of view, one is 
led to feel that these household comforts and elegancies 
do more harm than good, that their advantages are 
rather more than balanced by their ill effects. How- 
ever beautiful and costly, they are necessarily uncleanly. 
However well kept, they are the inevitable receptacles 
of impalpable dust, which yield invisible clouds at every 
touch, besides, being the reservoirs of air contaminated 
in the way we have noticed. Carpets, so common a 
luxury here, are but little used in Europe, except in 
England, and it would undoubtedly greatly promote 
the health of our own people were they to be abolished 
by statute from every habitation in the land. MENTAL HYGIBNE. 
441 
Chapter 'Cfeirtp-fnxxr. 
MENTAL HYGIENE. 
The different states of the mind, whether in its de- 
partments of thought or feeling, are well known to 
exert a powerful influence upon the physiological 
manifestations; but unfortunately the consideration of 
these relations has been too generally left to a class of 
writers whose aim is to astonish and amuse rather than 
to effect any practical good by their disquisitions. 
We hear it constantly asserted by invalids, that some 
peculiar mental trouble, disappointment, or excitement 
of feeling was the original cause of their ill health; 
but how very few think of looking for relief, or are led 
to look for it, in a restoration of order and harmony to 
the disturbed mind. How few seem to know that the 
forces that exercise such potent control over the organ- 
ism for the production of disease, may be made equally 
available for the restoration of health! The ordinary 
practice of medicine inculcates the notion that the busi- 
ness of the physician is simply to endeavor to supply 
and regulate certain material conditions, by means of 
pill and powder, and that when that is accomplished, 
all has been done that lies within the limits of human 
ability. 
The truth is, the influence of the mind over the 
body is equally great in health and in disease. No 
thoughtful observer can doubt this. We have seen 
that voluntary muscular action gives language to our 442 
MENTAL HYGIENE. 
ideas, and that no part of the frame-work of the body is 
exempt from the duties of aiding in the performance of 
this interesting and wonderful function. The passions, 
especially, put into requisition the action of almost 
every muscle of the body for their expression. Says a 
German writer,* "Who is unacquainted with the spark 
ling eye, the free respiration, the glowing color, and the 
serene brow of the joyous? Who is not familiar with 
the trembling aspect, the hesitating utterance, the cold 
ruffled skin, the bristling hair, the palpitating heart, 
the impeded respiration, the paleness, the low pulse, 
and the thousand other signs of fear? The slow, op- 
pressed breathing, interrupted by sobs, the cold, pallid, 
wrinkled skin, the slow tottering gait, and the weak 
pulse of the despairing? The deep broad blush of 
shame, or the pallor of miserable envy ? The beaming 
countenance of requited love, or the anguished ex- 
pression of disappointed affection? The spasmodic 
constriction of throat and chest which accompanies 
jealousy ? The gnawing pain which torments the heart 
of devilish hate? The storm in the veins of the angry 
man, his inflamed countenance, his gasping breath, 
his bounding pulse, and wild swollen countenance ?" 
All these external manifestations depend upon certain 
changes effected among the invisible elements of matter. 
Now the extraordinary states into which the system 
may be thrown soon subside, and are directly suc- 
ceeded by the ordinary states, and whether the im- 
pressions thus made be wholesome or unwholesome, 
the effects are not necessarily permanent. But if these 
conditions be continued for any considerable length of 
time, the consequences must be serious, and may be 
• Dr. Feuehtersleben. MENTAL HYGIENE. 
443 
even fatal. The continued indulgence of malicious 
feelings by a person, for example, will surely so modify 
all the internal invisible functional acts of his system as 
to check and overcome finally its vital power ; and thus 
any latent tendencies to chronic disease that may belong 
to him will pretty certainly be quickened into active life. 
A grave difficulty to be encountered in overcoming 
states of chronic disease by ordinary medical means is 
now seen. Diseases are perpetuated, if not produced, 
by causes over which mere chemical influences can 
not be presumed to exercise any positive control. This 
fact may be, often is, tacitly acknowledged by the 
physician, but he declines to investigate its relations 
so as to be able to turn them to useful account. He is 
unwilling to acknowledge in practice, although he may 
admit confidentially, that the headache, the nervous- 
ness, the heart disease, or the dyspeptic qualms which 
he is called upon to remedy, are only indications of 
some peculiar morbid state of the mind or of the emo- 
tional nature of the sufferer, which it becomes him to 
meet directly, rather than to torment his patient with 
an eternal round of palliatives. In these cases, every 
medical prescription must be totally irrelevant (though 
written in the best Latin) unless it recognizes the ope- 
ration of causes existing in a sphere quite beyond the 
reach of the most potent drug. What fatal mistakes 
may not result when stimuli are substituted for encour- 
agement, and physic for rational ideas; when the in- 
valid is advised to try the resources of an inex- 
haustible pharmacy, instead of bringing common sense 
to a controlling sway in the organism ! Neither physi- 
cian nor patient can afford any longer to devote his 
attention exclusively to the superficial and deceptive 
signs of disease, nor to ignore the fact, that the bodj 444 
MENTAL HYGIENE. 
is but the incarnate expression of the interior, invisible, 
imperishable spirit, which is the man. 
We can not get rid of the sequences of the import- 
ant fact, that in the human organism spirit governs 
matter, by brutishly ignoring it; nor can we inno- 
cently treat it as an unimportant matter. Science, 
like true religion, is learning every day to live more 
by faith and less by sight. 
The jests that used to be hurled at the defenseless 
head of the practitioner who dared to suggest that the 
thoughts, and feelings and mental habits of the inva- 
lid might need rectifying as well as his bile and blood, 
are fast losing their point. We are all beginning to sus- 
pect that perhaps, after all, a disease may not be the less 
a disease because its source happens to lie in an unruly 
imagination, or in excessive activity, or wrong modes 
of thought. And gradually-very slowly, to be sure 
-yet really, we think people are waking up to the 
conviction that these intangible causes are not irreme- 
diable. They are beginning to see and understand 
that by this close union and co-operation of the mate- 
rial and immaterial natures, remedial agents may pos- 
sibly find access to either or both through avenues 
that otherwise could have no existence. We have 
faith to believe that the time is near at hand when the 
mental aspects and relations of disease will receive an 
amount of attention equal to that which has always 
been given to the pulse and tongue, the temperature 
of the skin, and color and consistence of the excre- 
tions. 
Blessed will be the day when science shall purge 
her soul of the dishonor of leaving this interesting and 
vital subject to ignorance and charlatanry. But even 
the devil should have his due. As much as we detest MENTAL HYGIENE. 
445 
quackery, it can not be denied that many quacks meet 
with a success in the treatment of some diseases that 
would be very puzzling if we could not refer it in 
great measure to the mental control they contrive to 
exert over their patients. In this respect, in practice, 
the pretender has a positive and oftentimes an immense 
advantage over the real man of science. He stimu- 
lates his patient's imagination, awakens his hope, gains 
his confidence, whereby the perturbed mind is re- 
stored to a condition of tranquillity, and thus a state 
of the system is induced most conducive to that spon- 
taneous restoration of its harmony and power which is 
often mistaken for the effect of medicine. 
A wholesome co-operation of the mental, emotional, 
and material forces of the invalid is, indeed, the grand 
desideratum, and if the charlatan can secure it, he is 
certainly entitled to the credit of doing what his betters 
so often and so lamentably fail in their efforts to accom- 
plish. 
Every one knows what benefit is frequently de- 
rived from a simple change of doctors; this benefit 
is generally much greater than the difference in the 
courses of treatment will account for. We all know 
how salutary are the influences of cheerful society, 
change of scene, and exciting incidents, in some condi- 
tions of the system. It is very strange that the abun- 
dant experiences of men in this direction should not 
long ago have convinced them of the existence of a 
principle so important and fundamental. 
We shall make no attempt here at giving specific 
directions in regard to the best manner of bringing the 
principles of mental hygiene to bear upon particular 
caser We can only direct en passant the attention 
nf invalids and physicians to this important subject. 446 
MKNTAL UYGIEUJS* 
We believe that while some benefit may be derived 
from discussion of this great question, in the enlighten* 
ment of die public mind, no extensive practical advan- 
tage will be reaped until these principles are taught in 
our schools and incorporated into our medical science. 
The mind itself must be regarded as an available 
force capable of being aroused and managed in such 
a manner as effectually to oppose the tendencies of the 
body toward disease. 
It should be understood that the efforts of the physi- 
cian must be seconded by the patient; and that this 
concurrence must not be faint and faltering, but deter- 
mined and earnest. If his energies, or what remains 
of them, can be thus enlisted in his own behalf, the 
victory is already half gained. The only hopeless 
invalid is he who has no resolution-in whose soul 
faith and courage have utterly died out. 
A man may bestow the greatest care upon what he 
eats and drinks; may regulate ever so nicely his pe- 
riods of exercise and of repose; learn by heart whole 
treatises on the art of living long; reflect profoundly 
on the relation of his feelings, his will, and his thoughts 
to his general well-being. But more than this is de- 
manded of him. He must learn to govern, as well as 
to know, himself. Does the reader say, " Oh, I am 
incapable of such efforts as are necessary for this." I 
answer: Your duty in the premises is demonstrable. 
God, who succors the raven so tenderly, is not a hard 
master. " Yor can do what you should do." APPENDIX. 
BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
Laurent Joubert. . .Treatise on Laughter, containing its Essence, 
Paris, 1550. Causes, and Marvelous Effects-being Curious 
Researches, Reasonings, and Observations. 
J. F. Scali gerThe Art of Gymnastics. 
Lyons, 1561. 
Leonard FuchsMovements and Repose. 
Tubingen, 1565. 
Ambrose RareOn Movements and Repose. 
Paris, 1575. 
Jules ALEssANDRiNi.The Art of Preserving Health; in twenty-three 
Cologne, 1575. Books. 
Jean A. Borelli. .. .Animal Mechanics. 
Rome, 1680. 
Pierre Brisseau. .. .Treatise on Sympathetic Movements, with an Ex- 
Valenciennes, planation of such as take place in various Ner- 
1682. vous Diseases. 
S. F. PaullineCurious Account of how Blows will often Cure, 
Frankfort, 1698. promptly and well, all kinds of Chronic Diseases, 
nearly incurable: the whole Proved and Illus- 
trated by Agreeable and Pleasant Anecdotes, and 
by Particular Remarks and Interesting Notes by 
the Author. 
Geo. E. StahlActive and Passive Commotions of the Blood-Of 
Halle, 1698 to Horseback Riding, a new Method of Curing 
1736. Lung Diseases-Of the Medical Use of Volun- 
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Water, the simplest Remedies-Several other 
Works on the same subjects. 
De Sauvages.Rational Mechanics in Medicine. 
Leyden, 1703. 448 
APPENDIX. 
Frederick Hoffman . Dissertations on Medical Physics, relating tc 
La Hague, 1708. Health. 
Paul-Jean Burette. .The Gymnastics of the Ancients, and several other 
Paris, 1717. Works. 
Nicholas Andry. .. .Orthopcedy ; the Art of Preventing and Correcting 
Paris, 1741. Deformities of the Body in Children by means at 
the command of Parents, and those having Chil- 
dren in charge. 
FuchnerOn several kinds of Passive Movements, appro- 
Halle, 1746 to 1748. priate to certain Diseases-On the Danger of Cor- 
poreal Movements, when inappropriately Applied 
-Basis of Physiology, deduced from Physical and 
Mechanical Principles-Basis of General Pathol- 
ogy, deduced from the Principles of Anatomy, 
Physics, and Mechanics. 
0. J. TissotSurgical and Medical Gymnastics. 
Paris, 1780. 
Guts MuthsExercises for Youth. 
Paris, 1793. 
Chart.es LondeMedical Gymnastics ; or Exercise Applied to the 
Paris, 1821. Organs of the Body according to the Laws of 
Physiology, Hygiene, and Therapeutics. 
Ed. WeberMechanism of the Organs of Locomotion : Re- 
Leipsic, 1836. searches Anatomical and Physiological. 
J. A. L. Werner ... Medical Gymnastics ; or, the Art of Correcting 
Vices of the Bodily Formation, and of Re-estab- 
lishing the Form and Proportions of the Human 
Body according to the Principles of Anatomy 
and Physiology. 
Peter Henry Ling. .Treatise on Gymnastics, without Apparatus. 
1836. 
1838 Treatise on Sword and Bayonet Exercise. 
1840Treatise on the General Principles of Gymnastics. 
J. F. Loeschkb ... .Gymnastics in Lunacy. 
Leipsic, 1840. 
G. IndebetoeTherapeutic Manipulation. 
London, 1842. 
H. RothsteinGymnastics in Sweden, and the Gymnastic System 
1841. of Ling. 
G. ResmerRegular Exercises in Relation to the Physical De- 
Leipsic, 1843. velopment of the Young. 
WalkerManly Exercises. 
London, 1845. APPENDIX. 
449 
HartwigThe Therapatetic Curative Method ; or, the Treat* 
Dusseldorf, 1847. ' ment of Diseases by Movements. 
Adolf SpiersManual of Gymnastics for Schools. 
Basle, 1847. 
G. M. Schreber. .. .Medical Gymnastics-Directions for a Healthy and 
Long Life. 
GeorghKinesitherapie, or Treatment of Diseases by Move- 
Paris, 1847. ments, according to Ling's Method. 
G. FriedrichGymnastics, as a means of Preserving the Health 
Bentley, 1847. and Curing the Diseases of both Sexes. 
RothsteinGymnastics of the System of the great Northera 
Berlin, 1850. Gymnasiarch, P. H. Ling. 
M. RothPrevention and Cure of Many Chronic Diseases. 
London, 1851. 
E. A. RichterOrganon of Physiological Therapeutics. 
Leipsic, 1850. 
J. C. WernerBasis of Scientific Orthopcedie. 
Berlin, 1851. 
RothsteinJournal of the Gymnastic World. 
1852. 
Von MedicinThe Medical Power of Certain Movements in Ad- 
Leipsic, 1852. vanced Age, as a Means of Radically Curing 
Obstinate Hypochondria, Gout, Rheumatism, 
Oppression of the Chest, Stomach Affections, 
Hemorrhoids, and several other Diseases. 
SchreberMethod of Medical Gymnastics, for the Use of 
Leipsic, 1852. Physicians and Others, deduced from Experience. 
EulenburgThe Swedish Curative Gymnastics. 
Berlin, 1853. 
A. C. NeumannCurative Gymnastics. 
Berlin, 1853. 
C. J. HeidlerVibrations Considered as a Means of Diagnosis and 
Braunsch wig, 1853. Cure. 
RothsteinFree Gymnastic Exercises. 
Berlin, 1855. 
RichtebOrganon of Physiological Therapeutics. 
R. W. IdlerManual of Hygiene for the Friends of Long Life 
Berlin, 1855 
Schreber Medical Gymnastics for the Chamber; being Rep- 
1855. resentations and Descriptions of Movements, 
without Apparatus or Assistance, and Suitable 
to Perform at all Times, and in all Places, and 
for all Ages-applied to various Affections. 450 
APPENDIX. 
Kt-thmMovements for Females; an Educational Means 
Leipsic, 1855. of Developing Health and Beauty; with Advice 
to Parents and Teachers. 
WalkerManly Exercises. 
London, 1855. 
M. RomThe Prevention and Cure of Chronic Diseases by 
London, 1851. Movements. 
1856Hand-Bock of the Movement-Cure. 
M. DallyCinesie, or Science oi Movements. 
Paris, 1857. 
C. F. TaylorTheory and Practice of ths Movement-Gum. 
1860. INDEX. 
A- FAdl 
Abb6 Saint Pierre 64 
Abdominal muscles '........................ 811 
Abdominal contents, motions of. 191 
Absorption 89 
Action movements, definition of 99 
" chemical, in the body 78 
" amount of 78 
Actors, qualifications for 130 
Adaptation of the system to health 18 
Agitation of trunk and diaphragm 226 
Air, enters the blood 85 
" purifies the blood 39 
Albinus, view of motion 81 
Alimentary tube 189 
Amenorrhea 347 
Amiot, P., missionary 83, 35 
Anatomy, basis of physical culture 30 
" and physiology, the basis of gymnastics 50 
" of the feet 157 
" of the chest 195 
Aperient drugs, how they operate 312 
Aristotle 64 
Aim positions 151, 153 
Arms stretching 207, 214 
" backward-striking 208 
" sidewise-raising 210 
" angling 230 
" twisting 232 
Arterial blood, necessary for contraction 89 
Assistance in paralysis 806 
B. 
Backache, how removed 847 
Backward-falling 199 
" bending 204, 211, 213 
" sidewise-bending 211, 213 
" sidewise-falling 199 
Bacon 65 
Bad habits, effects of. Ill 
Bathing, effects of 875 
Baths, warm 376 
" hot 877 
" local 877 
" air 870 452 
rasa 
Baths, general 380 
" shower 381 
Beclard, summary of natural movements 77 
" view of chemical phenomena 84 
Bowels, how to excite 347 
Brahmins depend on regimen 40 
Branting, Prof. 60 
Breathing capacity 88 
C. 
Calisthenics 128, 354 
Cardinal positions in terminology 150 
Causes of disease 74, 105, 120 
" of digestive affections 192 
Caution in prescribing for chest 196, 197, 228 
Cell action 78 
Cerebral symptoms, movements for 151 
Change of place 78 
" in fluids 86 
" twisting 202 
Channels of force 82 
Chase 32 
Chemical agencies, nature of 72 
" results of action in body '. 73 
Chemicals, effects of, in the system 93 
Chest, mobility of 194, 289 
" size of, in consumption 289 
Chilblains, cause of 343 
" how removed 384 
Chine-knocking 187 
Circulation, imperfect, cause of disease 37 
" affected by respiration 38 
" known to Chinese 38 
" affected by exercise 86 
Civilization implies training 31 
Classes of materials 73 
Colds, philosophy of 371, 372 
Compresses 379 
Concentric and eccentric 45 
Conditions in chronic disease 106 
Congestion 105 
" pathology of 106 
" now removed 108 
Cong Fou, a scientific medical practice 34 
" ancient, curative, and positions of. 34 
" details of theory 36 
" an exercise of religion 39 
Constipation, cause of 89, 308, 309, 310 
" subjects for •. 308 
" conditions in 311, 312 
" mode of prescribing for 314 
Consumption, causes of 287, 288 
" remedies for, should affect its causes. 288 
INDEX. INDEX. 
453 
FAM 
Consumption, mode of prescribing for 297 
Contractility of organs increased by motion 198 
Contraction, effects-the blood-vessels 86 
Control of oxygen in the system. .%. 194 
Cooking, errors of 864 
Co-operation of physician and patient 100 
Co-ordination of physical and spiritual 122 
" by means of nervous system 93, 94 
Correspondence of supply and waste 82 
Crises, produced by movements 185 
Curative processes, physiological 247 
Curtseying-position, action, and effects 170, 171, 172 
D. 
Dally 62 
Dance of primitive people 82 
" gymnastic 33 
Dancing 849 
" effects of 849 
Defective vitality in indigestion 253 
Demand, necessary for absorption 89 
Derivative effect of leg movements. 167 
Diarrhea, causes of 814, 315 
" cure of 317 
Dieting, in indigestion insufficient 255 
Different kinds of food. 250 
Digestion, how affected by exercise 90 
" dependent on the blood 91 
" how performed 248 
" a central function 248 
" meaning of 248 
Diseased parts 139 
Distinction between kinds of exercise 97 
Draper's analysis 73 
Dress limits the motions of the body 191 
Drinks, nature of. 366 
Drugs, compared with movements 116, 121, 147 
" effect of 75 
" favor chemical change 76 
" inadmissible in indigestion 257 
Duplicated movements 99, 101 
E. 
Eating, times for , 365 
Effects of motion on the fluids 86 
" of aerating the blood 291 
" of movements 100 
" of partial exercise 106 
Elementary actions, source of health 68 
Emotional nature Ill 
English in India 40 
Errors concerning food 859, 861 
Evolution of power ... 80 454 
INDEX. 
van 
Excretory organs 89 
Exercise, different kinds 43, 97 
" a part of education 49 
laws of, imperfectly understood 71 
Exertion in movements . 137 
Expenditure of power 80 
F. 
Face, muscles of 132 
Fatigue removed, how 340 
" cause of 82, 113 
Feet, pressure on 157, 158 
" movements of, necessary for equilibrium 148 
" movements of, derivative 148 
" examples of 160 
" extension 160 
" sidewise-bending 163 
" rotation 163, 165 
" percussion 154 
Female diseases, why prevalent 328, 329 
" symptoms of 329, 331 
" pathology of 332,333 
' ' deformity in 334 
" remedy for 335 
" mode of prescribing 836, 337 
Food 358 
" poisonous, when 251 
" quantity of 358 
" quality of 361 
' ' proper mixture of, necessary 369 
" preparation 863 
" result of non-digestion of.. 1 90 
Foot-bending, etc 162 
Force depends on instruments 91 
Forces of the system 69 
Forward sidewise-falling 198 
" bending 214 
Free-sitting movements 355 
Frequency of pulse 289 
Friction, auxiliary to movements 39 
" classed among exercises 44 
Function of digestion • 188 
Funded capacity of chest 195 
G. 
Galen 63 
Georgii .. 66 
Gesture, by muscular action 130 
" more influential than words 131 
Good and evil, experience of 123 
Greeks, education of 41 
Gymnasium 41 
Gymnastics, remedial . pass 
Gymnastics effects of 120 
" compared with Movements 125 
" effects on the circulation 127 
H. 
Habits of females 23 
Hanging 148 
Harmony preserved by motion 81 
Haste of invalids 116 
Headache 345 
Head turning 242 
" forward-bending 242 
" backward-bending 242 
" bending and twisting 243 
" screw-raising 243 
Health depends on harmony 58 
Heart, functions of 38 
Heat-making process 370 
" related to respiration 870, 371 
Heat, modes of losing 369 
Heel-pressing 161 
Hereditary causes 110 
Hernia 346 
Hips-raising 221 
" rotation 231 
Hoffman 63 
Holding 219, 238, 220, 222, 237 
" the breath, effects of 87, 197 
Hydraulics of the system 35 
Hygiene, remedial 75 
" definition of. 357 
I. 
Incentive to respiration 296 
Increase of size 297 
India 39 
Indigestion, involves the whole system ... 256 
Indiscriminate movements prejudicial 292 
Influence upon the mind 95 
Insanity of digestion 253 
Inspiration, related with temperature 871 
" precedes exertion 8T 
Institute, Central 59 
" objects of. 59 
Institutions, Swedish 59 
Instruments of power 60 
" objects of 70 
Insufficiency of dieting 255 
" of respiration 291, 292 
Intellectual action, effect of 109 
Intention of bodily processes 74 
Intermuscular juices 86 
Interstitial changes 70 
INDEX. 
455 456 
MM 
Invisible actions of the body 94 
" growth ... •• 136 
Involuntary motion 31 
J. 
Joints of arms and legs 149 
J uices, intermuscular 86 
K. 
Kneading 223 
Kneeling positions. 146 
Knee-stretching 172, 177, 183, 185 
" bending 174 
Knees-raising 177 
L. 
Labor 350 
Language of muscular action 131 
Lateral curvature 322 
" causes of 323 
" means of cure •. .324, 325 
" mode of prescribing for 326 
Leg positions, how produced 154 
" swinging . • 165 
" twisting 173, 181 
" clapping 174 
" outward-stretching 176, 177 
" forward-raising 178 
" backward-raising 179,180 
" sidewise-raising 179 
" rotation 181, 185 
" raising ... '• 183, 184 
Lehmann, on the medical utility of respiration 292 
light, a hygienic agency 883 
" influence of, on vapors 384 
Limit of force, in invalids 82 
Ling, biography 47 
" first classified movements , 142 
" teaches fencing 49 
" practices curative movements 51 
4 director of Central Institute 51 
4 knighted 52 
Ung's system, philosophical 48 
travels 48 
44 gymnastics in military academies 52 
44 statement of principles 53 
" statements of physiological law 54 
" definition of movement 55 
" treatise on development 55 
** arrangement of vital phene mena 57 
energy 59 
" poetry 59 
index. INDEX. 
457 
fasi 
Ung's death 59 
Lying positions147, 220, 222, 229, 238 
M. 
Materials, two classes of 73 
Mechanical forces. 69 
" agencies 55 
" operations40, 80 
Medical science neglects principles 69 
Membrane, mucous, in constipation 310 
Mental hygiene 386 
Milk 366 
Mind depends on body132, 133 
Mobility of walls of chest194, 289 
" abdomen 191 
Motion of fluids in canals 80 
" rythmical 80 
" muscular, mainspring of all action 81 
" means of preserving harmony 81 
" effects of'. 77 
" of fluids 79 
Movement-Cure, corrects causes 245 
Movements, proceed from within 43 
" concentric102, 103 
" eccentric102, 103 
" localized 105 
" general 105 
" remove congestion 106 
" mixed 44 
" literature of 45 
" obstacles to 46 
" depend on physiological truth 46 
" exact account of effects of 50 
" when hygienic 121 
" when medical 122 
" elevate the moral sense 122 
" practice of, requires medical study. 127 
" purpose of 30 
" demand for 31 
" not new 31 
" among primitive people 31 
* art of, developed from natural causes 32 
" for children 188 
" competent to injure 193 
" of respiratory organs 193 
" require to be prescribed 134 
" aim of, to influence invisible growth 134 
" mechanical and mental elements of 136 
" should harmonize with each other 138 
M how applied 139 
what, ijpr congestion 139 
** order of 187 
M gymnastics and exercises, distinction between 97 458 
INDEX. 
PASS 
Movements, definition of 97, 98 
" Daily's definition of. 48 
" different kinds of ' 98 
" single, are not passive 99 
" a legitimate remedy 27 
" philosophical 29 
" duplicated 99, 101 
" of the legs 170-187 
" of the trunk 188-226 
" of the arms 227-260 
" of the neck and head 261-266 
" for schools 355 
Muscle, importance of, in the economy 83 
" function of 83 
" color 83 
" anatomy of 83 
" cells 84 
" constitution of. 84 
" stimulus for 84 
Muscles of the chest, functions of 88 
" of the neck, use of. 241 
" of the feet 157 
" give expression to thought and feeling 129, 130 
Muscular power suspended in disease 109 
" action promotes secretion 89 
" " induces absorption 90 
" contraction promotes health of related organs 87 
" " increases respiration 88,194 
N. 
Natural movement of digestive organs 189 
" internal movements 77, 78 
Necessity for organic expenditure 80 
Nerves in indigestion 252 
" how affected by bathing 378 
Nervous abuse, effects of .... Ill 
Nervousness, not pain '. 262 
" how explained 263 
" relations of, with mentality 263 
" causes of 266,267 
Neumann, Dr 102 
Neuralgia, philosophy of 273 
" cure of 274 
" general character of 274, 275 
Nosebleed, how stopped 342 
Number of movements 137 
Nutrition 71 
Nutritive medication, by movements 117 
O. 
Obstacles to circulation 36 
Od force, theory of 101 
Olympic games 43 m L)EX« 
459 
- ,18' 
Operations of tne body controllable 76 
" on the digestive organs. 223, 224 
Order of movements 137 
Organic forms, changes of 73 
Organization of instruments of force 91 
Organizing processes 71 
Oribasius 43 
Origin of disease 110 
Osmosis, conditions for 90 
Oxydation of muscle 85 
Oxygen, effects of 74, 75 
" required in all changes in the system 193 
P. 
Pain, not disease 120 
" not a true test of disease 255 
Painting 351 
Paralysis, nature of 800, 302 
Partial actions, effects of 110 
" exercise improper .259 
Passive exercise 299 
" movements, examples of. 99 
Pathology, as related to Movement-Cure 247 
Physical culture 353 
for convalescing invalids 19 
" for partial invalids 20 
for those who take improper exercise 21 
for those devoted to literary habits 21 
compared with the drug practice 24, 25 
Physiological connection of viscera. 188 
Piles, causes of. . ' 317 
" plan for cure of 318 
Plasma, conditions for effusion of ''. 86 
Plato 65 
Pliny 63 
Positions, definition of 144 
" • determined by prescriber 145 
" commencing 145 
" of legs and arms 149 
Powers of system disturbed in disease 108 
" husbanded by slow movements 115 
Prescriptions in indigestion 260, 261 
aim to produce physiological effects 96 
" in scrofula 284 
" in consumption 298 
" in constipation 313 
" in deformities 327 
" in female diseases 337 
Priests of Cong Fou .84, 38 
Production of force, limited 82 
Products of oxydation 85 
Prolapsus of womb and bowels 3C8, 347 460 
INDEX. 
Q- PA«I 
Quality of food 249 
Quantity of digestive secretions 249 
R. 
Radii, from shoulder and thigh joints 147 
Rate of force 82 
Reaction from bathing 381 
Regions of the body 140 
" of the hips „ 175 
" of the trunk 188 
" of the legs 167 
" of the feet 157 
" of the head 241 
" of the arms 227 
Relation of arms to chest 227 
Relations of physical and intellectual culture 22 
" of power and velocity, in movements 113 
" of muscular and nervous action 114 
" of nutrition to action 114 
Relative proportions in food 251 
Remedies, effects of 77 
" direction to search for 77 
Resistance in movements 99 
Respiration, physiology of. 293 
" calls venous blood to the chest 197 
" management of, in Cong Fou 34 
" concomitants of 88 
" effect of will on 113 
" in ratio of muscular action. .195, 196 
Respiratory action in indigestion 259 
" capacity 290 
Retention of air 89, 87, 197 
Ringing 208 
" in the head 253 
Romans 42 
Rotation 218 
Rousseau, J. J 63 
Running 349 
Rythm of movements 137 
8. 
Saline constituents of food 118 
Salt 862 
Satherburg, Dr 61 
Science, what constitutes 142 
Scrofula, in children 277 
" in youth 277 
" in adults 278 
" philosophy of 278, 279 
" how developed .... 277 
" cured by hygiene 280 MM 
Scrofula, why exercise is remedial 288 
" mode of prescribing for 284 
Secretions, influence in digestion 251 
" of digestive cavity . 249 
Sedentary habits, effects of 90 
Self-development .. 33 
Sensations of chronic invalids 100 
Sensitiveness in indigestion 253 
Series of activities in the body 80 
Sewing, effects of 849 
Shampooing 40 
Sidewise-bending 200, 204, 211, 212, 213, 214, 217 
Single movements 99, 102, 27 
Sitting exercises 355 
" positions 146 
Size of chest in lung disease 289 
Special exercises secure oxygen 194 
Specific power of movements 116 
Spices i 362 
Spinal column 802, 320, 321 
" deformities 320 
St. Petersburg 61 
Standing positions 145 
Stimulants, effects of 118 
Stretching 239, 240 
Study, effects of 351 
Swaying ..203, 209, 216 
Swinging 234 
Symptoms, not disease .* 68 
T. 
Tact necessary in movements 101 
Temperature, relations of 368 
" extremes of 373 
" as a remedial agent 374 
" natural variableness of 869 
Terminology 142 
Therapeutical means 58 
Thigh rotation 186 
Time, relations of, in movements 113, 135 
" intervals of, necessary ; 134 
Topical treatment 271 
Traditions of Chinese 32, 33 
Training, importance of. 17, 18, 71 
Transformations in the body 74 
Trunk-twisting 201, 206, 213, 216 
" agitation 226 
" rotating 236 
" holding 237 
" vibration 223 
Types of food 250 
nrDEX. 
461 462 
JQifJDKX* 
V. rxea 
Vegece 64 
Vibration 223 
Vicissitude of temperature 273 
Vitality, defective 253 
Voluntary habits affect digestion 254 
Vomiting, how excited 342 
W. 
Walker - 168 
Walking 167, 168, 169, 217, 348 
Walls of hollow organs 83 
" trunk 188 
Waste, caused by action 88 
Wasting processes 75 
Weight-holding 229 
Will, influence on movements 112 
Woman, education of 42 
Womb, congestion of 335 
" prolapsus of 334 
" why diseased 330, 331 
Work, useful to preserve health 170 
Worms, cause of 345 
" how removed 346 
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"Will commend itself to the good sense of 
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" The book is written from a radical stand- 
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FRESH, SEASONABLE, ADVANCED. 
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CIPLES OF PHRENOLOGY, AND IN RELATION TO MODERN 
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By HENRY S. DRAYTON, A.M., and JAMES McNEILL. 
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V. The Physico-Pre- 
SERVATIVE, OR SEL- 
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VI. Of the Intellect. 
VII. The Semi-Intellect- 
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VIII. The Organs of the 
Social Functions. 
IX. The Selfish Senti- 
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X. The Moral and Re- 
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CHAPTERS. 
XI. How to Examine 
Heads. 
XII. How Character is 
Manifested. 
XIII. The Action of the 
Faculties. 
XIV. The Relation of 
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Education. 
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XVI. Phrenology and 
Physiology. 
XVII. Objections and Con- 
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Physiologists. 
XVIII. Phrenology in Gen- 
eral Literature. 
In style and treatment it is adapted to the general reader, and 
abounds with valuable instruction expressed in clear, practical terms. 
It is printed on fine paper, and substantially bound in cloth, 
and contains 325 pages, I2mo. Price $1.50, by mail, post-paid. 
Addrest FOWLER & WELLS, Publishers, 758 Broadway, New York. THE WOBKS OF NELSOH SIZEE. 
A Great Book for Young People! 
"CHOICE OF PURSUITS; or, What to Do and Wliy,« describing 
Seventy-five Trades and Professions, and the Temperaments and Talents required 
for each ; with Portraits and Biographies of many successful Thinkers and Workers. 
By Nelson Sizer, Associate Editor of the " Phrenological Journal," Vice-Presi- 
dent of, and Teacher in, the " American Institute of Phrenology," etc, 12mo. extra 
cloth, 508 pp. Price, $1.75. 
This work till? a place attempted by no other. Whoever has to earn a living by 
labor of head or hand, can not afford to do without it 
" ' Choice of Pursuits ; or, What to do 
and Why ' is a remarkable book. The author 
has attained a deserved eminence as a de- 
lineator of character. We have given it a 
careful reading and feel warranted in say- 
ing that it is a book calculated to do a vast 
deal of good."-Boston Commonwealth. 
" The title is startling, but it is indicative 
of the contents of the book itself; the wrork 
is a desideratum."-Inter-Ocean (Chicago.) 
NOTICES OF THE PRESS. 
" It presents many judicious counsels. 
The main purpose of the writer is to prevent 
mistakes in the choice of a profession. His 
remarks on the different trades are often 
highly original. The tendency of this vol- 
ume is to increase the reader's respect for 
human nature."-New York Tribune. 
" The design of this book is to indicate 
to every man his proper work, and to edu- 
cate him for it-"-Albany Evening Journal. 
A New Book for Parents and Teachers. 
"HOW TO TKACH ACCORDING TO TEMPERAMENT AND 
MENTAL DEVELOPMENT," or, Phrenology in the School-room and the Family, 
With many Illustrations. 12mo, extra cloth, 351 pages. Price, $1.50. 
One of the greatest difficulties in the training of children arises from not understand- 
ing their temperament and disposition. This work points out clearly the constitutional 
differences, and how to make the most of each. 
NOTICES OF THE PRESS. 
" The purpose of this work is to aid par- 
ents and teachers to understand the talents 
dispositions, and temperaments ol those un- 
der their guidance. This opens a new field 
to the consideration of the teacher. The text 
is attractive and a valuable contribution to 
educational literature. It should be in 
the library of every parent and teacher."- 
New England Journal of Ed .cation. 
"This is an entirely new feature in a 
book intended for the use of teachers, and 
must prove of great advantage to them. 
The text is written in a manner which 
must attract every reader."- The Methodist. 
" No teacher should neglect to read this 
well-w'ritten contribution to the cause of 
education."-Christian Instructor. 
" It abounds in valuable suggestions and 
counsels derived from many years experi- 
ence, which can not fail to be of service to 
all who are engaged in the business of edu- 
cation. The subject is treated in a plain, 
familiar manner, and adapted to reading in 
the family as well as in tiie study of the 
teacher."- New York Tribune. 
" There is a great deal of gooa sense in 
the work, and all teachers will be glad to 
welcome it."-The Commonwealth, Boston. 
-A. NEW BOOK FOR EVERYBODY I 
FORTY YEARS IN PHRENOLOGY : Embracing Recollections of History, 
Anecdote, and Experience. 12mo, extra cloth, 413 pages. Price, $1.50. 
In this work we have a most interesting record of the author's recollections and ex- 
periences during more than forty years as a Practical Phrenologist. The volume is 
filled with history, anecdotes, and incidents, pathetic, witty, droll, and startling. Every 
page sparkles with reality, and is packed with facts loo good to be lost. This book will be 
warmly welcomed by every reader, from the boy of twelve to the sage of eighty years. 
THOUGHTS ON DOnE<iTIC I.IFK; or, Marriage Vindicated and 
Free Love Exposed. 12mo. Paper, 25 cents. 
This work contains a sharp analysis of the social nature, in some respects quit* 
original. Sent by mail, post-paid, to any address. Agents wanted. Address 
FOWLER A WELLS, Publishers, 753 Broadway, New York. NOW READY. FOURTH EDITION, REVISED. 
HOW TO FEED 
THE BABY, 
TO MAKE HER HEALTHY AND HAPPY. With Health 
Hints. By C. E. Page, M.D. i2mo, paper, 50 cts.; ex. clo., 75 cts. 
Dr. Page has devoted much attention to the subject, both in this coun- 
try and in Europe, noting the condition of children, and then making care- 
ful inquiries as to the feeding, care, etc., and this work is a special record 
of experience with his own child. We know this manual will be welcomed 
by many mothers in all parts of the land, as one of the most vital ques- 
tions with parents is How to feed the baby, to promote its health, its 
growth, and its happiness. In addition to answering the question what 
to feed the baby, this volume tells how to feed the baby, which is of equal 
importance. 
That the work may be considered worthy of a wide circulation may be 
seen from the following, selected from many 
NOTICES OE THE PRESS. 
"The book should be read by every 
person who has the care of children, 
especially of infants, and those who have 
the good sense to adopt its suggestions 
will reap a rich reward, we believe, in peace 
for them<elves and comfort for the babies." 
-Boston Journal of Commerce. 
"We wish every mother and father too 
could read it, as we believe it is founded 
on common-sense and the true theory of 
infantile life."-Eve. Farmer, Bridgeport, 
Conn. 
" His treatise ought to be in the hands of 
young mothers particnlirly, who might 
save themselves a deal of trouble by study- 
ing it."-Brooklyn Eagle. 
"Should interest mothers; for it is a 
really scientific and sensible solution of 
the problem 01 health and happiness in the 
nursery."-B ffalo Courier. 
"' How to Feed the Baby * ought to do 
good if widely read ; for there ca be no 
doubt that thousands of babies die from 
ignorance on this very subject."-Amer- 
ican Bookseller. 
"It is as odd as its title, and is funny, 
interesting, enteit'lining, and instructive." 
- Times, Biddeford, Me. 
" We know this manual will be welcomed 
by many motliers in all parts of the land, 
as one of the mosi important questions 
with parents is how to feed the baby, to 
promote its health, its growth, and its 
happiness."- Christian Advocate, Buffalo, 
" Our author makes plain how infantile 
diseases may, in great measure, be avoided, 
and infantile lite m ide as free and joyous 
as that of the most fortunate among the 
lower animals."- Central Baptist. 
'•Dr. Page i > a benefactor of this age, in 
having made it a special study-the care 
and feeding of the infant."-People's Jour- 
nal. 
" If mothers would read this book, we 
think fewer infants would ' make night hid 
eous' with their cries."-Homestead. 
"'How to Peed the Baity' should be 
taken home by every father to the mother 
of his children, if he values quiet nights, 
and is not inclined to pay heavy doctors' 
bills, or bring up sickly children."-Food 
and Health. 
"It is safe to say that in proportion as 
this book is circula'ed and its teachings 
followed, will the rate of infant mortality 
decrease."-Christian Standard. 
Will be sent by mail, post-paid, to any address on receipt of price, 50 cts. 
Address 
Fowlei "Wells, ZPixlolislxers, 
753 BROADWAY, NEW YORK. Grl'VTEZtT A.WAT 
A PHRENOLOGICAL BUST 
TO EACH SUBSCRIBER 
TO THE 
PHRENOLOGICAL JOURNAL. 
This publication is widely known in America and Europe, having been before the read- 
ing world forty years, and occupying a place in literature exclusively its own, viz : the study 
of Human Nature in all its phases, including Phrenology, Physiognomy, Ethnology, Physi- 
ology, etc., together with the " Science of Health," and no expense will be spared to.make 
it the best publication for general circulation, tending always to make men better physically, 
mentally, and morally. Parents should read the Journal that they may better know how to 
govern and train their children. To each subscriber is given 
THE PHRENOLOGICAL BUST. 
This bust is made of Plaster of Paris, and so lettered as to show the exact location of 
each of the Phrenological Organs. The head is nearly life-size, and very ornamental, de- 
serving a place on the center-table or mantel, in parlor, office, or study, and until recently 
has sold for $2.00. This, with the illustrated key which accompanies each Bust, and the 
articles published in the Journal on "Practical Phrenology," will enable the reader to 
become a successful student of Human Nature. One of these heads should be in the hand* 
of all who would know " How to Read Character." 
TemtS.-The Journal is now published at $2.00 a year (having been reduced 
from $yoc), single numbers 20 cents. When the Premiums are sent, 25 cents extra must 
be received with each subscription to pay postage on the Journal and the expense of boxing 
and packing the Bust, which will be sent by express, or No. 2, a smaller size, will be sent by 
mail, post-paid. To those who have the Bust, or prefer it, we will send the Book Premium. 
Send amount in P. O. Orders, Drafts on New York, or in Registered Letters. Postage- 
stamps will be received. Agents Wanted. Send 10 cents for specimen Number, Premium 
List, etc. 
Address FOWLER & WELLS, Publishers, 
753 Broadway, New York. WORKS PUBLISHED BY 
FOWLER & WELLS, 753 BROADWAY, NEW YORK. 
American Phrenological Journal and 
Science of Health.-Devoted to Eth- 
nology, Physiology, Phrenology, Physiog- 
nomy, Psychology, Sociology, Biography, 
Education, Literature, etc., with Measures 
to Reform, Elevate, and Improve Man- 
kind Physically, Mentally, and Spiritually. 
Monthly, $2 a year; 20 cents a number. 
Bell (Sir Charles).-Expression : its 
Anatomy and Philosophy. With the 
original Notes and Illustrations by the 
author, and additional Notes and Illustra- 
tions by Samuel R. Wells. $1.25. 
Boardman (Andrew,M.D.)-Defence 
OF Phrenology ; Containing an Essay 
on the Nature and Value of Phrenological 
Evidence; A Vindication of Phrenology 
against the Attack of its opponents. $1.25. 
Bray (Charles).-The Education of 
the Feelings and Affections. Edited, 
with Notes and Illustrations, by Nelson 
Sizer. Cloth, $1.50. 
This work gives ill and definite directions 
for the cultivation or restraining of all the 
faculties relating to the feelings or affections. 
Combe (George).-A System of 
Phrenology ; With One Hundred En- 
gravings. Cloth, $1.50. 
Constitution of Man ; Consider- 
ed in Relation to external objects. The 
only authorized American edition; with 
twenty engravings, and a portrait of the 
author. $1.50. 
The "Constitution of Man " is a work with 
which every teacher and every pupil should be 
acquainted. 
Lectures on Phrenology; with 
Notes, an Essay on the Phrenological 
Mode of Investigation, and an Historical 
Sketch, by A. Boardman, M.D. $1.50. 
These are the lectures delivered by George 
Combe in America. 
Moral Philosophy ; or, the Duties 
of Man considered in his Individual, Do- 
mestic, and Social Capacities. $1.50. 
Uniform Edition, 4 vols., extra cloth, $5.00. 
Library Edition, 4 vols., $10. 
PHRENOLOGY AND PHYSIOGNOMY. 
On Education.-Papers on Edu- 
cational Subjects. One vol. 8vo, Edin- 
burgh Edition. Cloth, $5.00. 
This volume consists of valuable Essays 
written by Mr. Combe, and should be found in 
the library of every teacher. 
The Life of. By Charles Gib- 
bon. 2 volumes, 8vo, with two portraits. 
London Edition. $5.00. 
These two works are not published in this 
country, but we can furnish from our stock, or 
import to order. 
Capen (Nahum, LL.D.)-Reminis- 
cencesof Dr. Spurzheim and George 
Combe, and a Review of the Science of 
Phrenology from the period of its discov- 
ery by Dr. Gall to the time of the visit 
of George Combe to the United States, 
with a new portrait of Dr. Spurzheim. 
umo, extra cloth, $1.50. 
Drayton (H. S., A.M.), and McNeil 
(Jam.es, A.M.)-Brain and Mind; or, 
Mental Science Considered in Accordance 
with the Principles of Phrenology and in 
Relation to Modern Physiology. Ill. $1.50. 
This is the latest and best work published. 
It constitutes a complete text-book of Phrenol- 
ogy, is profusely illustrated, and well adapted 
to the use of students. 
Drayton (H. S., A.M.)-The Indi- 
cations of Character, as manifested 
in the general shape of the head and the 
form of the face. Illustrated. 25 cents. 
How to Study Phrenology.- 
With Suggestions to Students, Lists of 
Best Works, Constitutions for Societies, 
etc. umo, paper, 10 cents. 
Fowler (O. S.)-Education and Self- 
Improvement COMPLETE; Comprising 
" Physiology, Animal and Mental," "Self- 
Culture and Perfection of Character," 
" Memory and Intellectual Improvement." 
One large vol. Illustrated. $3.50. 
Self-Culture and Perfection of 
Character ; Including the Management 
of Children and Youth. $1.25. 
One of the best of the author's works. 
Physiology, Animal and Mental: 
Applied to the Preservation and Restora- 
tion of Health of Body and Power of 
Mind. $1.25. 
Smit by Mail, post-paid. Fowler & Wells, Publishers, Broadway, New York. 
1 WORKS ON PHRENOLOGY. 
Fowler (O. S.)-Memory and In-1 
TELLECTUAL IMPROVEMENT, applied to ! 
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$1.25. The best work on the subject | 
Maternity ; or, the Bearing and 
Nursing of Children, including Female 
Education and Beauty. $1.25. 
Matrimony ; or, Phrenology and 
Physiology applied to the Selection of 1 
Congenial Companions for Life, includ- j 
ing Directions to the Married for living; 
together Affectionately and Happily. 50c. i 
Love and Parentage. Applied to 
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concerning the strongest ties and the most 
sacred relations of life. 50 cents. 
Hereditary Descent; Its Laws 
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Amativeness ; or, Evils and Rem- 
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the Married and Single. 25 cents. 
Phrenology Proved, Illustrated, j 
and Applied. Embracing an Analysis I 
of the Primary Mental Powers in theirI 
Various Degrees of Development, andI 
location of the Phrenological Organs.I 
The Mental Phenomena produced by | 
their combined action, and the location I 
of the faculties amply illustrated. By the 
Fowler Brothers. $1.50. 
Self Instructor in Phrenology 
and Physiology. With over One 
Hundred Engravings and a Chart for 
Phrenologists, for the Recording of Phren- 
ological Development. By the Fowler 
Brothers. Paper, 50 cts.; cloth, 75 cts. 
Synopsis of Phrenology, and 
Charts for Describing the Phrenological 
Developments, for the use of Lecturers 
and Examiners. Paper, 10 cents. 
Fowler (L.N.)-Marriage, its His- 
TORY and Ceremonies, with a Phren- 
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the Functions and Qualifications for 
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Lectures on Man, as explained 
by Phrenology, Physiology, Physiognomy, 
and Ethnology. Cloth, $1.50. 
Sizer (Nelson).-Choice of Pursuits: 
or, What to Do and Why. Describing 
Seventy-five Trades and Professions, and 
the Temperaments and Talents required 
'or each. With Portraits and Biographies 
of many successful Thinkers'and Work- 
ers. $1.75. 
How to Teach According to 
Temperament and Mental Develop- 
ment ; or, Phrenology in the School-room 
and the Family. Illustrated. $1.50. 
Forty Years in Phrenology; em 
bracing Recollections of History, Anec- 
dote and Experience. $1.50. 
Thoughts on Domestc Life ; or, 
Marriage Vindicated and Free Love Ex- 
posed. 25 cents. 
Spurzheim(J. G..M.D.)-Education; 
its Elementary Principles Found- 
ed on the Nature of Man. With an 
Appendix by S. R. Wells, containing a 
Description of the Temperaments and a 
Brief Analysis of the Phrenological Facul- 
ties. Illustrated. $1.50. 
Natural Laws of Man.-A Phi- 
losophical Catechism. Sixth Edition. En- 
larged and improved. 50 cents. 
Weaver (Rev. G. S.)-Lectures on 
Mental Science. According 'o the 
Philosophy of Phrenology. Delivered be- 
fore the Anthropological Society. Illus- 
trated. $1.25. 
Wells (Samuel R.)-New Physiog- 
NOMY ; or, Signs of Character, as mani- 
fested through Temperament and Exter- 
nal Forms, and especially in the " Human 
Face Divine." With more than One 
Thousand Illustrations. In one i2mo 
volume, 768 pages, muslin, $5.00; in 
heavy calf, marbled edges, $8.go; Turkey 
morocco, full gilt, $10. 
"The treatise of Mr. Wells, which is adinira- 
bly printed and profusely illustrated, is probably 
the mo.xt complete hand-book upon the subject 
in the language.''-A'. Tribune. 
Phrenological Bust. - Showing the 
latest classification and exact location of 
the Organs of the Brain. It is divided so 
as to show each individual .Organs on one 
side ; with all the groups-Social, Execu- 
tive, Intellectual, and Moral-properly clas- 
sified, on the other side. There are two 
i sizes ; the largest, not mailable, price $1. 
I The smaller, 50 cents. 
Sent by Mail, post-paid. Fowler & Wells, Publishers, 753 Broadway, Ne-a. Pork. 
2 PHRENOLOGY AND PHYSIOGNOMY. 
Wells (S. R.)-How to Read Char- 
acter.-A New Illustrated Hand-book of 
Phrenology and Physiognomy, for Stu- 
dents and Examiners, with a Chart for re- 
cording the sizes of the different Organs 
of the Brain in the Delineation of Char- 
acter; with upwards of 170 Engravings. 
Paper, $1.00 ; Cloth, $1.25. 
-Wedlock ; or, the Right Relations 
of the Sexes. Disclosing the Laws of 
Conjugal Selections, and showing Who 
May, and Who May Not Marry7. A Scien- 
tific Treatise. $1.50; fancy gilt, $2.00. 
New Descriptive Chart, for the 
Use of Examiners in the Delineation of 
Character. 25 cents ; cloth, 50 cents. 
Harmony of Phrenology and the 
Bible, including the Definition of the 
Organs, their uses, excess, and deficiency, 
with Quotations from the Bible recogniz- 
ing every faculty and passion, sanctioning 
their use and warning against abuse, ioc. 
The Phrenological Miscellany; or, 
Illustrated Annuals of Phrenology and 
Physiognomy, from 1865 to 1873 combin- 
ed in 1 volume, the nine containing over 
400 illustrations, many portraits and biog- 
raphies of distinguished personages, to- 
gether with articles on " How to Study 
Phrenology," " Resemblance to Parents," 
"Bashfulness," "Diffidence" " Stammer- 
ing," etc., an elaborate article on "The 
Marriage of Cousins," "Jealousy, its 
Cause and Cure." 450 pages, $1.50. 
Phrenology and the Scriptures.- 
Showing the Harmony between Phrenol- 
ogy and the Bible. By Rev. J. Pierfont. 
Paper, 15. cts. 
The Annuals of Phrenology and 
Health Almanac for 1874, '75, '76, '77, 
'78, '79, '80, '81, '82, '83, in one vol. $1. 
Symbolical Head and Phreno- 
LOGICAL Map. On fine tinted paper, 10c. 
Phrenology, its History and Impor- 
tant Principles. By T. Turner, ioc. 
There is an increasing interest in the facts relating to Magnetism, etc., and we present 
below a list of Works on this subject. 
Practical Instructions in Animal 
Magnetism. By J. P. F. Deleuze. Trans- 
lated by Thomas C. Hartshorn. New and 
Revised edition, with an appendix of notes 
by the Translator, and Letters from Emi- 
nent Physicians, and others. $2.00. 
History of Salem Witchcraft.-A 
review of Charles W. Upham's great 
Work from the Edinburgh Review, with 
Notes; by Samuel R. Wells, contain- 
ing, also, The Planchette Mystery, Spirit- 
ualism, by Mrs. Harriet Beecher 
Stowe, and Dr. Doddridge's Dream. $1. 
Fascination; or, the Philosophy of 
Charming. Illustrating the Principles 
of Life in connection with Spirit and Mat- 
ter. By J. B. Newman, M.D. $1.00. 
Six Lectures on the Philosophy of 
Mesmerism, delivered in Marlboro'Chap- 
el, Boston. By Dr. John Bovee Dods. 
Paper, 50 cents. 
The Philosophy of Electrical Psy- 
CHOLOgy, in a course of Twelve Lectures. 
By the same author. 121110, cloth, $1.25. 
The Library of Mesmerism and 
Psychology.-Comprising the Philoso- 
phy of Mesmerism, Clairvoyance, Mental 
Electricity.-Fascination, or the Power of 
Charming. Illustrating the Principles 
of Life in connection with Spirit and 
Matter.-The Macrocosm, or the Universe 
Without: being an unfolding of the plan 
of Creation, and the Correspondence of 
Truths.-The Philosophy of Electrical 
Psychology ; the Doctrine of Impressions ; 
including the connection between Mind 
and Matter; also, the Treatment of Dis- 
eases.-Psychology ; or, the Science of the 
Soul, considered Physiologically and Philo- 
sophically ; with an Appendix containing 
Notes of Mesmeric and Psychical experi- 
ence, and illustrations of the Brain and 
Nervous System. 1 vol. $3.50. 
How to Magnetize ; or, Magnetism 
and Clairvoyance.-A Practical Treat- 
ise on the Choice, Management and 
'Capabilities of Subjects, with Instructions 
on the Method of Procedure. By James 
Victor Wilson. i8mo, paper, 35 cts. 
The Key to Ghostism. By Rev. 
Thomas Mitchel. $i.jo. 
Sent by Mail, post-paid. Fowler & Wells, Publishers, 753 Broadway, New York. 
3 HEALTH BOOKS. 
This List comprises the Best Works on Hygiene, Health, Etc. 
Combe (Andrew, M.D.)-Principles 
applied to the Preservation of Health and 
to the Improvement of Physical and 
Mental Education. Illustrated. Cloth, 
$1.50. 
of infancy, Physi- 
ological and Moral Treatment. With 
Notes and a Supplementary Chapter, 
Si. 25. 
Physiology of Digestion.-Con- 
sidered with relation to the Principles of 
Dietetics. Illustrated. 50 cents. 
Fairchild (M. Augusta, M. D.)-How 
to be Well ; or, Common-Sense Med- 
ical Hygiene. A book for the People, 
giving Directions for the Treatment and 
Cure of Acute Diseases without the use of 
Drug Medicines; also, General Hints on 
Health. $1.00. 
Graham (Sylvester).- Science of 
Human Life, Lectures on the. With 
a copious Index and Biographical Sketch 
of the Author. Illustrated, $3.00. 
Chastity. - Lectures to Young 
Men. Intended also for the Serious Con- 
sideration of Parents and Guardians, 
izmo. Paper, 50 cents. 
Gully (J. M., M.D.) - Water-Cure 
in Chronic Diseases. An Exposition 
of the Causes, Progress, and Termination 
of various Chronic Diseases of the Di- 
gestive Organs, Lungs, Nerves, Limbs, 
and Skin, and of their Treatment by 
Water and other Hygienic means. $1.50. 
For Girls; A Special Physiology, or 
Supplement to the Study of General Phy- 
siology. By Mrs. E. R. Shepherd. $1.00. 
Page (C. E., M.D.)-How to Feed 
the Baby to make her Healthy and Hap- 
py. 121110. Third edition, revised and 
enlarged. Paper, 50 cents; extra cloth, 
75 cents. 
This is the most important work ever publish- 
ed on the subject of infant dietetics. 
The Natural Cure of Consump- 
TION, Constipation, Bright's Disease, Neu- 
ralgia, Rheumatism, "Colds" (Fevers), 
etc. How these Disorders Originate, and 
How to Prevent Them. i2mo, cloth, $1.00. 
Health in the Household ; or, Hygi- 
enic Cookery. By Susanna W. Dodds, 
M.D. xamo, extra cloth, $2.co. 
Horses : their Feed and their Feet. 
-A Manual of Horse Hygiene. Invaluable 
to the veteran or the novice, pointing out 
the true sources of disease, and how to pre- 
vent and counteract them. By C. E. 
Page, M.D. Paper 50 cts., cloth 75 cts. 
Diseases of Modern Life. By Ben- 
jamin Ward Richardson, M.D., M.A., 
F.R.S. 520 pages, $1.50. 
Gully (J. M., M.D.) and Wilson 
(James, M. D.)-Practice of the 
Water-Cure, with Authenticated Evi- 
dence of its Efficacy and Safety. Con- 
taining a Detailed Account of the various 
Processes used in the Water Treatment, 
a Sketch of the History and Progress of 
the Water-Cure. 50 cents. 
Jacques (D. H., M.D.)-The Tem- 
peraments; or, Varieties of Physical 
Constitution in Man, considered in their 
relation to Mental Character and Practical 
Affairs of Life. With an Introduction 
by H. S. Drayton, A.M., Editor of the 
Phrenological Journal. 150 Portraits 
and other Illustrations. $1.50. 
How to Grow Handsome, or 
Hints toward Physical Perfection, and 
the Philosophy of Human Beauty, show- 
ing How to Acquire and Retain Bodily 
Symmetry, Health, and Vigor, secure 
Long Life, and Avoid the Infirmities and 
Deformities of Age. New Edition. $1.00. 
Johnson (Edward, M.D.)-Demes- 
ne Practice of Hydropathy, with 
Fifteen Engraved Illustrations of impor- 
tant subjects, from Drawings by Dr. How- 
ard Johnson. $1.50. 
White (Wm., M.D.)-Medical Elec- 
TRICITY.-A Manual for Students, show- 
ing the most Scientific and Rational Ap- 
plication to all forms of Diseases, of the 
different Combinations of Electricity, 
Galvanism, Electro-Magnetism, Magneto- 
Electricity, and Human- Magnetism. 
12010, $2.00. 
Transmission ; or, Variations of Char- 
acter Through the Mother. By Georg- 
iana B. Kirby. 25 cis., cloth, 50 cts. 
Sent by Mail, post-paid. Fowler & Wells, Publishers, 753 Broadway, New York. 
4 WORKS ON HEALTH AND HYGIENE. 
Peck (J. L.;-The Human Feet.- 
Their Shape, Dress, and Proper Care. 
Showing their Natural, Perfect Shape 
and Construction, their present Deformed 
Condition, and how Flat Feet, Distorted 
Toes, and other Defects are to be Prevent- 
ed or Corrected. Illustrated. $1.00. 
The Diseases of Modern Life. By 
B. W. Richardson, M.D. Ex. clo , $1.50. 
Pendleton (Hester, Mrs.) - The 
Parents' Guide ; or, Human Develop- 
ment through Pre-Natal Influences and 
Inherited Tendencies. Revised Ed. $1.25. 
Pereira (Jonathan, M.D., F.R.S.)- 
Food and Diet. With observations on 
the Dietetical Regimen, suited for Dis- 
ordered States of the Digestive Organs, 
and an account of the Dietaries of some of 
the Principal Metropolitan and other Es- 
tablishments for Paupers, Lunatics, Crim- 
inals, Children, the Sick, etc. Edited by 
Charles A. Lee, M.D. $1.40. 
Shew (Joel, M.D.)-The Family 
Physician.-A Ready Prescriber and 
Hygienic Adviser. With Reference to 
the Nature, Causes, Prevention, and 
Treatment of Diseases, Accidents, and 
Casualties of every kind. With a Glossary 
and copious Index. Illustrated with nearly 
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8