Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1886-11-04
MASSAGE.
from Chambers journal. !

Massage as a hygienic agent was practiced
from the earliest times and is probably as
old surgery itself, or, it would be more
exact to say, old mankind. The word
is derived from the Greek ''to knead' and
manuscript the date of which is three thou
sand years before the Christian era, contains
an account of operations similar to those of
the present day; friction, kneading, manipu-
lating, rolling-all the procedures now
grouped together under the name of mas
sage. The translator of this curious record,
French missionary at Pekin, finds it to in
clude all the characteristics of an ancient
scientific mode of treatment; and it has
been wittily remarked that however it may
rejuvenate those who submit to its influence,
the wrinkles of time cannot be removed
from its own ancient visage. With the
Egyptians, Greeks and Romans form of
massage was the common accompaniment of
the bath, and was used q luxury, d
means of fastening tedious eonvalescence
and to render the limbs supple aud endur-
ing. Rubbing and amounting were some
times done by medical practitioners them
selves or by the priests, or sometimes by
slaves. Herodlcus, one of the masters of
Hippocrates in the fifth century B. c., 6rst
proposed gymnastics as cure for disease.
He was the superior officer of the gymnasi-
UNI at Athens, and by compelling his pa
tients to undergo various exercises and to
have their bodies rubbed is said to have
heightened their lives, insomuch that Plato
reproached him for protracting that existence
in which, as years advanced, they could have
less and less enjoyment. He himself, by
the practice of his own remedies, attained
the age of one hundred The earliest def
mite information regarding massage comes
from Hippocrates, who says: ''The physi-
clan must be experienced in many things,
but assuredly also in rubbing; for things
that have the same name have not always
the same effects, for rubbing can bind a
Joint that is too loose and loosen a joint that
is too rigid" He also used the word ana
trit sis, the process of rubbing up and not
down, although not understanding the rea-
son of it, as it was not till five hundred years
later that Galen pointed out that the arteries
were not filled with air, as their name would
seem to imply. Asclepiades was probably
not far wrong when he founded his school at
Rome on the belief that diet, bathing, exer-
else and friction should keep the body with
out disease; and Cicero affirmed that he
owed as much of his health to his anointer
as he did to his physician. flutarch tells
us that Julius Caesar had himself pinched
all over daily as a means of getting rid of a
general neuralgia. CELSIUS, at the beginning
of the Christian era. advised that rubbing
should be applied to the whole body ''when
an invalid requires his system to be replen-
ished;" and Pliny availed himself of mode
of treatment which was evidently much in
fashion in his day, and derived so much ben
eft from the remedy that he obtained for his
physician, who was Jew, the privilege of
Roman citizenship. 1t is related of the EN-
peror Hadrian that one day, seeing veteran
soldier rubbing himself against the marble
at the public baths, he asked him why be
did So The veteran answered: 81 have no
slave to rub me-" Whereupon the Emperor
gave him two slaves and sufficient to main
tain them 1t is quantity added to this story
that the next day several old men rubbed
themselves against the wall in the Emperor's
presence, when, perceiving their object, he
shrewdly directed them to rub one another.