Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1886-11-05
The Court system of Medicine.

Massage has made such a progress
that its professors have acquired some
right to the title of court physicians.
Among the eminent personages who have
recently undergone treatment from mas
sage operators are Secretaries Manning,
Bayard and Whitney. Gen. Phil Sheridan
and even President Cleveland himself.
One of the alleged advantages of the
treatment is that it enables man who is
rich and ndolent or too weak to stlnd
the exhaustion to have his exercising done
for him so that his health may not only
not grow worse, but may constantly i'm.
prove 1t is said to be especially benetic>
ial in the treatment of obesity some
thing with which both the president
and General Sheridan are considerably
troubled MI. 0sbaldiston, who oper-
ated upon the president and Secretary
Manning, recently showed to b reporter
what the treatment is. The patient was
IL stalwart young man. He stripped and
stretched himself on bis back on a long.
narrow table that would have served
well for a diSsecting table. but for the
fact tina. it was covered with
hard hair cushions. His arms were
stretched above his head. So that his
h.,
cred with a soft blanket except his right
leg. The operator. in his shirt sleeves
and with his sleeves rolled up took the
patients biz toe between his fingers and
gave it a sort If rotary Motion, pressing
it in towards the foot very gently and yet
with such force that The patient could
feel the ends of the bones at the Joint
rubbing against each other The friction
produced a pleasant glow and warmth.
All the toes were treated in the same
way. Then. grasping the foot in one
hand and the calf of the leg IN the other,
tie operator put the foot through Il series
Of gyrations that started the glow and
warmth in the ankle joints. With his
left hand on the patients knee and the
right claspiug the heel. the operator
made the POINTS of the heel the knee and
hip fairly Jingle, The limb was twisted,
turned, cOntOrted and extended through
Ill hn % MI, oh :, :,
capable, and that at the rate of about
100 motions 4 minute. The other leg
was treated in like manner. So were the
hands and arms This was the ''artic>
ulation" of the joints and muscles. Then
the operator returned to the feet again
The muscles were caught between the
fingers and palm of the operators hand
and at once squeezed, rotated, stretched,
and rubbed by complicated movement
which the operator said could be learned
after about six weeks practice. This
treatment was also applied to the muscles
of the trunk Of The body. The next
treatment was sort OF thrashinS. Inc
ends of four rubber tubes, each half
inch in diameter and nine or ten inches
long, were secured to a handle that
looked like that of varnish brush. The
patient was covered with a blanket and
whipped from foot to head with this cat
o'-four-tails. The blows were glancing
instead of direct.
This ended the manipulations by the
operator. There remained the movements
which the patient must make himself.
These were sort of calistheniCs. The pa
iient stood upright and waived his hands
above and clinched his fists in way that
brought into play every muscle of the
arms and chest.