The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1886-10-30
MASSAGE.
From Chambers Journal.

From Chambers Journal
Massage as hygienic agent was prac-
ticed from the earliest times and is proba-
bly, as old as surgery itself, or, as it would
be more exact to say, as old as mankind.
The word is derived from the Greek "to
knead' and the Arabic 'to press softly"
A Chinese manuscript, the date of which
is 5000 years before the Christian era,
contains an account of operations similar
to those of the present day; friction, knead-
ing, manipulating, rolling-all the proceed
ures now grouped together under the name
of massage The translator of this curious
record, a French missionary at Pekin,
finds it to include all the characteristics of
an ancient scientific mode of treatment;
and it has been wittily remarked that how
ever it may rejuvenate those who submit
to its influence, the wrinkles of time can
not be removed from its own ancient
visage. With the Egyptians, Greeks, and
Romans form of massage was the COM
mon accompaniment of the bath, and was
used as luxury, as a means of fastening
tedious conyalescence, and to render the
limbs supple and enduring. Rubbing and
amounting were sometimes done by medical
practitioners themselves or by the priests,
or sometimes by slaves. Herodicus, one
of the masters of Hippocrates in the fifth
century B. c., first proposed gymnastics as
a cure for disease. He was the superior
officer of the Gymnasium at Athens, and
by compelling his patients 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 prac-
tice of his own remedies, attained the age
of 100. The earliest definite information
regarding massage comes from Hippo
crates, who says: "The physician must
be experienced in many things, but as
suredly also in rubbing; for things that
have the same name have not always the
same effects, for rubbing can bind joint
that is too loose and loosen a joint that is
too rigid. He also used the word ana
tripsis, the process of rubbing up, and not
down, although not understanding the
reason of it, as it was not till 500 years
later that Galen pointed out that the arte-
ries 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, exercise, and friction should keep
the body without disease; and Cicero af-
firmed that he owed as much of his health
to his anointer as he did to his physician.
Plutarch tells us that Julius Caesar had
himself pinched all over daily as 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 re-
quires his system to be replenished;" and
Pliny availed himself of mode of treat
ment which was evidently much in fashion
in his day, and derived so much benefit
from the remedy that he obtained for his
physician, who was Jew, the privileges of
Roman citizenship. 1t is related of the
Emperor Hadrian that one day, seeing a
veteran soldier rubbing himself against the
marble at the public baths, he asked him
why he did SO. The veteran answered !:
II have no slave to rub me- Whereupon
the Emperor gave him two slaves and suf-
fcient to maintain 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 direct
ed them to rub one another