From Reynolds Weekly¹, 22nd July 1894, courtesy of Wellcome Library It is one of the proud glories of our civilisation that it is perpetually breeding new diseases, the very names of which, invented by our fashionable physicians, would have made our good old great grandfathers stare and gasp. And as soon as these diseases have, so to speak, got into working order, and are doing their deadly execution, with a vigour worthy of a better cause, some new remedy is suggested to our civilised victims, which soon becomes all the rage. One of the best known of these recent remedies is called massage, and it is supposed to be of use in rheumatic, nervous, and other affections. Massage, in plainer … [Read more...] about Massage and aristocracy c.1894
ISIH conference abstracts submitted
I've decided to submit two abstracts for the ISIH conference next year. The first follows some work I've been doing for a chapter I'm writing for an upcoming book by Franziska Trede and Celina McEwen titled 'Educating the deliberate professional: Preparing practitioners for emergent futures', and looks at the historical role played by artisans and whether professions like physiotherapy might find some meaningful and interesting ways to reinvent this role in 21st century health care. This is the first abstract: Re-inventing artisans for 21st century health care Calls for health professionals to be more than ‘technical rationalists’ have been prominent in professionalization … [Read more...] about ISIH conference abstracts submitted
The Medical Profession and Massage Establishments (from The Lancet, 1897)
Massage in Sciatica from 1886
From The Lancet, June 26 1886, p.1232 Professor Max Schüller of Berlin is convinced (Deutsche Med. Wochensch., No. 24) of the superiority of massage over other measures employed in the treatment of sciatica, and relates his experience of fifteen cases--all in males, and, except in one or two instances (which were traumatic), due to exposure to cold. Most of the cases were dealt with from the first by massage ; but in a few instances electricity, vapour baths, &c., had been fruitlessly employed prior to coming under his care. The modus operandi is as follows. The patient lies on the unaffected side with knees and hips slightly flexed. The course of the sciatic nerve is rubbed from … [Read more...] about Massage in Sciatica from 1886
