University of Virginia Library

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION

As the tendency of modern therapeutics is to cure disease by the application of the laws of hygiene, the author feels that in presenting this little work to the medical profession, and to those especially interested in the subject, he will be supplying in English a treatise that has long been needed.

It is true, several books have been written on this subject by physicians, but none of them has been sufficiently explicit in telling how to perform the various manipulations, or the cases which may be benefited by the movements.

This work endeavors to explain how the movements are to be applied to all parts of the body, and also to show for what diseases such movements are indicated.

I am very much indebted to Drs. Charles K. Mills and H. Augustus Wilson for their kindness in giving me ample opportunity to practically demonstrate the Swedish methods of massage and movements at the Philadelphia Polyclinic and College for Graduates in Medicine.

I am also under obligations to several other professors

of the same institution for valuable information received.

In describing the various movements and their influence upon the different parts of the body, I have consulted such well-known Swedish authors as Wretlind, Hartelius, Kleen, etc.

It is hoped that this little text-book will be a practical and valuable addition to what has already been published on the subject of mechanotherapy.