University of Virginia Library

GENERAL REMARKS

• I. It is rather difficult to fix the time for a massage treatment. Dr. Mezger works only a few minutes (five to twelve minutes), but I am satisfied that he accomplishes more in that time than many do in half an hour. As a rule, use shorter time for a local than for a constitutional affection.

  In the rest-cure some eminent physicians begin with fifteen to twenty minutes, gradually increasing the time to an hour or even longer.

• II. The weakest person may be treated by massage, since it is a remedy so easily adapted to circumstances and so perfectly controlled.
• III. The patient ought not feel any severe pain or disagreeable fatigue after the treatment. Should such be the effect, stop the treatment for a few days, and on resuming it regulate the pressure carefully.
• IV. After each treatment the patient should rest for at least half an hour in a comfortable position.
• V. The patient should be urged to refrain from excessive eating and drinking, and the treatment should not be applied within two hours after meals.
• VI. The operator must breathe freely while, giving the treatment, and must be in a proper position, neither too close to the patient nor too far off.

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• VII. The temperature of the room should be 70°-75° F.; the operator should always be careful to cover up the part massaged and avoid having any draft from windows or doors.
• VIII. The operator should possess good health and muscular strength. He should be cheerful and of refined habits, and should have a fair education, with a perfect knowledge of the principal facts in anatomy and physiology.
• IX. Massage treatment is an art which can not be self-acquired, but must be taught by an experienced instructor.
• X. The manual treatment of disease ought to be regulated by the medical profession; hence the physician's order should be properly carried out, even though the operator be of a different opinion.
• XI. A student of massage should have the treatment applied to his own body, by that ascertaining the proper pressure to be used upon the various tissues.

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