But
usually in a few days a change takes place, and the limbs all grow warm
when kneaded, as happens in most people from the beginning of the
treatment.[19] The extremely low temperature of the limbs of children
suffering with so-called essential paralysis is well known. I have
frequently seen these strangely cold parts rise, under an hour's
massage, six to ten degrees F. In such small limbs, the long contact of
a warm hand may account for at least a part of this notable rise in
temperature. In adults this can hardly be looked upon as a cause of the
rise of temperature produced by massage, first, because the long
exposure of large surfaces incident to the process is calculated to
lessen whatever increase of heat the contact of the hand may cause, and
secondly, because this rise is a very variable quantity, and because
occasionally some other and less comprehensible factors actually induce
a fall rather than a rise in the thermometer as a result of massage.
In very nervous or hysterical women, ignorant of what the act of
kneading may be expected to bring about, and especially in such as are
thin and anaemic and have either a somewhat high or an unusually low
normal temperature, we may find at first a slight fall of the
thermometer, then a fairly constant rise, with some irregularities, and
at last, as the health improves, a lessening effect or none at all.
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