It is a fact that I have known
country physicians who, desiring to use massage and not having a
practitioner of it within reach, have themselves trained persons to do
it, with considerable resultant success.
It is not, perhaps, putting it too strongly to say that bad massage is
better than none in those cases in which manipulation is needed. Very
little harm can result from its use even by unskilled hands, provided
that reasonable intelligence direct them.
CHAPTER VII.
ELECTRICITY.
Electricity is the second means which I have made use of for the purpose
of exercising muscles in persons at rest. It has also an additional
value, of which I shall presently speak.
In order to exercise the muscles best and with the least amount of pain
and annoyance, we make use of an induction current, with interruptions
as slow as one in every two to five seconds, a rate readily obtained in
properly-constructed batteries.[24] This plan is sure to give painless
exercise, but it is less rapid and less complete as to the quality of
the exercise caused than the movements evolved by very rapid
interruptions.
Pages:
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109