Lepage, in his historical researches on Chinese medicine, relates that massage was a particular practice borrowed from the Indians, and that it was by such means that the Brahmins effected their miraculous cures. The word shampooing is of Hindu origin; but it must be borne in mind that these Old-world practices were only a faint foreshadowing of the present scientific method. In his _Dictionnaire des Sciences Médicales_, Piorry remarks that the simplest form of massage prevails wherever the people have least outgrown their primitive state; and travellers describe it as universally common in countries where nature alone dictates the remedy for accident or disease. Captain Cook, in his voyage to Tahiti, describes that on arriving they were hospitably received, and that in the corner of a hut, carefully closed over with reeds, a large piece of matting was spread on the ground for them, and that their legs and arms were rubbed and the muscles softly pressed until all signs of fatigue had disappeared. The _Gazette des Hôpitaux_, in 1839, relates how massage is practised in the island of Tonga: ‘When a person feels tired with walking or any other exercise, he lies down, and his servants go through the various operations known under the names of Toogi-toogi, mili, or fota. The first of these words expresses the action of beating constantly and softly; the second, of rubbing with the palm of the hand; the third, of pressing and tightening the muscles between the thumb and fingers. When the fatigue is very great, young children are set to tread under their feet the whole body of the patient.’ The lomi-lomi of the Sandwich Islanders is much the same thing: the process is spoken of as being that of neither kneading, squeezing, nor rubbing, but now like one, and now like the other. Dr N. B. Emerson relates that the Hawaiians are a famous race of swimmers, and to a foreigner seem amphibious. When wrecked, they sometimes swim long distances; and if one of their number becomes exhausted, they sustain him in the water and lomi-lomi him. When perfectly refreshed, they proceed upon their watery way.