Massage in one form or another has been practised from immemorial ages by all nations. Captain Cook tells us, in his narrative of the people of Otaheite, New Holland, and other parts of Oceania, that they practise massage in a way very similar to that which is employed by more civilized nations. For the relief of muscular fatigue they resort to a process which they call toogi-toogi, or light percussion regularly applied for a long time. They also employ kneading and friction under the names of Miti and Fota. African travellers inform us that the medicine-men use these processes for the relief of injuries to the joints, fractures, and pain of the muscles. Our word shampooing is said to have been derived from the Hindu term chamboning. Dr. N. B. Emerson, in 1870, gave an account of the lomi-lomi of the Sandwich Islanders. He says that, “when footsore and weary in every muscle, so that no position affords rest, and sleep cannot be obtained, these manipulations relieve the stiffness and soothe to sleep, so that the unpleasant effects of excessive exercise are not felt the next day, but an unwonted suppleness of joint and muscle comes instead.”[91] When we receive a blow or strike our bodies against a hard substance, we instinctively rub the affected part. This is one of the simplest and most effectual examples of natural surgery. When the emollient properties of oil were discovered, rubbing with oil, or inunction, was practised. The use of oil for this purpose in the East is extremely ancient. Amongst the Greeks there was a class of rubbers who anointed the bodies of the athletes. The oil was very thoroughly rubbed in, so that the pores of the skin were closed and the profuse perspiration thereby prevented. After the contest the athlete was subjected to massage with oil, so as to restore the tone of the strained muscles. These aliptae came to be recognised as a sort of medical trainers. A similar class of slaves attended their masters in the Roman baths, and they were also possessed of a certain kind of medical knowledge. Discussing the origin of the operation of trepanning, Sprengel says that “nothing is more instructive, in the history of human knowledge, than to go back to the origin, or the clumsy rough sketch of the discoveries to which man was conducted by accident or reflection, and to follow the successive improvements which his methods and his instruments undergo.”[92] The name of the inventor of this operation is lost in the night of time. Hippocrates gives us the first account of trepanning in his treatise on Wounds of the Head. We know, however, that it was performed long before his time. Dr. Handerson, the translator of Baas’ _History of Medicine_, says that human skulls of the neolithic period have been discovered which bear evidences of trepanning.[93]