The People's Common Sense Medical Adviser in Plain English: or, Medicine Simplified, 54th ed., One Million, Six Hundred; and Fifty Thousand — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
The People's Common Sense Medical Adviser in Plain English: or, Medicine Simplified, 54th ed., One Million, Six Hundred; and Fifty Thousand
John Stuart Mill · en
The difficulty in administering motion as a remedial agent by manual
effort, such as rubbing, kneading, oscillating, flexing, and extending
the limbs, lies in the impossibility of supplying the _amount,
intensity_, and _variety_ of movement required to make it most
effective. The power of the arm and the strength of the operator are
exhausted before the desired effect is produced. Inventive genius has at
last overcome the obstacles to the successful and perfect administration
of motion as a curative agent. We have now a series of machines
propelled by mechanical power, by the use of which we rub, knead,
manipulate, and apply in succession a great variety of movements to all
parts of the body. These machines transmit motion to the body from
inexhaustible sources, never tire, but are ever ready for new, remedial
conquests. The movements administered by their use, _while entirely
under the control of the patient_, are never disagreeable, and are far
more rapid and intense than can possibly be given by the hands. By the
application of short, quick movements of from _twelve to fifteen hundred
vibrations a minute_, deep-seated organs and parts are reached, to which
motion is transmitted and in which vital energy is thereby generated.
The hands have not the power, by kneading, manipulating, or rubbing to
impress the system except in a very mild degree, and deep-seated organs
and parts are scarcely influenced by the comparatively slow movements
thus administered. Among the most important, mechanical inventions
devised for administering motion as a remedial agent, is one which has
received the name of the _manipulator_.
THE MANIPULATOR. With this machine motion can be applied to any organ or
part of the system, and intensity of the application regulated to a
nicety. The rapidity of motion necessary to produce active exhilaration
of any part of the body is easily secured by the use of the manipulator,
but is far beyond the power of the hands. The degree of circulation
given to the fluids, both inside and outside of the vessels, and of
energy imparted to the organs and parts operated upon by the
manipulator, is also unapproachable by the application of manual power.
EFFECTS UPON THE CIRCULATION AND NUTRITION. The influence of motion on
these functions is as follows: The contents of the blood-vessels are
moved onward by the pressure and motion transmitted by the manipulator,
all backward movement of the blood being prevented by the valves of the
veins and by the propelling power of the heart and arteries. Fluids
outside these vessels pass through their walls, to take the place of the
stagnant blood that has been moved onward. Other blood flows into the
part, and thus active and healthy circulation is induced, and nutritive
material, capable of affording vital support is also brought to refresh
the local part.