From the earliest times rubbing of some sort has been used for curative purposes. It is known to have been employed by the Chinese as far back as 3000 b.c. It was probably from them that the Japanese learnt the art, which is still much used by both.

Greeks, Romans, Turks, Egyptians, Hindoos and Persians, have always practised a sort of massage.

Well-known names along all the centuries are connected with it.

Herodicus, 500 b.c., the founder of Medical Gymnastics compelled his patients to have their bodies rubbed.

Hippocrates, 460 b.c., said the physicians should be experienced in rubbing, ' for things that have the same name have not always the same effect. For rubbing can bind a joint that is too loose, and loosen a joint that is too rigid.' ' Rubbing can make flesh, and cause parts to waste.'

Asclepiades, a Greek physician, 128 b.c., used rubbing combined with active movements.

Julius Caesar, 100 b.c., had himself pinched all over every day as a means of getting rid of neuralgia.

Celsus, a Roman physician, at the beginning of the Christian era, advised that friction should be used several times a day in the sun, and found that ' chronic pains in the head are relieved by rubbing the head itself,' and that 'a paralyzed limb is strengthened by being rubbed.'

Galen, a.d. 130, Physician to the School of Gladiators at Pergamos, as a preparation for the exercises, ordered the bodies of the combatants to be rubbed till they were red and then anointed.

Ambrose Paré, a.d. 1575, described 'gentle, medium, and vigorous friction,' and the effects of each, and recommended that in dislocations joints should be moved about 'this way and that way ' in order to resolve the effused fluids so as to facilitate reduction.

Hoffman, Physician to the King of Prussia about 1700, recommended rubbing and exercises.

Two hundred years ago the French used massage extensively. Then it is heard of among the Scandinavians and Germans, by whom it was scientifically worked out. Mr. Grosvenor, a Surgeon at Oxford, in the early part of 1800, became famous by his success in curing stiff joints by friction. About the same time or later Mr. Balfour, of Edinburgh, treated rheumatism, gout, sprains, etc., by rubbing, percussion, and compression. In 1813 the Royal Central Institute was established at Stockholm, and Peter Henry Ling introduced his system of movements. He was not the originator of the Swedish movements, but he systematized them. They were divided by him into passive, active, and resistive movements.

The passive movements include manipulation of the muscles ; many of the movements used now in massage were used by Ling. The movements done on the body and those done with a part of the body, such as flexion and extension of a limb, are both passive movements, but in this country it is the custom to divide them, and to speak of the former as massage, and the latter as passive or Swedish movements. It must not be; supposed that in using these movements in connection with massage there is any pretension to the Swedish movement cure. Exercises of all sorts are now very much used, and there are several systems, but all are based on Ling's system.

Active movements are those done by the patient's own effort.

Resistive movements are performed by the patient while the operator resists, or a part of the patient's body is moved by the operator while resistance is given by the patient.

Passive movements act chiefly on the joints and on blood-vessels, lymphatics and nerves connected with them.

Active and resistive movements act on the muscles in a greater degree, the will of the patient being brought to bear on the movement. They all cause increase of arterial and venous circulation, and accelerate the lymph flow.

It remained for Dr. Mezger, of Amsterdam, to revive massage, and put it on a scientific basis ; he practised it in 1860, and some years later was brought into prominence by his cure of the then Danish Crown Prince, who had suffered from a chronic joint affection.

Professors Von Mosengeil, Berghman and Helleday, pupils of Dr. Mezger, made many experiments, and from this time (1860 to 1874) massage became a recognised treatment everywhere.

In 1877 Dr. Weir Mitchell, an American neurologist, had proved its usefulness as an auxiliary in his treatment of hysteria, and was instrumental in introducing it into this country. Since then it has been taken up by the leading physicians and surgeons.

Many other names might be mentioned ; the above are sufficient to show how massage has been handed down from the earliest times, and that it is not, as one still often hears, a ' new treatment.' During the last few years some books on the subject have been published in this country, notably those by Dr. Stretch Dowse, Dr. W. Murrell, and Dr. S. Eccles, which should be studied by every masseuse.

Massage is not a panacea for every ill, but it has proved to be a good remedy in cases in which it is indicated, and they are neither few nor far between.

It is now more used and on a better footing as a remedial agent than it has ever been.

The shampooing done in a Turkish bath is not massage ; it is pleasant and useful, but it is not scientific, and is done by persons who have no knowledge of anatomy ; nor is it necessary they should have, but to do massage properly and to be able to follow intelligently the directions of the medical man, some knowledge of anatomy is essential.