Massage and its applications : a concluding lecture delivered to nurses and masseuses, at the School of Electricity and Massage in connection with the West-End Hospital for Diseases of the Nervous System, Paralysis, and Epilepsy, 73, Welbeck Street, London, W. / by Herbert Tibbits.

  • Tibbits, Herbert, 1838-1907.
Date:
[1887]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Massage and its applications : a concluding lecture delivered to nurses and masseuses, at the School of Electricity and Massage in connection with the West-End Hospital for Diseases of the Nervous System, Paralysis, and Epilepsy, 73, Welbeck Street, London, W. / by Herbert Tibbits. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    I weep for you, he sadly sighed, But you are very thin, With tears and sobs, he signed to The Nurses to begin : And yet for all the pain they gave, He did'nt care a pin. Before the Doctor spoke again The clocks had all struck one ; Now, patient, rise, and get you gone 1 But answer came there none ; And this was scarcely odd, because They'd kiUed the suffering one. I hope none of you will be so unfortunate, so unfeeling, so cruel, so clumsy, or so idiotic, as were the Doctor and the Nurses in this case ; but with the best intentions,—in Massage, as in other things,—there are prevalent fallacies as to invari- able results; as to the cases most likely to derive benefit; and as to the length to which each seance should extend. Some writers advocate an application so long even as two hours, twice or three times a day. Others say from four to ten minutes, three or four times a day, is all that is required. Probably the medium time between these extremes will be the best—half to three quarters of an hour once or twice daily, but each case must be carefully considered and treated according to the individual requirements of the patient. No one in his senses would prescribe the same method and duration of Massage to a very stout old lady of seventy, as he would to a nervous, thin girl of seventeen. I will now mention the signally beneficial results of Massage in certain uterine misplacements. As you are aware, the uterus is an organ freely movable, and therefore under certain circumstances, apt to get misplaced, with much discomfort and suffering to the patient. When sucli a con- dition exists, (and of course this must be determined by a medical man), Massage is often of the very greatest use, and, nut seldom, will put matters riijlit ivithout any other treatment hemj required. In addition to misplacements, the uterus is unfortunately given to having tumours in connection with it, and these tumours render the case a much more anxious one to the physician, than any mere displacement of that organ could do. In such circumstances we should call Electricity to our aid. C—2.