Medical indoor gymnastics, or, A system of hygienic exercises for home use to be practised anywhere without apparatus or assistance by young and old of either sex, for the preservation of health and general activity / by D. G. M. Schreber ; revised and supplemented by Rudolf Graefe ; translated from the 26th German edition by Herbert A. Day.

  • Schreber, Daniel Gottlieb Moritz, 1808-1861.
Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical indoor gymnastics, or, A system of hygienic exercises for home use to be practised anywhere without apparatus or assistance by young and old of either sex, for the preservation of health and general activity / by D. G. M. Schreber ; revised and supplemented by Rudolf Graefe ; translated from the 26th German edition by Herbert A. Day. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    and Where to carry it out, for it to become of permanent benefit to our race. The means of attaining this should be the business of the physician, and is the object of this work. For in bringing forward this method we offer no specific or secret opera- tions, no artificially constructed system, but are following honestly the paths of nature, which can restore the invalid to health by the same method and means by which the healthy body is developed and preserved. The movements indicated are absolutely natural, as they are grounded on the mechanism of the human body, and sugggested by the conformation of its joints. For this reason we recommend tins method, both for the normal development and mainte- nance of health, and for healing special maladies. And it is the cheapest and most practicable of any, for our own bodies are the only instruments used. The importance of an all-round, carefully planned system of exercises, which shall be from every point of view safe, always practicable, and suited to all circumstances, must be generally recognised, although its full value will per- haps be only realised by future generations. It is the most natural method for bringing the constantly rising tide of cul- ture in each rank of society into harmonious cooperation with the physical laws which govern our human organism. It completes and perfects the whole development of the body, preserves it from countless defects and disorders, while laying the necessary foundation for the development of the mind. Our exercises comprehend all the muscles of the body, and are arranged in a system of simple gymnastics of action, which from their origin are called the German sys- tem, to distinguish them from the Swedish, which consists principally in movements of resistance, which can only be carried out with the help of skilled gymnasts or complicated apparatus. I must apologise for the somewhat outspoken