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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    here we must not go so far as some too enthusiastic devotees of curative gymnastics, who proclaim them as wonder- working, universal remedies, allowing scarcely anything to ha ve any value beside them. For there is no universal remedy or panacea, nor can there be, for our complicated human organism and conditions of life, which seem almost to attract as many divers forms of disease. Nevertheless, when we impartially restrict curative gymnastics to their proper sphere, and make use of them in close connection with the general science of healing, every unprejudiced person will be compelled to recognise them as a remedy which is really often indispensable, and an important adjunct to the science. In order to place before my readers the true grounds for forming a judgment of the nature of cura- tive gymnastics in general, and a proper estimation of the remedial powers of bodily exercise, I must endeavour to make them realise, at least in general outline, the physiological significance of the organs of movement, — the muscular system, — and the part which these occupy in the economy of the entire organism. The human organism is constituted with a view to the complete activity of all its parts and organs. If, then, we desire to develop ourselves in accordance with this view, and so preserve a normal, i. e., sound state of health, we must maintain that activity of mind and body which our individual powers require. But complete activity of the body by muscular exercise and movement is far more neces- sary than that of the mind, as the following considerations will show more clearly. The whole organic life is based upon the constant renova- tion of its materials, the evacuation of old material which has been used up in the process of living, and the reception or adaptation of new organic, material which the body ac- quires from foods and from the air we breathe. The fires of