Swedish movements or medical gymnastics / by T.J. Hartelius ; translated by A.B. Olsen ; with introduction and notes by J.H. Kellogg.

  • Hartelius, T. J. (Truls Johan), 1818-1896.
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Swedish movements or medical gymnastics / by T.J. Hartelius ; translated by A.B. Olsen ; with introduction and notes by J.H. Kellogg. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    EDITOR'S PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. Although known in this country for thirty years or more, the practice of Swedish movements has, until very recently, been con- fined to scarcely more than half a dozen individuals, excluding, of course, those who, although attempting to practice the Swedish sys- tem, have had so slight a knowledge of the subject that they cannot properly be said to have employed it. Within the last few years, however, the knowledge of the many cures effected by this system in cases otherwise deemed incurable, and especially the growth of interest in the physiological mode of treatment of disease, has created a widespread demand for a better knowledge respecting this 83'stem of medical gymnastics, which, though so little used in this and most other countries, has been very extensively employed in Sweden, the place of its origin, for more than three quarters of a century. It is for the purpose of meeting this demand for informa- tion in relation to one of the most effective of therapeutic agencies, that this translation has been prepared. A few fragmentary works have previously appeared, but up to the present there has been no English publication upon this subject which could be regarded as authoritative. Before speaking further of the work itself, it may be of interest to those of our readers to whom this subject is new, to glance briefly over the history of gymnastics as applied for medical pur- poses. The very earliest of medical treatises refer to exercise as a therapeutic means. The early Greeks and Romans, as well as the earlier Egyptians, made a more or less systematic use of gymnastics in the treatment of disease. The Chinese and other nations whose history reaches back into prehistoric times, were found, when first discovered by Europeans, in possession of a highly elaborated sys- tem of gymnastics, which was employed both for military training and for medical purposes. The writer has in his possession an