Injuries of nerves and their consequences - Reflex Sympathetic ...

250 INJURIES OF NERVES.
At the United States Army Hospital, we carefully
trained several clever sergeants to act as rubbers, and
some of these men became extremely expert. For success,
the manipulator must be not only tender and gentle,
but also strong and enduring, because a treatment by
massage extending over an hour, as it should do, will
severely task the strength of most men.
If only the skin is to be acted on or excited, the operator
should pinch lightly every part of the surface, and move
it to and fro over the subjacent parts. The most intense
reddening may be brought about in this manner.
When the limb is wasted, and there is general sluggishness
or loss of function, the skin may
first be treated
by gently pinching and tapping it; then the joints are
to be moved in turn, and lastly the muscles acted upon
by firmly but gently kneading, rolling, and working
them,— gradually increasing the power employed. I prefer
also that every sitting should be preceded by a local
hot bath.
At the close of the manipulation,
if it has lasted a
half-hour or an hour, the limb becomes warm or even
hot, the temperature rising by therniometric determination
one or two degrees F.* The skin under this usage
seems to become thinner, more pliable, and less bound
down to the parts beneath it,
while the increase of tone
in every muscle at all
capable of response
is most remarkable.
I have several times noticed that muscles which were
previously sluggish, after being thoroughly kneaded would
contract far more readily when faradised.
The general result seems to show that there is also a
reflex influence exerted on the centres, because excessive
kneading will sometimes, like induction currents, cause
* In infantile and traumatic palsy.