Excerpt from Massage: Its Principles and Practice This book is not intended to serve as a Text-book for the massage student. For such many books are already on the market, and there is no need to add to their number. Moreover, it will be recognised by the experienced masseur that many of the views herein expressed are unorthodox and are therefore dangerous diet for one whose main object in the immediate future is to satisfy examiners. I have undertaken the heavy task of writing a book in war-time, at the request of my publishers, with two main objects in view. The first is to try to point out, as far as I can, to the practising masseurs and masseuses, what I consider to be the rationale of massage treatment, and to endeavour to introduce into their technique more generally than is at present the case the care and gentleness, which appear to me as the key to the riddle of the exact nature of the massage which will most speedily yield a successful result. The six months' training at present in vogue is totally inadequate for efficiency or thorough teaching. My aim is to supplement both as far as can be done by the study of a book. The second object I had in mind - which, I fear, is less likely to be realised - was that I might be able to place in the hands of my professional brethren a book to which they can refer when issuing instructions to their masseurs. A medical man who fails to issue adequate instructions may often be responsible for the failure for which his masseur is blamed. Another fertile source of disappointment is found in the lack of experience inseparable from a course of training limited to six months. When a medical man orders massage he should not try to hand over his responsibility to the masseur. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.