Historic Descriptions of Massage, Part Two
The following are notations and descriptions of massage from a variety of writers, places and time periods.

 Walter Johnson writes in 1866 about massage during the time of the ancient physician Galen 130-201 AD: "The usual routine was this: The youth was first rubbed by the paidotribes with oil; this process was called the preparatory rubbing - tripsis paraskeuastike. He then proceeded to some of the lighter exercises, as playing at ball; after which he sprinkled himself with Egyptian dust, and sought a companion (sungumnastes) to wrestle with. When sufficiently exercised, he passed into the room of the anointer (aleiptes), who by aid of the stlengis, or strigil, as the Romans called it, helped him to scrape off his dust, oil, and sweat, and then rubbed him again with oil, which process was called apotherapeia. This done, he entered the warm bath, and after a short stay proceeded to the cold bath, and from the cold bath he returned to the aleiptes, who anointed him a second time, and sent him about his business. It ought never to be forgotten that the aleiptes regulated the diet of every pupil, prescribing in the exact quantity and quality and time of every meal. It is not my intention to enter into details on the subject of the gymnasium; but I am compelled thus briefly to allude to it in order to render intelligible what remains to be said about gymnastic friction. Gymnastic or hygienic friction, then, consisted in the preparatory friction - tripsis paraskeuastike, and the friction which followed the exercises - apotherapeia.

"The former is thus described by Galen: "Hence if anyone, immediately after undress, proceed to the more violent movements before he has softened the whole body, and thinned the excretions, and opened the pores, he incurs the danger of breaking or spraining some of the solid parts. [Galen refers here to pre-event massage meant to warm the muscles by activity and increased circulation which in turn loosens them to help avoid injury from the muscles being cold.] There is danger also of the excretions, in the rush of moving spirits, blocking up the pores. But if beforehand you gradually warm and soften the solids and thin the fluids, and expand the pores, the person exercising will run no danger of breaking any part, nor of blocking up the pores [Again, increasing circulation, but here also opening the pores so elimination can occur without obstruction through the process of sweating]. Hence, in order to insure this result, it is proper, by moderate rubbing with a linen cloth, to warm the whole body beforehand, and then to rub with oil. For I do not counsel the immediate application of the grease before the skin is warmed and the pores expanded, and, generally speaking, before the body is prepared to receive the oil; and this will be accomplished by a very few turns of the hands, without pain and moderately quick, having in view to warm the body without compressing it; for you will perceive while this is being done a blooming redness running over the whole skin; and then is the time to apply the grease to it, and rub with bare hands, observing a medium hardness and softness, in order that the body may not be contracted and compressed, nor loosened and relaxed beyond the fitting extent, but be kept in its natural state [The application of oil after warming the skin was to help absorb the healing qualities of the oil].

"And one should at first rub quietly, and afterwards gradually increasing it, push the strength of the friction so far as evidently to compress the flesh, but not to bruise it. But it is not proper to apply such strong friction for a long time, but once or twice to each part; for we do not rub so as to harden the body of the boy, whom we are now training for the exercises, but to excite it to activity and augment its tone, and contract its porousness; for it is proper to preserve his body in a medium state, and by no means to make it hard or dry, lest we should by chance check somewhat of the natural growth. [This is classic pre-event sports massage—not too much massage to soften or relax, just enough to heighten the body for activity, but not over excite it so it looses energy.]

"But in the process of time, when the youth is entering upon manhood, then we shall use harder friction and cold baths, after the gymnastic exercises; but of this we will speak again. In using friction preparatory to the gymnastic exercises, the use of which is to soften the body, the middle quality between hard and soft should prevail, and all else should take its fashion accordingly. And in the imposition and circumflexion of the hands the rubbing should be very varied, and not merely directed from above to below, nor from below to above, but also slanting and oblique, transverse and sub-transverse ... and it will make no difference whether you use the expression, tripsis (rubbing), or anatripsis (rubbing up, or as we should say, rubbing down), seeing that the latter is more usual among the ancients and the former among the moderns ... [Ancients refers to those who came before the Greek physicians, moderns to those since Hippocrates.] Rubbing which prepares for gymnastic exercises, and that which follows the same, is subservient to the exercises. The former heats and moderately opens the pores, and liquefies the excretions retained in the flesh, and softens the solid parts, and this is termed preparatory or paraskeuastic rubbing. But the other is termed after-ministering (apotherapeutic); and as it is applied with a larger amount of oil, it at the same time moistens by means of the grease, and softens the solid parts and carries off what is contained in the pores … " (The term flesh meant muscles.)

Charles Nordhoff, in his 1874 book, Northern California, Oregon and the Sandwich Islands, provides a description of Hawaiian massage, called Lomi-Lomi; "Wherever you stop for lunch or for the night, if there are native people near, you will be greatly refreshed by the application of lomi-lomi. Almost everywhere you will find someone skilled in this peculiar and, to tired muscles, delightful and refreshing treatment. To be lomi-lomied you lie down upon a mat or undress for the night. The less clothing you have on, the more perfectly the operation can be performed. To you thereupon comes a stout native with soft, fleshy hands, but a strong grip, who, beginning with your head and working down slowly over the whole body, seizes and squeezes with a quite peculiar art every tired muscle, working and kneading with indefatigable patience, until in half an hour, whereas you were weary and worn out, you find yourself fresh, all soreness and weariness absolutely and entirely gone, and mind and body soothed to a healthful and refreshing sleep."

A friend of Dr. John Harvey Kellogg has provided a description of a Japanese massage received in Japan about 1885 "for the relief of a severe cold accompanied with fever: "The shampooer sat in Japanese fashion at the side of the patient, as the latter lay on a futon (thick comforter or quilt) on the floor, and began operations on the arm; then took the back and the back of the neck, afterward the head (top and forehead), and ended with the legs. On the arms, back, back of the neck, and legs, he used sometimes the tips of his fingers, sometimes the palms or the backs of his hands, sometimes his knuckles, sometimes his fists. The movements consisted of pinching, slapping, stroking, rubbing, knuckling, kneading, thumping, drawing in the hand, and snapping the knuckles. The rubbing in the vicinity of the ribs was slightly ticklish, and the knuckling on the back of the neck, and at the side of the collar bone, a little painful. On the head he used gentle tapping, a little pounding with his knuckles, stroking with both hands, holding the head tight for a moment, grasping it with one hand and stroking with the other. The operator seemed to have a good practical knowledge of physiology and anatomy, and certainly succeeded in driving away the headache and languor, in producing a pleasant tingling throughout the body, and in restoring the normal circulation of the blood ..."

"The finger of a good rubber will descend upon an excited and painful nerve…as gently as dew upon the grass, but upon a torpid callosity as heavily as the hoof of an elephant … The fingers of a good workman dart from spot to spot like flies upon the surface of a pool. They never stay long on the same place, but are here, there, and everywhere, now rubbing lightly, now pressing heavily, now coaxing an angry nerve, now digging into a refractory callosity."

Robert Noah Calvert is the founder and CEO of Massage Magazine. The material for this column comes from the World of Massage Museum's collection and Calvert's book, The History of Massage, published in February 2002 by Healing Arts Press.