sed as a check on the blood
examination for the establishment of the existence of anaemia. For
instance, many cases here recorded had full normal or even supra-normal
corpuscle-count, with a good percentage of haemoglobin. Yet they
presented every external sign of poverty of blood: pallor of skin and,
more important still, of mucous membranes, cold extremities, anorexia,
indigestion, dyspnoea on trifling exertion. In such cases we must suppose
either that the total volume of the blood is reduced, or that the
usefulness of the corpuscles is in some way impaired, or that both these
troubles exist together."[23]

I have said above that the face was not touched in the course of the
rubbing. There are cases, however, in which massage of the head and face
may be usefully practised. Some obstinate neuralgias are helped by it
temporarily, and very often it is of use with other means to aid in a
permanent cure. Many headaches of a passing character may be dissipated
promptly by careful massage of the head or by downward stroking over the
jugular veins at the sides of the neck to lessen the flow of blood into
the cerebral vessels, where the pain is due to congestion or distention,
and careful manipulation of the facial muscles in paralysis is of
service in restoring loss of tone and improving their nutrition. It is
worth adding here, as women patients frequently say that during their
illness the hair has become thin or shown a great tendency to fall, that
daily firm finger-tip massage of the head for ten or twelve minutes,
followed by rubbing into the scalp of a small amount of a tonic, either
a bland oil or if need be of some more stimulating material, will in a
great majority of the instances where loss of hair is due to general
ill-health perfectly restore its vigor and even its color.

I am accustomed to pay a good deal of attention to the observations made
on these and other points by practised manipulators, and I find that
their daily familiarity with every detail of the color, warmth, and
firmness of the tissues is of great use to me.

A great deal of nonsense is talked and written as to the use and the
usefulness of massage. The "professional rubber" not unnaturally makes a
mystery of it, and patients talk foolishly about "magnetism" and
"electricity;" but what is needed is a strong, warm, soft hand, directed
by ordinary intelligence and instructed by practice; and this is the
whole of the matter, except in the massage