Tag: C20th
The Value of Physical Treatment
The following Letter to the Editor, published in The Lancet in 1918 provides an extraordinary review of the growth of physiotherapy from the First World War. SIR,—The Prime Minister in his speech on Nov. 16th, in placing the case for the Coalition at the Central Hall, Westminster, said: ” The …
Paralympic History
On the eve of the Paralympics Games Paris 2024 where more than 4,000 athletes, representing 169 nations, will compete over twelve days for 549 medals across 22 events it is instructing to consider its humble beginnings. At a hospital for war veterans in Stoke Mandeville, located 60 kilometres north of …
A Personal History of Dry Needling
In 1992 when I was studying a post-graduate manual therapy course at Curtin University, Perth, the educational emphasis was primarily on joints and neural tissue, with an early smattering of pain science. Whilst assessing a patient during one clinical session, no tests related to any of the education provided were …
A Short History of Physiotherapy in Ireland
Miss Amelia Hogg set up the first Irish School of Massage at 86 Lower Lesson Street, Dublin in 1905. Nine years later the school moved to 12 Hume Street and remained there for 50 years. Miss Hogg had trained as a nurse, and the 1911 census recorded that she was …
America’s Slouching Epidemic
In her recently published book “Slouch: Posture Panic in Modern America” Beth Linker argues that at the onset of the twentieth century the United States became gripped by a poor-posture epidemic: a widespread social contagion of slumping that could have deleterious effects upon individual health, and the body politic. Posture …
A Distinctive Style
In September 1940, in the dark days of the Second World War, Denmark was occupied by Germany and Rudie Agersnap was elected chairman of the Danish Massage Association. Restrictions and rationing brought challenges for the profession, with a lack of necessary goods for the masseuses to carry out their work. …
How Australian Chiropractors Transformed World Physiotherapy
Osteopathy was devised in 1870s America by Dr Andrew Taylor Still (1828-1917) and chiropractic some twenty years later by David Daniel Palmer (1845-1913). Both utilised a structural perspective to explain and treat functional disturbances. Over the years, orthodox medicine viewed such practices with disdain. The wide variance in training, lack …
Early Years of Physiotherapy at the University of Queensland
The first course in physiotherapy at the University of Queensland commenced in 1938. Like other programs in Australia and around the world, it was established in response to the shortage of trained masseurs to treat victims of recurrent poliomyelitis epidemics. Discussions regarding the establishment of a course had begun some …
Guy’s Hospital School of Physiotherapy, London
An Overview of the Origins and History 1888 to1992 During the early to mid-1970s I was privileged to work as a member of the physiotherapy staff at Guy’s Hospital London. Guy’s was founded in 1726 and is recognised as one of the great and famous hospitals in the United Kingdom …
20+/20 Seminal Texts Announced
In 2023 we asked the physiotherapy profession which texts of the 20th century they believed have most influenced them. Our objective was to choose a top 20 but because there were so many nominated, we’ve modified our criteria to be the top 20+. Discover the selected texts here. As hard …