Tag: C20th
Light therapy
Physiotherapy has a long history with light therapy. Throughout much of the 20th century, light therapies were an integral part of the therapists toolkit. And actinotherapy – or the therapeutic use of artificial non-ionising radiations, especially ultraviolet light and infra-red (Beckett 1955, 1) – has formed perhaps the largest part. …
Analysis of Physiotherapy through Art History
We are well accustomed to photographs of World War I physiotherapy wards. Busy rooms, filled with rehabilitating soldiers offer a glimpse into a past world and the beginnings of a new profession. In contrast, a painting of the very same scene offers far greater insight, as we get to see what …
Plaster of Paris
Immobilisation of injured limbs has been performed for thousands of years and starch-based casts were the standard treatment, with only minor changes, until the beginning of the 19th century. Many centuries before it was introduced as a cast material, Plaster of Paris (PoP)* was well known as a building material. Egyptians …
Pictures and stories
One of the facets of the IPHA that sets it apart from many of the other sub-groups of physiotherapists is its rich heritage of pictures and stories. Whereas for some groups a scientific paper or a treatment pathway best expresses the work of the people in the group, pictures and …
A Heart Stopping Game
Physios are like goal keepers and umpires: you don’t notice the good ones. A shell shocked and broken England cricket team was touring New Zealand in February 1975 for a two match test series. Having just faced the fearsome pace attack of Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson in Australia and …
Kay Nias
I had the great pleasure of spending an hour in conversation with Dr Kay Nias this morning. Kay is a Medicine Galleries Research Fellow at the Science Museum specializing in the history of physiotherapy, and has recently posted a beautifully illustrated and written piece on the history of the wheelchair …
The Man in the Middle of Modern American Physical Therapy
I think one of the best things PTs can do when they come out of school [is to] go in a hospital. Work inpatient/outpatient. Learn the medical side of things. Learn things about illness, learn things about other disciplines… Mike Rogers has been a practicing physical therapist specializing in orthopedic …
The wonders of the Wellcome Archive
There are many wondrous things to be found at the Wellcome Library in London (link). Some years ago I spend a very happy month at the Wellcome researching the archives of the CSP for my doctorate, and a few days ago I stumbled across a file of photos I’d taken …
Office aerobics c.1917
It’s not unusual for people to think that today’s vices are worse than anything we’ve seen before in history, but this is plainly nonsense. Paleolithic cave-dwellers were just as worried about food security as we are today and Victorians worried about the accelerating pace of life as much, perhaps even …
Gym machines and gynaecological massage
Many of you will know of the pioneering work of Anders Ottosson, whose histories of mobilization, kinesiology and the gendered basis of physiotherapy history were some of the first critical scholarship to be published in the field. Well, Anders along with Michaela Malmberg have published two chapters in a …