Category: Research
Manipulation – “Setting” the record “Straight”
Understanding the complex history of the manipulation in the physiotherapy profession requires a recognition of the role of traditional lay healers such as bonesetters have played. Here is a sampling which to some may be …
The therapeutic use of hot and humid grottoes
A town on the south-western coast of Sicily, Sciacca, has developed a peculiar history in the use of thermo-mineral waters and vapour grottoes since high antiquity. Today, its geo-thermal area is still marked by two …
A history of physiotherapy at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, Australia
In 1889 lectures and exams on the subject of ‘the massage battery’ were given to trainee third year nurses, who initially carried out practical work in massage and electricity in the Royal Prince Alfred (RPA) …
‘No sale of drugs’ – the problem of quack medicine
When the Society of Trained Masseuses (now the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy) was formed in the UK in 1894, its founders set out a number of rules for professional practice1. Although the massage scandals in …
The process of physiotherapy professionalisation in the UK – Development of autonomy, Part III
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Physiotherapy in the UK suffered several setbacks on the road to professional autonomy. This was very disappointing for physiotherapy in the UK, particularly given the developments which took …
Lina Haag (1907-2012): A Moral Voice in Nazi Germany
In 2012 Lina Haag died near Munich at the advanced age of 105 years. She was born in 1907 in the German southwest as the daughter of a maid and a worker and became involved …
History of Physiotherapy Education in South Africa – the SMU & UKZN story
Physiotherapy Department at Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University (SMU) (Information provided by the current HOD, Prof Douglas Maleka, class of 1976 and all MEDUNSA/UL/SMU graduates, associates and friends, especially Mrs Melody Nguna (nee Mji) and …
Never the “Twain: shall met, or shall they?
Samuel Longhorne Clemens, or more famously known as Mark Twain, has a very interesting contribution to the historical development of manual therapy in the United States. A delicious irony exists in that his pen name …
Brasil: Os primeiros anos da profissão
“O que existiu primeiro foi o CAOS e depois GAIA (Terra)” – Hesíodo: Teogonia – Origem A palavra grega CAOS é a mais aproximada da palavra “Vácuo”, um vazio ou nada no início de tudo. Assim …
A Royal Charter: 100 years old but still relevant
As the Canadian Physiotherapy Association celebrates its centenary year, 2020 also marks an important historical milestone for the Charted Society of Physiotherapy in the UK – 100 years since it received a Royal Charter. On …