ABSTRACT
The term ‘Physiotherapy’ appears to have been used for the first time about 1905, and did not come into general use until the 1920s. A great boost to the popularity of massage was achieved in the 1880s when the ‘Weir-Mitchell Method’ was introduced to England from America. The popularity of massage, treatment by rubbing, was such that in the 1890s it was practised widely without any medical supervision. A rather different approach to physiotherapy had been developed in Sweden by Per Henrik Ling. His interest was primarily in the educational aspects of gymnastics but he early acquired an understanding of anatomy and physiology which enabled him to evolve a system of medical gymnastics. The early pioneers were usually trained nurses or the products of the women’s physical training colleges; but they faced a difficulty in their self-imposed rule that a woman could not be permitted to ‘mass’ a man.
