ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the very early history of a small organisation known as the Society of Trained Masseuses (STM). It also examines some of the key events that led to the formation of the STM and concentrates on the actions of the founders of the Society in disciplining the conduct of people who aspired to be legitimate masseuses. The chapter looks at the reasons why the Society needed to be formed and how the actions of some women that gave birth to the profession appear to have been a brilliant response to the tensions of the time. The problem facing the founders of the STM was clear when they met in the summer of 1894. The relationship the STM sought to establish with the medical profession took a number of forms. The disciplinary strategies mentioned were effective in their own right as tactics designed to regulate the conduct of the Society's members.
