THE STORY OF MASSAGE
Massage At
All Costs
By Patricia J. Benjamin
During World War I, injured soldiers
returning to North America were
rehabilitated in armed services hospitals
staffed by specially trained physiotherapy
technicians called reconstruction aides.
Reconstruction programs in North
America were based on work being done
in England by orthopedic surgeons Sir
Robert Jones and James B. Mennell.
Both men believed that much of the
success "attending orthopedic surgery in
its applications to the necessities of our
wounded could not be attained without
the concomitant of massage … [which]
must often precede, should frequently
accompany, and must invariably follow,
effective work by the surgeon," as Mennell
wrote in his 1920 text, Massage: Its
Principles and Practice.
Excerpted from The Emergence of the
Massage Therapy Profession in North America
(Curties-Overzet, 2015) by Patricia J. Benjamin.
Find it at www.curties-overzet.com.
A reconstruction aide offers touch to
an injured World War I soldier at Walter
Reed Hospital in this undated photo.
