Page:Massage & exercises combined (second version).djvu/128

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10, and also to Nos. 3 and 5. All the deep breathing exercises may be used. If the patient is so weak that the trunk cannot be bent much, No. 10 may be practiced first and Nos. 3 and 5 later. No. 10 can even be practiced by patients confined to bed.

For dilatation of the stomach, chronic dyspepsia and conditions of stasis, No. 10 is very beneficial, and may be used for ten or fifteen minutes two or three times a day. It causes contraction of the stomach, the pylorus is opened and the contents are emptied into the duodenum. Sour and burning eructations, bad breath and taste in the mouth will disappear. In these cases it is best to practice the exercise from four to five hours after a meal. (The massage movements in No. 10 has been taught by the author to several mothers from out of town, who have applied them with success to their babies suffering from gas in the stomach and indigestion caused by nervous disorders.)

In order to increase the flow of bile, pancreatic juice and the succus entericus and to get a mixture of these, a well-known medical authority in Europe massaged (stroking and pressing) the abdomen from the right side toward the median line for about half an hour after the stomach digestion had ceased. The average amount of the juices thus obtained in each of twenty cases was from 40 to 50 c.c. This movement is included in massage exercise No. 10 and also somewhat in exercises Nos. 3 and 5.

In a case of a dropped stomach or colon, a special movement of stroking and pressing (especially with the fingers) may be used across the abdomen in an upward direction, from each opposite side of the lower abdomen, thus crossing the abdomen with each hand, alternately.

A good movement for breaking up adhesions in the region of the appendix is stroking with the fingers of the right hand (pressing on top with the left) upward over the appendix, the