Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Physical medicine, which in the context of this article includes mechanotherapy, hydrotherapy, balneotherapy, electrotherapy, light therapy, air therapy, and thermotherapy, became a new field of labor in the healthcare domain in the Netherlands around This article gives an account of the introduction and development of mechanotherapy as a professional activity in the Netherlands in the 19 th century.
Mechanotherapy, which historically included exercises, manipulations, and massage, was introduced in this country around and became one of the core elements of physical medicine towards the end of that century. When, in the last quarter of the 19 th century, differentiation and specialization within the medical profession took place, physicians specializing in physical medicine and orthopaedics began to claim the field of mechanotherapy exclusively for themselves.
This led to tensions between them and the group of heilgymnasts that had already been active in this field for decades. The focus of attention in this article is on interprofessional relationships, on the roles played by the different professional organizations in the fields of physical education and medicine, the local and national governments, and the judicial system, and on the social, political, and cultural circumstances under which developments in the field of mechanotherapy took place.
Physical medicine or physical therapy has very ancient origins. For thousands of years, people with illnesses and disabilities were treated with various methods, making use of movements with or without the aid of mechanical devices as well as air, water, heat and cold, electricity, and light 1 , 2. Despite its long history, however, astonishingly little historical research has been done on this special branch of medicine.
A quick glance through the pertinent literature in the field of the history of medicine of the last two decades reveals that the development of physical medicine as a professional activity in the field of healthcare in the past two centuries has seldom been an object of scholarly conducted research. Before this period the situation wasn't much better. In , Glenn Gritzer and Arnold Arluke pointed out that this field of interest has been ignored by sociologists and historians alike 3.
