History of sports medicine - 1886-1890

1886

Swedish baron Nils Posse (1862-1895) introduced the term 'kinesiology' in the United States. He claimed that this new form of treatment was developed by his compatriot Per Henrik Ling (1776-1839), although the word 'kinesiology' never appeared in Ling's publications.

1886

The first experiments with a braked pendulum were carried out by German hygienist Max von Pettenkofer (1818-1901) and French physiologist Charles Robert Richet (1850-1935).

1887

August D. Waller (1856-1922), physiologist at the London 'St Mary's Medical School', registered and published the first ECG. For this he used the capillary electrometer from Thomas Goswell (1860-1926), a technician from his lab. Waller started his research on electrophysiology. After Italian physicist Carlo Matteucci (1811-1868) in 1842 had demonstrated that the pulse in animals is preceded by an electrical current pulse, scientists tried to measure electrical current. In search of a suitable measuring instrument, Waller came into contact with the capillary electrometer of Gabriel Lippmann (1845-1921). But with this device Waller only saw minuscule movements in the mercury level with each heartbeat. That is why he decided to record these changes on a photographic plate pulled by a toy train. Until 1887 these experiments were mainly performed on laboratory animals, because the electrodes had to be placed directly on the heart if a measurable signal was to be obtained.

Then Waller got an idea. The human body conducts electricity to a certain extent, so why not apply the electrodes directly to the body instead of the heart. He set to work with himself and his bulldog Jimmy as test subjects. For a good electrical contact he used metal pots filled with salt water, in which he immersed his hands and feet. He discovered that he got a measurable electrical pulse with the left foot in one pot and the right hand in the other. In this way he recorded the human heartbeat.

But he did not leave it at that. He experimented with different combinations, even with a spoon in the mouth and almost every combination gave the same basic pattern. However, he did not receive an electrical pulse when he used his right foot, his left hand or both feet. Waller realized that the pulse of electricity began on one side of the heart and went on to the other side. As the heart is at a soft angle within the chest, you had to measure the body's electrical system from one side to the other to be able to register the pulse. The head and right arm were one side, the rest of the body the other. Waller thought the electric signal began at the bottom of the heart and then went up. Because of today's more sensitive devices, we know that the impulse starts at the top of the heart and goes down.

Waller lived for physiology. He was not so much interested in practical application, he judged it was up to the physiologists to discover the functioning of the body and that the application in medicine had to be done by someone else. In his house he built a lab and his wife and children were often subjected to his experiments.

In 1909 Waller gave the 'Royal Society' a lecture on ECG, with his bulldog Jimmy as a test subject. The dog stood with its paws in a saline solution, which prompted irritated spectators to send a letter to the 'Lancet'.

"We complain that the poor dog had to endure a test with electricity, being forced to stand in water containing very corrosive metal salt and highly toxic chlorine gas".

The Scottish electronics engineer Alexander Muirhead (1848-1920) was perhaps the first to register a human ECG, but Waller was the first to do so in a combination of clinical physiological setting, the first to publish a report on his findings and to pioneer was in gaining extensive experience with this new diagnostic possibility.

Early ECGs and Waller devices

Initially, Waller could not imagine that electrocardiography would be widely used in the hospital, perhaps occasionally to detect some rare anomalies or cardiac actions. But he changed his mind, because in 1917 he presented his thesis 'A Preliminary Survey of 2,000 Electrocardiograms' at the 'Physiological Society of London': It was also the first time that he officially used the word 'electrocardiogram', before he referred to the routes as 'electrograms'. This raises the question of who actually invented the word 'electrocardiogram'. Willem Einthoven (1860-1927) awarded it to Waller, while Andrew H. Sykes is of the opinion that Einthoven is the inventor, but that he awarded it to Waller as a sign of respect. In the course of his career, Waller published some 245 articles, ranging from ECG and other cardiac studies, to anesthesia, vision and hearing to ... botany. He wrote ten books including 'Eight Lectures on The Signs of Life from their Electrical Aspect' (1903) and 'The Electrical Action of the Human Heart' (1922).

1887

In 1887, Swedish physiotherapists received their official registration with the Swedish National Council for Health and Welfare.

1887

Austrian physician Gustav Gaertner (1855-1937) developed the 'Ergostat', in the first place the device was intended for obese people to practice at home. However, it meant the definitive launch of the ergospirometry. The steering wheel of the device was equipped with a brake. By changing the tension on the brake band, the work to be performed could be dosed. The work was equal to the product of the force in kg with the number of revolutions of the wheel that gave the distance traveled in meters.

1887

German physiologist Adolf Magnus-Levy (1865-1955) gave a perfect description of the 'open circuit device' that August Julius Geppert (1856-1937) and Nathan Zuntz (1847-1920) introduced to measure the O₂ and CO₂. The test person inhaled through a mouthpiece with valves, the air was exhaled via a 'wet-gas' meter. When the drum of the gas meter turned, a gear system lowered the outlet tube of a liquid filled gas burette. The burette was gradually filled with a proportional fraction of each successive exhalation and the analysis of that sample and the total measured volume allowed to calculate the respiratory exchange. The original device was only suitable for the lab, for field observations the 'wet gas' meter was replaced by a 'dry' meter that was worn on the back.

1887

The first important book about exercise tests was by George Kolb (1863-1899).

This German rower and sports physiologist published 'Beiträge zur Physiologie Maximaler Muskelarbeit Besonders des Modernen Sports' in 1887.

1887

American Edward Mussey Hartwell (1850-1922), a leading Professor of Physical Education, wrote the two-volume article 'On the Physiology of Exercise' for the 'Boston Medical and Surgical Journal' in 1887.

1887

August Julius Geppert (1856-1937) reported measurements of the total exhaled air via a wet meter. Then the samples were analyzed for CO₂ and O₂.

1887

In the magazine 'Lippincott', American surgeon J. William White (1850-1916) of the University of Pennsylvania wrote:

"It is clear that the main goal and the main idea of exercises is the acquisition or maintenance of health; is by far the most important therapeutic and hygienic responsibility under the supervision of the contemporary physician, which can be prescribed as a rational basis with regard to the correction of existing or the prevention of imminent problems."

White was the author of 'Human Anatomy' (1875), 'American Text Book of Surgery' (1896), and the publisher of 'Annals of Surgery'. He was an avid athlete and once swam, in a freezing cold and rough sea, the ten miles between Newport and Narragansett Pier of Rhode Island in five hours and forty minutes.

1888

After several orthopedic institutions emerged in the United States, residency programs for orthopedic surgery were also developed. American orthopedic surgeon Virgil Gibney (1847-1927) started the first American orthopedic training program in New York's Hospital for the Ruptured and Crippled.

In 1888, Dr. Virgil Gibney read a book by an Englishman that recommended strapping injured ankles with rubber adhesive plaster. Rubber adhesive plaster was a cloth with adhesive placed on it (we would call it tape). In 1893, he published an article outlining his technique and the success he had using it. His 'Gibney Basketweave' would remain a mainstay of ankle taping and be adapted to tape other parts of the body.

1888

French physician Fernand Lagrange (1846-1909) published his 'Physiologie des exercices du corps'.

1888

French physician George Dujardin-Beaumetz (1833-1895) introduced the 'massotherapy' in the Paris hospital Cochin and surrounded himself with his colleagues Léon Petit (1854-1910), Oscar Jennings (1850-1914) and Rubens Hirschberg (1862- 1920). Together with the French physician George Berne (1855-?) he compiled a chronology of massages to be performed.

1889

The work of French Professor Etienne-Jules Marey (1830-1904) and his assistant Georges Demeny (1850-1917) was a crucial moment in the knowledge of human mechanics, movement physiology and exercises.

As a physician-engineer, Marey designed instruments that made it possible to record, evaluate and show movement motor skills. Demeny founded the 'Cercle de Gymnastique Rationnelle', with which he became the first scientist foundations of physical education.

1889

In Sweden, many institutes emerged where gymnastic exercises had to be done on a physician's prescription. They were the forerunners of the current physiotherapy cabinets and some institutes treated hundreds of men and women every day.

1889

In 1889 the 'Vereniging van Heilgymnastiek'  ("Society of welfare gymnastics") was established in the Netherlands.

1889

Bavarian priest Sebastian Anton Kneipp (1821-1897), was one of the founders of naturopathy. He became known for his 'Kneippkur', a form of hydrotherapy, using water, heat and pressure.

He was inspired by the book 'Unterricht von Krafft und Würckung des frischen Wassers' in the Leiber of Menschen, besonders der Krancken, bey dessen inlichen und äusserlichen Gebrauch' ("Teaching of power and working of fresh water in the bodies of people, especially of the ill, at its internal and external use"), published in 1738 by Johann Siegmund Hahn (1696-1773), the personal physician of King Frederik The Great (1712-1786).

1889

In 1889 German physiologist Nathan Zuntz (1847-1920) developed the first motorized treadmill.

As a professor of physiology at the Berlin 'Landwirtschaftlichen Hochschule' (Agricultural College) , he initially used him for studies in horses. But then other ergometers developed by him and his staff were also used for research on people.

1889

In Paris French medical student Elisee Bouny (1872-1900) defended his thesis 'The physiology of the lower limbs during cycling' in Paris, for which he had used his self-designed bicycle ergometer.

1889

German Leonard Landlois (1837-1902), Professor of Physiology at the Universität Greifswald, developed a gas collection system.

An image of it was published on page 228 of the 'Textbook of human physiology'.

1889

French surgeon Just Lucas Championnière (1843-1913), who was first active in l'Hôpital Lariboisière in Paris and later in l'Hôtel-Dieu and l'Hôpital Beaujon, was one of the founders of 'Société de Kinésithérapie' of which he also became President. In 1889 he published 'Le massage et la mobilization dans le traitement des fractures' (Massage and mobilization in the treatment of fractures) with a more extensive edition in 1895. The didactic work, with a precise plan of action, clear arguments and beautiful photographs, was the first practical publication about applying massage the treatment of fractures.

1890

Italian physiologist Angelo Mosso (1846-1910) developed the 'Mosso Ergograph' to measure the optimal phase of muscular work in humans. The main objective of Mosso was to determine fatigue, but he could also measure many complex variables and their effect on muscle strength, such as lack of food or sleep, forced marching, mental fatigue as well as the effect of substances such as coffee, sugar and even emotional effects. The 'Mosso Ergograph' consisted of electrical contacts that controlled the movement of the kymograph (A and A '), a transmission tube (B) from the arm to record the volume changes on the kymograph (top left) and a rope (D) around to lift weights.

An example of recordings with the 'Mosso Ergograph' during a voluntary muscle contraction of the middle finger. Curves A and B show the individuality of the fatigue curves, curves C and D show the effect of physical training on muscle performance.

1890

A dynamometer manufactured by Parisian instrument maker Anatole Collin (1831-1923).

1890

A suitcase from 1890 with three different types of massage equipment.

1890

In 1890 German surgeon Themistocles Gluck (1853-1942) developed the first internal knee prosthesis. It was made of ivory and worked with a hinge.

He also performed the first documented total wrist arthroplasty and manufactured many other prostheses.

1890

German sports scientist and film pioneer Ernst Kohlrausch (1850-1923) got a patent in October 1890 on the chronophotographic device he developed, which consisted of 24 cameras fixed to a wheel. By turning the wheel he could make recordings of the sport exercises to study in this way the mechanics of those body movements that were difficult to observe with the naked eye. In 1894 he improved his device and from 1915 he published the magazine 'Körper und Geist'.