Page:Macfadden's Fasting, Hydropathy and Exercise.djvu/181

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FREE MOVEMENT CURES.
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can be grasped conveniently in the hands. There should not be a weight of over two or three pounds in each hand unless inclined to be strong.

Be very careful not to overdo the exercises the first few attempts.

Exercise No. 1 will relieve the respiratory torpor of debilitating disorders and the after-effects of pneumonia. Of benefit also in several phases of heart disease.

Exercise No. 2 will aid the functions of the digestive organs and act as a specific in promoting recovery from accidents involving injuries to the spine. Prevented paralysis and greatly relieved the mental distress of the patient in the case of a carpenter who had fallen from a high scaffold and was brought in, pale with terror, and as he supposed permanently crippled in his lower extremities. He had lost the use of his voluntary muscles from the hips down, and felt "numb;" experienced but little benefit from several applications of electricity, but on the fifth day noticed that he could slightly raise one of his feet. Steadily exercising the sinews of that foot, he contrived the next day to raise it about half a yard above the mattress of his bed, and his recovery from