for him is profound; because he is the first
bold quack who has dared to do the right thing
by his patients.  One of his prescriptions is a
chopping or flicking on the nose; another is
a mild administration of the bastinado; and
another is a well regulated verberation on
the seat of honour.  The principle of discipline
laid down by the first Doctor Birch as
proper for the cure of serious defects in his
young friends, arose in his mind out of the
eternal fitness of things, and was an anticipation
of the Movement-cure Philosophy.  The
educational gymnast applies his strokes, P. R.
Pupil resists possibly with "kick squeak
twist," and the healing of some mental disease
is the consequence.  The application of this
wholesome and proper corrective to his
patients is, according to his own description,
made by the Professor of the Movement-cure,
in manner following:—"Knocking is a percussion
made generally on the chine bone by one
hand of the gymnast, standing behind the
patient, who is in opposite inclined position;
clenched fist strikes, while the joint of the
hand is kept very movable in a curved
semi-circle, from one trochanter over the glutæi
to the chine bone, and thence to the trochanter
of the other side; twenty to thirty knocks
completing the curve.  The motion of the
wrist is very free and easy."  (Not a doubt
about it!)  "After three or four repetitions
of the movement in the curved semicircular
line, a stroking is made with the palm of the
hand on the glutæi and the chine bone; then
the half-circular knocking and stroking are
alternately repeated two or three times."

Unphilosophical readers may see in all this
an extravagance of quackery.  For our own
part, we consider the last-quoted prescription
to be the thing for the P. of the G.; and a
modification of the same formula very fit for
the G. himself, the use of the extremity of a
boot densely hob-nailed, being substituted
for the use of the fist.

Let us be careful how we reject without
inquiry these important truths.  They are
most worthy of dispassionate investigation.
The searcher after truth will go to the
gymnast for a knocking, and record his
experience thereof.  He may come out of the
experiment a trifle sore; but what will he not
endure in such a cause?  For our own parts,
we back gymnast-knocking against spirit-
rapping.

Do we not see in the Movement-cure the
sole remedy against hurt that arises from
almost all mundane complications, whether
municipal, national, or cosmical?  Municipal
—for look at the Police force, ever crying
to society, Move on!  A thief, a member
of the swell mob, a disease of civilisation,
become manifest; what is the course
pursued by the municipal functionary?  Stretch
stride double arm flying shoulder grasp,
trunk sideways pulling. G. R.—Gent resists,
with trunk forwards twisting, left squat
half lying double leg kick.  P.R—Police
officer or Peeler resists.  The result is
infallibly the removal of the peccant party.
We have taken all those terms out of
the disquisition on the Movement-cure; it
will be seen how universal is their
application.  Not universal?  How is it in the
political affairs?  There is an obstruction
in the body of the state.  Something is
wrong.  What is the remedy?  A Movement-
cure.  It may be an Education Movement,
an Administrative Reform Movement,
an Early Closing Movement.  The cure is a
Movement-cure.  Say it is an Administrative
Reform Movement.  G. (Government) takes
this sort of course—we see again the ordained
scientific terms—stretch lying with right leg
curtseying concentric abdomen stroking,
head back flexion and holding.  P.R.—Public
resists.  The public attempts then, High
opposite standing, leg forward pulling, with
double hand pulling, and double leg pressure.
G. R.—Government resists.  The end of all
this is generally an increased health in the
system of the country.

But the Movement-cure is also founded
upon a great cosmical principle.  What is it
but the two movements of the earth by which
the seasons are regulated and the order and
the harmony of nature are assured?  These
movements are strictly gymnastic, take place
over a definite space, in a definite course, in a
definite time.  Perfect gymnastic movements
they produce the most magnificent results.
The stars are upheld, the planets revolve
round the sun, upon the principles applied in
the great Movement-cure.  The planets as
they revolve, tend by their centrifugal force
to right stretch into space, but G. R.,
(gravitation resists), and by this means they are
brought round.  The sun in its turn applies
to each planetary body a centripetal force,
and it would be to itself bound standing but
P. R., (planet resists), and is by this means
ensured regular motions.

When we tell medical readers that atrophy
of the heart is said to have been cured in
three months by one of these prescriptions in
which the chief ingredients were twisting,
striding,and chopping; that such remedies have
cured in three months a large inguinal hernia;
consumption in six or eight months, other
diseases in proportion, medical readers will
know very well how much respect is due to
the inventors of this system.  No doubt, ere
long, we shall be all stride, stride, striding,
chop, chop, chopping at our houses at home.
We have now mud-cures and movement-
cures.  Who will establish air-cures and complete
the series of burlesques upon sense?