This publication is based on a review of more than 200 readily available and predominantly English-language articles in the scientific, medical, and health science literature published between 1885 and 1987. The sources cover a broad range, including manuals of massage therapy, case reports on the use of massage, articles and nursing journals encouraging the use of massage by hospital nurses, and experimental research on the physiological effects of massage in human and animal subjects.

This publication is based on a review of more than 200 readily available and predominantly English-language articles in the scientific, medical, and health science literature published between 1885 and 1987. The sources cover a broad range, including manuals of massage therapy, case reports on the use of massage, articles and nursing journals encouraging the use of massage by hospital nurses, and experimental research on the physiological effects of massage in human and animal subjects.