A history of Reflexology
Evidence suggests that some form of foot and hand therapy was practised in China as long ago at 4000 B.C.
China
It is thought that reflexology dates back as far as Ancient Egypt. A depiction showing the practise of reflexology was found in the tomb of an Egyptian Physician named Ankmahor, who died around 2500 B.C.
Egypt
North American Tribes are known to have practised a form of foot therapy for hundreds of years.
North America
Zone therapy was used as far back as 1500 A.D. James Abram Garfield, the American President, was said to apply pressure to his feet to relieve pain. Several books on zone therapy were published during the 16th century.
Zone Therapy
Sir Henry Head's research was published in 1893, documenting a direct relationship between pressure applied to the skin and internal organs.
In 1906, Sir Charles Sherrington published 'The Integrative Action of the Nervous System',proving the whole nervous sytem adjusts to stimulus.
England
One of the first modern pioneers of reflexology was Dr. William Fitzgerald, an American
Laryngologist. He had observed that the Native Americans were using pressure-point treatment to relieve pain.
Dr.Fitzgerald noted developing European research on the nervous system function and the effects of stimulation of sensory pathways to the rest of the body. He experimented with pain relief for minor surgery,which resulted in his discovery of 'zone therapy'.
Back to America
The work of Dr. Fitzgerald was developed in America in the 1930s by Eunice Ingham, the 'Mother of Reflexology', who painstakingly developed maps of the corresponding organs and glands of the body on the feet and also developed the 'thumb walking' technique. The Ingham method forms the basis of the way most modern reflexology is practised today.
