The evolution of massage can be credited to the hard work and dedication of many visionaries throughout history. Dutch practitioner Johan Georg Mezger adopted the French terms used in modern massage therapy today, while physicians and brothers Drs. George and Charles Taylor helped massage gain popularity in the United States during the 1850s by touting its scientific uses. But one of the most well-known founding fathers of the practice as we know it today was a man named Peter Ling.

The founder of Swedish massage - known as 'classic massage' in Europe - Ling developed his Swedish Gymnastic Movements in 1813. He distinguished the field of medical gymnastics from the educational and military gymnastics prevalent at the time, and created an overall system of movements that were based on the principles of anatomy and physiology. He then applied those exercises to treat specific diseases and disorders.

Ling based his system on physiology, which was just then emerging as a science. He didn't include a new exercise until he knew its exact effects, and through his ardent study and dedication, he won acceptance for his new ideas. His method became known as "The Ling System" or "The Swedish Movement Treatment."

A fencing master and instructor of gymnastics, he began studying massage after he had cured himself of rheumatism in the arm by means of percussion. He developed a method that consisted of massage and medical gymnastics without distinguishing between the two, combining them in a simultaneous application.

In 1813, he founded The Royal Gymnastic Central Institute of Stockholm, Sweden. He claimed that gymnastics had a rightful place in education, military training and medicine, and he and his son, Hjalmar, devoted their lives to studying and perfecting educational gymnastics. Accuracy, clearness and progression - these principles and a marked military style are the predominant features of the Swedish school.

"In the rooms of the Royal Central Institution at Stockholm persons of every condition and age, the healthy as well as the sick, executed prescribed movements," wrote Dr. Douglas Graham in his 1913 work, "Massage Manual Treatment, Remedial Movements. "The number of those who adopted the use of the therapeutic movements increased every year, and among them were even physicians who in the beginning had been most opposed to Ling."

Reputable institutes of massage and medical gymnastics sprang up in Germany, Austria and France. People suffering from rheumatism made yearly trips to the spas of Germany and France to take the "cure," which consisted of drinking gallons of mineral water, taking mineral baths, graduated exercise and, above all, massage. There was no place in America where they could get the same scientific attention. It was a long time before the medical professions in England and America were willing to consider the matter seriously.

Ling earned the respect of many physicians for his work. Dr. John Harvey Kellogg wrote in 1895: "As a means of systematic, graduated exercise the author especially commends the excellent system of medical gymnastics developed by Ling, of Sweden. . . . It ought to be in the hands of every masseur."

Physical therapists came on board as well. Although the various systems have contributed valuable material to massage, "it is to Peter Henry Ling and the Swedish systematized order that we owe much today in general gymnastics training, and in the field of medical gymnastics or therapeutic exercise," wrote physical therapist Mary McMillan in her 1925 book "Massage and Therapeutic Exercise."

Ling's system has also been variously referred to by medical and massage historians. Kleen uses the term "mechano-therapy" in his reference to Ling's work, while others refer to it as "Swedish manual treatments," gymnastics or medical gymnastics, "series of movements," "passive or communicated movements" and "therapeutic movements." Dr. Graham uses the term "Swedish movement cure" in his reference to Ling's work.

Ling's system spread from Sweden throughout Europe. In England, several publications based on Ling's system met with success. It was introduced in Russia in 1837, and in 1847 the positive results of an inquiry into its effectiveness were given to the Supreme Medical Board. Eventually, the system of Swedish movements and the movement cure spread to the United States.

Ling's active-passive exercises were later extracted from his medical gymnastic system to become Swedish gymnastics, which were taught at nearly every massage and physical therapy school in America from about 1921 to 1975.

Through his work, Ling had revived and fine-tuned an age-old practice. The pathfinders of ancient medicine were almost forgotten during the Middle Ages, and not until the 16th Century was interest renewed when Ambroise Pare' sought an anatomical and physiological foundation for mechanotherapy. From then on, much was written, good and bad, but nothing was actually done for mechanotherapy until the beginning of the 19th century, when medical gymnastics and massage took on new life through Ling.

Though there is some debate as to whether Ling invented his system from scratch or merely systematized practices that had been used for many centuries by the Chinese and other Eastern nations, there is little doubt that he popularized and professionalized a treatment that has formed the basis for modern massage.

Peter Ling died in 1839. His students subsequently published his theories, and, coupled with the many foreign students at the Central Institute of Stockholm, Ling's system soon spread throughout the world.