LING, PER HENRIK (1776-1839)

This article appears in Volume V16, Page 728 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: LEO-LOB

LING, PER HENRIK (1776-1839) , Swedish medical-gymnastic practitioner, son of a minister, was born at Ljunga in the south of Sweden in 1776. He studied divinity, and took his degree in 1797, but then went abroad for some years, first to Copenhagen, where he taught modern languages, and then to Germany, France and England. Pecuniary straits injured his health, and he suffered much from rheumatism, but he had acquired mean-while considerable proficiency in gymnastics and fencing. In 1804 he returned to Sweden, and established himself as a teacher in these arts at Lund, being appointed in 18o5 fencing-master to the university. He found that his daily exercises had completely restored his bodily health, and his thoughts now turned towards applying this experience for the benefit of others. He attended the classes on anatomy and physiology, and went through the entire curriculum for the training of a

doctor

DOCTOR (Lat. for " teacher ")

; he then elaborated a system of gymnastics, divided into four branches, (I) pedagogical, (2) medical, (3) military, (4) aesthetic, which carried out his theories. After several attempts to

interest

INTEREST

the Swedish government, Ling at last in 1813 obtained their co-operation, and the Royal Gymnastic Central Institute, for the training of gymnastic instructors, was opened in Stockholm, with himself as principal. The orthodox medical practitioners were naturally opposed to the larger claims made by Ling and his pupils respecting the cure of diseasesso far at least as anything more than the occasional benefit of some form of skilfully applied " massage " was concerned; but the fact that in 1831 Ling was elected a member of the Swedish General Medical Association shows that in his own country at all events his methods were regarded as consistent with professional recognition. Ling died in 1839, having previously named as the repositories of his teaching his pupils Lars Gabriel Branting (1799-,881), who succeeded him as principal of the Institute, and Karl

Augustus

AUGUSTUS (a name 1 derived from Lat. augeo, increase, i.e. venerable, majestic, Gr. Ee0avr6s)

Georgii, who became sub-director; his son, Hjalmar Ling (182o-1886), being for many years associated with them. All these, together with Major Thure Brandt, who from about 1861 specialized in the treatment of women (gynecological gymnastics), are regarded as the pioneers of Swedish medical gymnastics.
It may be convenient to summarize here the later history of Ling's system of medical gymnastics. A Gymnastic Orthopaedic Institute at Stockholm was founded in 1822 by Dr Nils Akerman, and after 1827 received a government grant; and Dr Gustaf Zander elaborated a medico-mechanical system of gymnastics, known by his name, about 1857, and started his Zander Institute at Stockholm in 1865. At the Stockholm Gymnastic Central Institute qualified medical men have supervised the medical department since 1864; the course is three years (one year for qualified doctors). Broadly speaking, there have been two streams of development in the Swedish gymnastics founded on Ling's beginningseither in a conservative direction, making certain forms of gymnastic exercises subsidiary to the prescriptions of orthodox medical science, or else in an extremely progressive direction, making these exercises a substitute for any other treatment, and claiming them as a cure for disease by themselves. Modern medical science recognizes fully the importance of properly selected exercises in preserving the

body

BODY

from many ailments; but the more extreme claim, which rules out the use of drugs in disease altogether, has naturally not been admitted. Modern professed disciples of Ling are divided, the representative of the more extreme section being Henrik Kellgren (b. 1837), who has a

special

SPECIAL

school and following.
Ling and his earlier assistants left no proper written account of their treatment, and most of the literature on the subject is repudiated by one set or other of the gymnastic practitioners. Dr Anders Wide, M.D., of Stockholm, has published a Handbook of Medical Gymnastics (English edition, 1899), representing the more conservative practice. Henrik Kellgren's system, which, though based on Ling's, admittedly goes beyond it, is described in The Elements of Kellgren's

Manual

MANUAL

Treatment (1903), by Edgar F. Cyriax, who before taking the M.D. degree at Edinburgh had passed out of the Stockholm Institute as a ' gymnastic director." See also the encyclopaedic

work

WORK

on Sweden: its People and Industry (1904), p. 348, edited by G. Sundbarg for the Swedish government:
LING' (Molva vulgaris), a fish of the family Gadidae, which is readily recognized by its long

body

BODY

, two dorsal fins (of which the anterior is much shorter than the posterior), single long anal fin, separate caudal fin, a barbel on the chin and large teeth in the lower jaw and on the palate. Its usual length is from 3 to 4 ft., but individuals of 5 or 6 ft. in length, and some 70 lb in weight, have been taken. The ling is found in the North Atlantic, from Spitzbergen and Iceland southwards to the coast of Portugal. Its proper home is the North Sea, especially on the coasts of Norway, Denmark,

Great

GREAT

Britain and Ireland, it occurs in

great

GREAT

abundance, generally at some distance from the land, in depths varying between 50 and roo fathoms. During the winter months it approaches the shores, when great numbers are caught by means of long lines. On the American side of the Atlantic it is less common, although generally distributed along the south coast of Greenland and on the banks of

Newfoundland

NEWFOUNDLAND

. Ling is one of the most valuable species of the cod-fish family; a certain number are consumed fresh, but by far the greater portion are prepared for exportation to various countries (Germany, Spain, Italy). They are either salted and sold as " salt-fish," or split from head to tail and dried, forming, with similarly prepared cod and coal-fish, the article of which during Lent immense quantities are consumed in Germany and elsewhere under the name of stock-fish." The oil is frequently extracted from the

liver

LIVER (O. Eng. lifer; cf. cognate forms, Dutch lever, Ger. Leber, Swed. lefver, &c.; the O. H. Ger. forms are libara, lipora, &c.; the Teut. word has been connected with Gr. i'prap and Lat. jecur)

and used by the poorer classes of the coast population for the lamp or as medicine.

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