to pressure when an organ connected by nerves to this skin region was diseased. After years of clinical research, Head established what became known as ‘Head’s Zones’ or ‘zones of hyperalgesia.’
Russian work on reflexes began from a psychological point of view. The founder of Russian physiology, Ivan Sechenov (who discovered the cerebral inhibition of spinal reflexes), published a paper in 1870 titled ‘Who Must Investigate the Problems of Psychology and How?’ Psychologists under Vladimir Bekhterev, founder of Leningrad’s Brain Institute, picked up the challenge and studied it through reflexes. At the same time, Ivan Pavlov (1849–1936) read Sechenov’s work and acknowledged that his book Reflexes of the Brain was the most important theoretical inspiration for his own work on conditioning. Pavlov took Sechenov’s theoretical outline and submitted it to methodical experimental study. Through this, Pavlov developed the theory of conditioned reflexes – namely that there is a simple and direct relationship between a stimulus and a response. Pavlov found that practically any stimulus could act as a conditioning stimulus to produce a conditioned response.2
Today the Russians continue to pursue the study of reflexology, both from the physiological and psychological point of view. They have scientifically tested the effect of reflex therapy on patients with a variety of problems and have found reflexology to be an effective complement to traditional medicine.3
At the same time, the Germans were also looking into the treatment of disease by massage. In the late 1890s and early 1900s, massage techniques developed in Germany became known as ‘reflex massage.’ This was the first time that the benefits of massage techniques were credited to reflex actions.
It is possible that Dr Alfons Cornelius was the first to apply massage to ‘reflex zones.’ The story goes that in 1893 Cornelius suffered from an infection and in the course of his convalescence he received a daily massage. While at the spa he noticed how effective the massages of one particular medical officer were. This man worked longer on areas he found to be painful. This concept inspired Cornelius. After examining himself, Cornelius instructed his masseur to work only on the painful areas. His pain quickly disappeared and in four weeks he recovered completely. This led him to pursue the use of pressure in his own medical practice. He published his manuscript Druckpunkte (or ‘Pressure Points, The Origin and Significance’) in 1902.4 Europeans went on to expand on the existing research but credit for putting modern reflexology on the map must go to the Americans.
The American Influence
Dr William Fitzgerald, commonly held as the founder of zone therapy, was born in Connecticut, USA, in 1872. He graduated in medicine from the University of Vermont in 1895 and practised in hospitals in Vienna and London. In Vienna, he came into contact with the work of Dr H Bressler, who had been investigating the possibility of treating organs with pressure points. Fitzgerald continued his research while Head Physician at the Hospital for Diseases of the Ear, Nose and Throat in Hartford, Connecticut, testing out many of his theories on his patients. Through knowledge he gained in Europe and his own research, Fitzgerald found that if pressure was applied to the fingers, it would create a local anaesthetic effect on the hand, arm and shoulder, right up to the jaw, face, ear and nose. He applied pressure using tight bands of elastic on the middle section of each finger or small clamps placed on the fingertips. He was able to carry out minor surgical operations using this pressure technique.5
Dr Fitzgerald divided the body into zones, which he used for his anaesthetic effect. By exerting pressure on a specific part of the body he learned to predict which other parts of the body would be affected. Fitzgerald established 10 equal longitudinal zones running the length of the body from the top of the head to the tips of the toes. The number 10 corresponds to the fingers and toes and therefore provides a simple numbering system. Each finger and toe falls into one zone. Imagine a line drawn through the centre of the body with 5 zones on either side of this line. The thumb and big toe fall into zone 1 and the small finger and toe both fall into zone 5. The zones are of equal width and extend right through the body from front to back. The theory is that parts of the body found within a certain zone are linked with one another by the energy flow within the zone and can therefore affect one another.
Fig. 1 The Zones
In his book Zone Therapy, Fitzgerald describes how he came upon the concept of zone therapy:
‘I accidentally discovered that pressure with a cotton-tipped probe on the mucocutaneous margin (where the skin joins the mucous membrane) of the nose gave an anaesthetic result as though a cocaine solution had been applied. I further found that there were many spots in the nose, mouth, throat, and on both surfaces of the tongue which, when pressed firmly, deadened definite areas of sensation. Also, those pressures exerted over any body eminence, on the hands, feet, or over the joints, produced the same characteristic results in pain relief. I found also that when pain was relieved, the condition that produced the pain was most generally relieved. This led to my “mapping out” these various areas and their associated connections, and also to noting the conditions influenced through them. This science I have named zone therapy.’ 6
Fitzgerald and his colleague Dr Edwin Bowers were so enthusiastic about their discoveries that they developed a unique method for convincing their colleagues about the validity of zone theory. They would apply pressure to the sceptic’s hand then stick a pin in the area of the face anaesthetized by the pressure. Such dramatic proof made believers of those who witnessed it. In 1915, Bowers wrote the article that first publicly described this treatment and called it ‘zone therapy.’ Published in Everybody’s Magazine, it was entitled ‘To Stop That Toothache Squeeze Your Toe!’7
The article elicited much interest and controversy, and Fitzgerald was often called upon to prove publicly the validity of his theories. One such incident was reported in a newspaper on April 29, 1934, under the headline ‘Mystery of Zone Therapy Explained.’ The article tells of a dinner party at which one of the guests was Fitzgerald and another was a well-known concert singer who had announced that the upper register tones of her voice had gone flat. The article noted that throat specialists had been unable to discover the cause of this affliction. Dr Fitzgerald, according to the article, asked to examine the fingers and toes of the singer. After his examination, he told her that the cause of the loss of her upper tones was a callus on her right big toe. After applying pressure to the corresponding part in the same zone for a few minutes, the patient remarked that the pain in her toe had disappeared. Then, to quote from the article: ‘The doctor asked her to try the tone of the upper register. Miraculously, it would seem to us, the singer reached two tones higher than she had ever done before.’8
In 1911, the combined work of Dr Fitzgerald and Dr Bowers was published in Zone Therapy. Diagrams of the zones of the feet and the corresponding division of the 10 zones of the body appeared in the first edition of this book. But Fitzgerald did not single out the reflex zones of the feet, so crucial to modern reflexology, for any special attention.
While the medical profession did not receive Fitzgerald and his theories enthusiastically, one physician did believe in his work – Dr Joseph Shel – by Riley. Fitzgerald taught zone therapy to Riley and Riley’s wife Elizabeth, and they used the method in their medical practice for many years. Riley refined the techniques and made the first detailed diagrams and drawings of the reflex points located in the feet. He added to Fitzgerald’s longitudinal zones his discovery of eight horizontal divisions, which also govern the body. His first book, Zone Therapy Simplified, was published in 1919. He went on to write four books in which large portions were devoted to zone therapy.9
Fitzgerald, Bower and Riley developed and refined the theory to zone therapy, but it was Riley’s assistant Eunice Ingham who probably made the greatest contribution to the establishment of modern reflexology. It was through her untiring research and dedication that reflexology finally came into its own. She separated the work on the reflexes of the feet from zone therapy in general.
Eunice Ingham (1889–1974) should be known as the Mother of Modern Reflexology. She used zone therapy in her work but felt that the feet