They have no proper place in the treatment of cases of nervousness, and usually will serve only to irritate and annoy the patient, and often greatly to increase the nervous excitement.

Their routine use or over-use constitutes one of the defects of the system of massage as usually practised by the Swedish operators; and when patients tell me, as many do, that "they cannot stand massage," it is often found that the performance of a great deal of this useless and fretting manipulation has constituted a great part of the treatment, and that deep, thorough, quiet kneading can be perfectly borne.
A few precautions are necessary to observe.

The grasping hand should carry the skin with it, not slip over the skin, as the drag thus put upon the hairs will, if daily repeated, cause troublesome boils.

The use of a lubricant avoids this, and is a favorite device of unskilful manipulators.

It also does away with much of the good effected by skin-friction, is uncleanly, very annoying to many patients, promotes an unsightly growth of hair, and should be avoided except where it is desired to rub into the system some oleaginous material.