Jackson's Gymnastics for the Fingers and Wrist / being a system of gymnastics, based on anatomical principles, for developing and strengthening the muscles of the hand for musical, mechanical and medical purposes: with thirty-seven diagrams

by Edwin Ward Jackson

I caused the same to be tried by many other persons also, of different ages. Then I found, to my surprise, in each case that, in the absence of proper gymnastic exercises, these most important parts of the human frame, owing to their being so unpractised in the ordinary occupations of life, and being consequently so weak, are not equal to the least work or exertion beyond the usual movements of daily life, and that whenever anything beyond the ordinary routine is required of them, they are found to be utterly incapable of fulfilling the task.

Then I said to myself, “I now see as clear as sunlight whence arise the extraordinary difficulties of learning to play the piano and violin. They arise from the very fact that an art the most difficult, from a muscular point of view, which we know of, has to be performed with the least practised and, proportionately, the weakest of muscles. The impediments and difficulties in almost all cases can be referred to the muscles; and it is this weakness which must be overcome.”

Upon this I repaired to anatomical, chirurgical, and medical institutions, in order to study still further the anatomy of the hand, the fingers, and the arm. I found that the muscles, the ligaments, and the tendons of the fingers and hands consist of elastic masses, intersecting the hand, and running TRANSVERSELY as well as LONGITUDINALLY; and I especially discovered, after a number of experiments, that the TRANSVERSE LIGAMENTS, unless they be exercised, remain quiet and stiff, and impede to a certain extent the movements and activity of the muscles, when the latter are more than ordinarily exerted; that in order practically to exercise and stretch them, and particularly the TRANSVERSE ligaments and tendons, and to render them strong and supple, it is necessary not only to move the fingers up and down, but laterally also; that, in short, both muscles and ligaments ought to be practised gymnastically; and that the fatigue and the danger to health, the nervous weakness and the disgust often observed in musical students, arise from the following causes:

Firstly, that the muscles, tendons, and ligaments of the hand and fingers are, proportionately, the least practised, and, consequently, as stated before, the weakest;

Secondly, that they have never been gymnastically trained or treated;

Thirdly, that the methods now in use for strengthening those weak muscles and rendering them flexible are insufficient and erroneous;

Fourthly, that the transverse ligaments have never been stretched; thus on these several grounds hampering the learning of music with unnatural difficulties, and with exertions of the muscular and nervous system injurious to health;

Fifthly, that so soon as the muscles are properly and gymnastically exercised, and the ligaments and tendons stretched, the fingers set at liberty move glibly and freely over the instrument; and,

Sixthly, that all this is readily accounted for on the simplest, though till now unexplained, anatomical and physiological grounds.

And as regards the different persons and classes already mentioned, who earn their living with their fingers, it would have been easy to prevent the various diseases of the same to which they are exposed, if the joints of their fingers and hands had previously been daily practised, strengthened, and prepared by transversal and longitudinal gymnastic exercises. And more than this, those sad infirmities might, in most cases, either have been entirely cured or at any rate alleviated by the above muscular treatment. Besides, a continuance of the same diseases would be easily obviated, if such treatment were resorted to.