BLIND MASSEURS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 179, 24 April 1919, Page 5

BLIND MASSEURS

A DEMONSTRATION-OF SKILL. One of the occupations in which in-etrm-tion is-being given to .New Zealand wildicrs who have lost their, sight at the front is massage. It ling been found tjiat bliud men ilearn. this .work .quite- .easily, •and. <jo it very well. Theve: aro altogether 17 New : Zcaland-soldiers who have bee.ii .blinded who are being trained for this work, two of them being already in this country. : ■ •. \. . . A demonstration of the capability of a Mind man for this,work was given yesterday in tho office <if the Minister_ of Defence by a men nho has been,blind for some seventeen years. He was formerly a pupil of the Jubilee Institute for the Blind, at Auckland, where he wan trained as piano-tuner. Tie has hail P.irjht weeks'..training only in anatomy. His oxliibition, which vas attended by Ministers of. the Crown tuul Major-Gen-oral Sir .Alfred Robin, was intended io show how much could be accomplished 'in bo' short a 1 imr. He was given a skeleton, and he went over the whole body.,naming the muscles and bones, explaining the position of all the' muscles, and their ftinclions, displaying a knowledge more complete- than is comm.inly possessed • by masseurs, and more complete than would be shown by many medical men called noon at short- notice to do the snme sort of thing, ft is .not contended.- of course, that a Tiiiin who lias recently' lost his sight will learn the business so quickly, but the fact that.this mtinlms been, able to do so much in. eight weeks makes' it clear that a soldier may be able to learn massage in a reasonable time. ' ■' .