My European Study Tour
In 1903 Australian early physiotherapist Josephine McCormick visited the principal physical culture institutes of Europe, in London, Paris, Vienna and Berlin. She also undertook courses of study with orthopaedists Professor Adolf Lorenz of Vienna, and Dr Bernard Roth of London. Professor Lorenz was a founder of the German society of Orthopaedic Surgery, but used non-invasive and manipulative techniques rather than surgical operations thereby earning the moniker of the ‘bloodless surgeon of Vienna’. Dr Roth had joined his father, Mathias – himself a Ling Swedish movement advocate, in orthopaedic practice in 1875, devoting himself to the non-surgical treatment of lateral curvature of the spine.
Anna Julia Josephine McCormick was born in 1858, the middle daughter of country solicitor (John) Joseph McCormick and Anna Conry. Joseph died young in 1874 and the third daughter died later the same year. In 1881, when Josephine was 23, her widowed mother rented a house in Melbourne from Alice C Moon, who was co-proprietor with Harriet Elphinstone Dick of the Ladies Gymnasium, which they had set up just a few years earlier. Dick was an accomplished athlete (swimmer) and practitioner of the Swedish Ling Method. McCormick began participating in gymnastic activities and in 1882 she and Dick performed an exhibition with Indian clubs at the Ballarat Gymnasium.
Moon moved on to other interests, and as a result McCormick became more involved with the running of the Ladies Gymnasium. By March 1887 she became co-principal with Dick, and continued on her own in the 1890s whilst Dick spent some years in Sydney. On her return to Melbourne Dick chose not to rejoin McCormick and opened another gymnasium, but died a few years later.
McCormick continued her work, specialising in medical gymnastics and massage for spinal and other deformities. Not only did she treat girls at the gymnasium, but some from remote regions stayed at her house so they could access regular treatments for extended periods. For example, in the late 1890s a young girl named Reike Parker was sent from Tasmania to be treated for a spinal complaint that kept her bed-ridden in a splint. By the end of 1902 she was, “able to run about and romp like any little girl”.
Clearly identifying with the treatment modalities of an early physiotherapist, McCormack advertised in 1900 in the InterColonial Quarterly Journal of Medicine and Surgery (later the InterColonial Medical Journal of Australia) her services of,
“Massage, Electricity and Medical Gymnastics, for the treatment of Ill-Health, Spinal Affections and other Deformities”.
McCormick’s study tour of Europe in 1903 was likely inspired by her mentor and colleague, Harriet Elphinstone Dick, who had herself travelled to Europe to study the Ling Swedish Method under the Drs Roth some 25 years earlier. McCormick also likely attended a demonstration in Melbourne of Professor Adolf Lorenz’s manual orthopaedic techniques by Dr Max Herz, a visiting Austrian orthopaedic surgeon, who had worked under Professor Lorenz and was on his way to New Zealand. In both cases introductions were likely provided for McCormick’s European tour.
McCormick’s extraordinary experiences and impressions of her trip were captured in an extensive interview with an Adelaide Newspaper, the Critic, in 1904. An edited version of the article is reproduced here:
“You wish me to tell you something of what I have seen? In the first place, you know I came to Europe to study the latest improvements in medical gymnastic work and physical culture. I have seen all the most important gymnasiums in Germany, Austria, France, and England. In Vienna, which is the greatest scientific centre of the world, I spent the bulk of my time. All the greatest specialists of the world—men of importance from Russia, America—everywhere, in fact—come to Vienna to study specialities”.
“Perhaps, the foremost surgeon of modern times is Dr. Lorenz. I was specially fortunate in having a good introduction to him, for he allowed me to be present at all the best clinics, and gave me entree to his medical gymnasium, where all kinds of deformity cases are treated. Dr. Lorenz is specially famous through his operations of bloodless surgery in cases of congenital hip disease, but his treatment of club foot, wry neck, and other deformities is no less remarkable. When I return to Melbourne I hope to benefit many sufferers by applying this most remarkable treatment, which, with Dr. Lorenz’s untiring help, I have studied thoroughly. So much of the work is in the after-treatment; that is to say, the operation of bloodless surgery is incomplete without the massage, movements, etc., that follow, and these are just as important factors in the success of the case as the surgical operation itself. You can imagine how invaluable such study will be applied to those who cannot have the chance of coming to Europe to be cured”.
“In Vienna also I visited Dr Bumm’s famous gymnasium. Here the breathing exercises were especially good and interesting to me, though the Herz apparatus for deformities, as well as for all nervous or muscular diseases, with either passive or active movements, is a triumph to modern science. But wherever I went, whether to Frankfort, Wiesbaden, Berlin, Hamburg, or elsewhere—for I think I have seen all the principal gymnasiums in Europe—I found the Zander system, which is the apparatus worked by electric power; and having seen all there is to be seen, I have come to the conclusion that The Ling, or Swedish, system, which for over twenty years we have had in Melbourne, is the basis on which all the other systems are founded; and I still hold that for developing’ the body and for curing little deformities it cannot be beaten”.
“It makes me rather sad to say that there is comparatively little new to learn in Europe today in the matter of apparatus beyond, of course, that of Dr. Lorenz, whose models I have procured to take out with me. But to come to the point of our chat, namely, the future of the figure, I would, like to say a little word about a Berlin gymnasium, conducted by a woman. Here I saw the finest figures it is possible to imagine. I cite this specially as I want to show that the figure can be developed without any motive power to help the apparatus, for this gymnasium was fitted only with the usual Ling system of pegs, ladders, etc. But one rather important point is that women of all ages attend it. It is not merely for the young or the growing; middle aged and past middle aged all do exercises that make and preserve the perfect figure”.
“Did I go to Paris? Most certainly, but I saw little of importance there. The Swedish system there, as elsewhere, turned out the best specimens of womanhood. Indeed, I doubt if any other woman has travelled so far or seen so much in search of physical development as I have, or had such rare opportunities afforded her for studying. I had admittance to all the doctor’s private rooms, for in Vienna, for instance, every doctor has his own clinic and gymnasium attached, and there having entree at all times, I saw all the plaster casts put on, all the after-treatment, and had every possible information given me”.
It was quite extraordinary the interest that was shown directly it was known that I came from Australia. It was a sort of “open Sesame.” And the feeling on interest was of the most generous description. Every one seemed anxious to give all the help and information in his power. Neither pains nor time was spared.
“London? I’m coming to that. Yes; I’ve visited all the principal physical drill classes and gymnasiums, and to my thinking it is the best system I have seen is that practised at, the Chelsea Polytechnic under the direction of Fraulein Wilke, where the best of the Swedish is taught, as well as the best of the English and the German systems equally”.
“Just now in London physical culture is a sort of craze, and it is just as well that all women woke to the fact that their health, as well as their attractiveness, lies in their own hands, and that the regular and scientific development of the figure is the quickest as well as the surest road to happiness and beauty”.
“Miss MacCormick [sic] herself is the picture of health, and is eagerly looking forward to her return to Australia. Melbourne should herald, indeed, the home-coming of this magnificent woman, who has travelled so far and studied so splendidly in the interest of her countrywomen”.
McCormick was 66 years old when she died in 1924. The immediate cause of death was cerebral haemorrhage, the risk of which is increased by kidney disease from which she had been suffering for some time. A tribute to McCormick was recorded in her obituary by The Advocate:
The whole of Miss McCormick’s career was taken up in alleviating the bodily suffering of other people, and these included a great number of children whose spinal and similar complaints necessitated special treatment scientifically administered. [her] exceptional gifts had brought her into well-deserved prominence.
References
Bensusan, I. (1904). The future of the figure: A chat with Miss Josephine MacCormick, of Melbourne. The Critic, Adelaide, South Australia, 24 February. Accessed online at https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/211402842?searchTerm=josephine%20mccormick
Clarke J. (1983). Herz, Max Markus (1876–1948). Australian Dictionary of Biography, 9. Melbourne University Press.
Editor. (2023). Josephine McCormick. Notable People of Collingwood. Website of the Collingwood Historical Society. Accessed online at https://collingwoodhs.org.au/resources/notable-people-2/collingwood-notables-database/entry/857/.
Knowles, MM. (1924). The late Miss Josephine McCormick. The Advocate, Melbourne, Victoria. 16 October.
Martyr, P. (1994). The professional development of rehabilitation in Australia, 1870 – 1981. Doctoral Thesis of University of Western Australia. Accessed online at https://api.research-repository.uwa.edu.au/ws/portalfiles/portal/40720174/MARTYR_PHILIPPA_1994_compressed.pdf