There is a long history of interest in the positive effects of vibration. Carriage rides on rough cobblestones came to be associated with positive health effects and mechanical “chairs” emulating these rides were created.
In the 18th century the Abbéde St. Pierre created the tré moussoir or fauteuil de poste as a vibrating chair to help patients with melancholia, liver disease, and other conditions that seemed to respond to carriage rides [19]. The 19th century saw considerable interest in vibration and the development of vibrating tools including the chair created by Dr. Jégu after seeing Parkinson’s disease (PD) symptoms calmed by a carriage ride [19,20].
Dr. Jean-Martin Charcot, the most noted neurologist of that century, began studying PD with the chair but acknowledged an earlier physician, M. Vigoroux, who in 1878 used a sounding box with a very large attached tuning fork played with a bow to successfully treat patients with hemianesthesia and locomotor ataxia [21]. Charcot also described treatment of neuraglia and migraines by Dr. Boudet of Paris with tuning forks mounted on small boards. Gilles de la Tourette, Charcot’s assistant, applied the idea of vibration therapy to the brain [19,20,21] with a metal helmet he devised with a motor on top causing the helmet to vibrate at 10Hz. It was found to have a positive effect on insomnia, migraines, and depression and other vague conditions [21].
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