author
Wm. H. (William Henry Hope) Fitzgerald
b. 1872
A physician and early reflexology pioneer, this Connecticut-born doctor helped popularize "zone therapy" in the early 1900s. His best-known book brought his pain-relief ideas to a wide home audience and helped shape later interest in reflexology.
1 Audiobook
Zone therapy; or, Relieving pain at home
by Wm. H. (William Henry Hope) Fitzgerald, Edwin F. (Edwin Frederick) Bowers
About the author
Born in 1872, William Henry Hope Fitzgerald was an American doctor best known for developing and promoting zone therapy, an early system that linked pressure points in the body with pain relief. He is commonly described as an ear, nose, and throat specialist, and contemporary accounts in his work note that he studied at the University of Vermont and spent time at Boston City Hospital and in London hospitals.
Fitzgerald became widely known through Zone Therapy; or, Relieving Pain at Home and Zone Therapy, or, Relieving Pain and Disease, written with Edwin F. Bowers. These books presented his method to general readers in a practical, accessible way, explaining how pressure applied to certain areas of the hands and body might help reduce pain.
Although medical thinking has changed a great deal since Fitzgerald's time, his work remained influential in the history of alternative pain treatment. He is often remembered as one of the key figures behind the ideas that later developed into modern reflexology.