It is axiomatic in medicine that if many different treatments for a single condition are listed in the textbooks, none of them can be much good. Dozens are listed for the pain and disability in muscles and joints that commonly result from everyday injuries. They include drugs, heat, cold, rest, exercise, etc. Lieut. Colonel Arthur E. Grant, chief of physical medicine at Brooke Army General Hospital in Texas, was aware of all the possibilities because he was responsible for thousands of G.I.s who kept getting themselves banged up. He wanted something more effective than traditional medicine.
Dr. Grant had noted,...