The origin of Reflexology goes back to ancient Egypt as evidenced by inscriptions found in the physician’s tomb at Saqqara in Egypt.
The translation of the hieroglyphics found there reads as follows: "Don’t hurt me."
The practitioner’s reply: -
"I shall act so you praise me."
Reflexology used to be the treatment of the kings and queens at the time and therefore, in the picture the practitioner is giving his back to the queen out of respect that he can't look at her while working on her feet.
However, different forms of working the feet to effect health have been used all over the ancient world.
Zone Theory, was mainly developed by Dr William Fitzgerald who was an Ear, Nose and Throat specialist working at the Boston City Hospital. He called his work "Zone Analgesia", where pressure was applied to the corresponding bony eminence or to the zones corresponding to the location of the injury. He was the first one formulating the first chart on the longitudinal zones of the body.
Dr Riley -who was working with Dr Fitzgerald- added horizontal zones which can be found across the hands and feet together with the longitudinal zones which made it easier to determine the different individual reflexes according to the Zone Theory.
Dr. Fitzgerald discovered an interesting fact, namely that the application of pressure on the zones relieved pain and in the majority of cases also relieved the underlying cause as well. The same result is experienced through Reflexology nowadays.
Later on, Eunice Ingham who was working with Dr Riley started practicing on hundreds of cases after which she could tell for sure that "reflexes on the feet were an exact mirror image of the organs of the body". She wrote her famous book of "stories the feet can tell" where she recorded her cases and pointed out the reflexes on the feet which are commonly used today. Ingham's book was translated into 7 different languages due to its wide range of knowledge which you can acquire.
However, some people get confused between Zone Therapy and Reflexology and the difference needs to be clear. Reflexology works on the zones of the body as well as the different reflexes representing the organs and identifies the sore areas which are out of balance, while zone therapy works mainly on the zones to determine the areas which need to be worked on.