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important subject....

The fact must be faced that the bone setters have been curing multitudes of cases by movement. ..and that by our faulty methods, we are largely
responsible for their very existence."6
Osteopathic Medicine and Chiropractic
While controversy was raging over England's bone setters; a similar course of controversy was being charted in America during the 1800s and early 1900s. America's
first bone setters were practicing by the mid-1800s in Rhode Island and Connecticut, and were criticized by skeptics just as in England4
In the mid-1860s, Andrew Taylor Still, who had attended but never finished medical school, was helping his father cure native Indians and "simple folks" in the
Midwest, when he lost three of his children to spinal meningitis. Disgusted with the traditional practice of medicine, he founded the practice of osteopathic medicine
in 1874, probably influenced by the bone setters of his time. Taylor maintained that it was God who "asked him to fling in the breeze the banner of osteopathy." Being
a very religious man, StiII ded icated his f irst textbook to God: "Respectfully dedicated to the Grand Architect and Builder of the Universe."7 His basic theory was
that the human organism had the innate strength to combat disease, and as a vital machine of structure and function, would remain healthy as long as it remained
structurally normal. If the structure was abnormal, the function would be adversely affected8 Still maintained that the causes of all diseases were "dislocaled bones,
abnormal, dislocated ligaments or contracted muscles, particularly in the spine, exercising a mechanical pressure on the blood vessels and nerves, a pressure that in
part produces ischemia and necrosis, and in part an obstruction of the 'vital juices' through the nerves."7 Thus, the rule of the artery and the rule of structure governing
function became the cornerstones of osteopathic thought. Unfortunately, the treatment scheme included "cures" for all sorts of systemic diseases. Fortunately,
osteopathic medicine continued to evolve into a more scientific and realistic philosophy. In 1956, the Register of Osteopaths in England compiled the Osteopathic
Blue Book, which stated in part that "osteopathy is a system of therapeutics which lays chief emphasis upon the diagnosis and treatment of structural and mechanical
derangements of the body."8 By imposing these limitations, osteopathic physicians and osteopathic practice have become more accepted even though the theories are
still debated. Three areas in osteopathic medicine that are currently applicable to myofascial manipulation are muscle energy techniques, positional release techniques,
and strainlcounterstrain techniques9-11
In 1895,21 years after StiII had founded osteopathic medicine, David Daniel Palmer founded chiropractic. Some of the cure-all claims of osteopathic practice were
being relinquished and were subsequently taken over by chiropractic. Palmer learned his technique through rediscovery of the ancient Hippocratic methods and from
osteopathic medicine. He did, however, claim to be the founder of a new science.
But I maintain to have been the first who repositioned dislocated vertebrae by using the spinous process and the transverse process as levers. ..and starting from these
fundamental facts to have founded a science that is destined to revolutionize the theory and practice of the healing art7
Dr. Charles Still, son of the founder of osteopathic medicine, maintained that Palmer had acquired his skills from a certain student at the Kirksville Osteopathic School
and wrote that: "Chiropractic is the malignant tumor on the body of osteopathy."7
The original premise of chiropractic can be summed up as the "law of the nerve."
I. A vertebra can become subluxaled.
2. A subluxation is apt to affect the structures that pass through the intervertebral foramen (nerves, blood vessels, and lymphatic vessels).
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