A highly intelligent and inquisitive man by the name of Daniel David Palmer, (DD Palmer), interested in anatomy and the workings of the human body was perplexed by the question ‘why one person was ailing and his associate, eating at the same table, working in the same shop, at the same bench was not. Why? What difference was there in the two persons that caused one to have pneumonia, catarrh, typhoid or rheumatism, while his partner, similarly situated, escaped? Why?’
This question had worried thousands for centuries and was answered in September, 1895.
DD Palmer had opened an office, devoted to magnetic healing, in 1887. In Palmer’s building, was a janitorial service, owned by Harvey Lillard. Lillard, who had been deaf for 17 years, was asked by Palmer how he had become deaf. Lillard replied that one day, when he had strained his back, he heard something “pop” in his back.
On September 18th, 1895, Palmer examined Lillard’s back and found a spinal vertebra out of position. Reasoning that this was the cause of Lillard’s deafness, Palmer thrust the vertebrae back into place. And, as he expected, Lillard’s hearing improved.
Palmer was sure he was on to something. He began developing a theory of what he later called “chiropractic”, meaning “done by hand”. “Chiropractic” comes from the Greek words ‘CHEIR’, meaning hand and ‘PRAKTOS’, meaning ‘done by’.
Palmer theorized that decreased nerve flow may be the cause of disease, and that misplaced spinal vertebrae may cause pressure on the nerves. Thus, he reasoned, if the spinal column were correctly positioned, the body would be healthy. He termed the misaligned vertebrae which were thought to be responsible for these ailments, subluxation.
Subluxation is, in fact, a state the body adopts in an effort to adapt to the cumulative stressors placed upon it. It can be more or less acute, depending on the severity of the stress. One thing for sure, the subluxated state is always present, albeit to varying degrees. The question is, how severe is our state of subluxation at any given time? What effects does this state have on our health considering the massive pressure placed on our nervous system? How is it manifesting physically? Pain? Discomfort? Fatigue? Frequent colds? Depression?
Chiropractic adjustments are gentle, safe and effective forces applied to the spine to replace and realign the spine so the nervous system can function optimally.
As Hippocrates advised many centuries before, ‘get knowledge of the spine, for this is the requisite for many diseases.’
And so the art, science and philosophy of chiropractic was born. Today, chiropractic has rapidly grown to be second only to medicine as the largest primary health care provider in the western world. This unprecedented growth is due to the developer of Chiropractic, DD Palmer’s son, Bartlett Joshua Palmer. BJ, as he is now known, is credited as the one who improved on his father’s work and took chiropractic to the people of America, and eventually the world. He died in 1961 as president of the Palmer School of Chiropractic, which DD established in 1898 in Davenport, Iowa, for 57 years.
There are now over 200 Palmer graduates each year.
