THE EVOLUTION OF CHIROPRACTIC ITS DISCOVERY AND DEVELOPMENT BY A. AUG. DYE, D.C. (P.S.C., 1912) COPYRIGHTED 1939 Published by A. AUG. DYE, D.C. 1421 ARCH STREET PHILADELPHIA, PENNA. Printed in U. S. A. C O N T E N T S Chapter Title Page 1 Introduction—Discoverer of Chiropractic............................ 9 2 The Discovery of Chiropractic............................................. 31 3 “With Malice Aforethought” ............................................... 47 4 Early Development; Early School........................................ 61 5 Early Controversies; The Universal Chiropractors’ Asso- ciation; Morris and Hartwell; The Chiropractic Health Bureau; Lay Organization ................................................ 81 6 Medicine vs. Chiropractic.................................................... 103 7 The Straight vs. the Mixer ................................................... 113 8 The Straight vs. the Mixer ................................................... 127 9 The Straight vs. the Mixer; the Final Outcome .................... 145 10 The Chiropractic Adjustment; Its Development ................... 157 11 Chiropractic Office Equipment; Its Development ................ 175 12 The Spinograph; Its Development........................................ 189 13 Chiropractic Spinal Analyses; Nerve, Tracing; Retracing; the Neurocalometer .......................................................... 203 14 The Educational Development of Chiropractic; Basic Science Acts..................................................................... 221 15 Chiropractic Health Service................................................. 237 16 What Is Chiropractic............................................................ 255 17 B. J. Palmer, the Man; the Developer of Chiropractic ......... 273 18 Scientific Chiropractic; Hole-in-One ................................... 297 19 Scientific Chiropractic; Hole-in-One; the B. J. Palmer Chiro- practic Clinic.................................................................... 317 20 Scientific Chiropractic; Hole-in-One (conclusion)............... 331 FOREWORD The story of Chiropractic, its discovery, its development and its evolution, as an Art, Science and Philosophy, since its discovery by Daniel David Palmer on September 18, 1895, to its present position as an outstanding branch of the healing arts, under the leadership of its Developer, B. J. Palmer, D.C., Ph.C., is a very interesting subject. I have written this story in the following pages in a form that I hope will be interesting to the layman and woman, and, at the same time, instructive. I have done this so that it may be read by them, that they may get a comprehensive review of its evolution in its forty-odd years,—scoffed at by educated people as but another quack system of healing, respected by them today as a scientific health service of service to millions of people throughout the civilized world. I first became acquainted with the Art, Science and Philosophy of Chiropractic in April, 1910. Since that time I have had a sincere reverence for Daniel David Palmer, the Founder and Discoverer of Chiropractic. I had the rare fortune of knowing personally the Discoverer the later years of his life, a memory that I shall ever cherish. B. J. Palmer, the Developer of Chiropractic, was but a young man at that time. I have known him during those years since 1910, and have observed his struggles gone through in the development of Chiropractic from a proven theory to an established scientific fact, due to his individual work, study and research through the passing years. In the writing of this book, I owe much to assistance given me by B. J. Palmer in checking the manuscript repeatedly, from its first inception in skeleton outline. I make this explanation in the light of the fact that I have written the story of the evolution around the historical steps in that process, and B. J. Palmer has helped me solely in the checking as to historical accuracy. He was the only source in Chiropractic where this information could have been procured, because in his files are publications, letters, data, affidavits, certificates—everything essential to having absolute historical accuracy. That B. J. has gladly, willing done, and notwithstanding the book is written around B. J.’s work for Chiropractic’s development, yet in no instance has he suggested anything as to what I should write or how it should be written. This book is dedicated to Daniel David Palmer, II, D.C., who was a lad of some four years or so at the time I first became acquainted and identified with Chiropractic, and who has since his maturity been in active charge of the business management of the Palmer Industries, and who has within the past few years graduated from the institution of which he is manager. It is my hope when his father, B. J. Palmer, passes on, that “Dave” will carry on where the Developer leaves off. Sincerely, A. AUG. DYE. July 1, 1938. CHAPTER I Introduction; Discoverer of Chiropractic CHAPTER I Introduction; Discoverer of Chiropractic September 18, 1895, the first step in the development of a new health service was taken—that of ADJUSTMENT of the CAUSE of DIS-EASE, rather than the beginning steps of a new system of healing, the objectives of which would be the treatment of effects or the mere alleviation of human ills. Since that first step, this service to humanity has undergone a constant evolution in its development as an Art, its establishment as a Philosophy of the functioning of life’s forces in man, and as a proven Science in the removal of that CAUSE of DIS-EASE. In a later chapter, I will define that health service as it is conceived today as a result of the research of that man popularly—and very properly— known as the Developer of Chiropractic, B. J. Palmer. Now I will merely give a brief introduction to that Art, Science and Philosophy. That health service is Chiropractic, discovered by Daniel David Palmer, at the time a magnetic healer in a small midwest city, Davenport, Iowa. When first announced, by many it was scoffed and sneered at as but a new quackery, another means for defrauding the sick, a rank imposition on the sick it purported to serve. Often I will speak of Daniel David Palmer as the Founder, for at the insistence of his son, within a few short years after his discovery he organized the first school for its teachings. I will also speak of him as D. D., for by those simple initials he is best known throughout his profession. Of the Developer, I will most often speak of him simply as B. J., a designation by which he prefers to be known. Many in Davenport and the countryside about were soon restored to normal health through adjustment of their spines by the Discoverer and his son. But it was little understood how this was accomplished in those seemingly hopeless cases,— cases that came to D. D. as a last resort, without any real hope, having been given up as “incurable” by the “regular” healing profession of medicine. The patient of today has little concept of the process of evolution through which Chiropractic has gone in its brief forty-odd years. Many who profess to practice its art do not comprehend this evolution. The patient, naturally, is unfamiliar with the story of the evolution of Chiropractic, the many steps through which it has gone to reach its present recognized scientific standing, recognized by most of the state legislative assemblies and by all systems of healing as a strong competitor in their fields of service. The Chiropractor of today, whether he is practicing the Chiropractic originally dreamed by the Founder or practicing what the profession knows as mixing under the guise of Chiropractic, probably has forgotten much that he heard in his student days about the Chiropractic of the pioneers. The 9 INTRODUCTION; DISCOVERER OF CHIROPRACTIC Chiropractor who graduated in the early years may have followed through with a good part of the evolution in his private practice, yet with little realization of that fact, so gradual has it been,—excepting in the past decade, when the evolution has been so rapid as to seem revolutionary. For within that decade much of that theory which had been accepted as established fact, through results, has been discarded and replaced by scientific discovery, with far greater and more rapid results. The CAUSE of DIS-EASE was conceived by the Discoverer as being the result of the numerous misalignments of the spinal column to which it is subject. Every jar, jolt and concussion to which any part of the body is subjected, because of the construction of the bony framework of man, is transmitted to the spinal column as the center of that framework,—the skeleton. Reasoning thus in the early years of his study, the Discoverer conceived that where those concussions were severe enough in their reception at the spine, misalignments of the vertebrae were certain to result, with resultant impingements of the multitudinous nerve fibres emitting from the spine and going to all parts of the body, with dis-ease as a natural sequence of the interference with normal nerve transmission caused by the irritation of the nerve fibres. For some months after his discovery of the Chiropractic principle, D. D. limited its application to that small number whom he could personally serve. It was only at the repeated insistence of his son, B. J., that the Discoverer undertook the training of a selected few in the Art of Chiropractic as it was understood in the 90’s. That son realized that the two Palmers could serve but a very small part of the great mass of humanity needing Chiropractic, though he was but a lad entering his fourteenth year when the discovery was made. Today Chiropractic is honored and revered by thousands as a boon to humanity for the good it has done, in turning them from a life of “incurable” disease, from a life of constant worry to their friends and relatives, from a life of drain upon their loved ones, to a life of useful service and happiness. Where before they had been given up by other healing professions, doomed to a life of aches and pains, anguish and drudgery, through Chiropractic they were given a new outlook on life.