| The first chiropractic success was curing…deafness!
Harvey Lillard, janitor of the Ryan building in
Brady Street, Davenport, Iowa, USA, was not a happy man. 17 years
before, while working in a cramped, stooping position, he had
felt something give way in his spine. The immediate result was
not only pain…he found that he had lost his hearing.
He mentioned his problem to Daniel David Palmer,
who had an office in the Ryan Building
and was a keen student of anatomy and physiology. Daniel Palmer
had a theory. He surmised that the spine was a highway along which
ran the central nervous system. If that highway should become
in need of repair and any way restrict the constant traffic of
brain impulses and orders carried by the central nervous system,
other symptoms seemingly unconnected to the spinal column could
result.
He examined Harvey Lillard and found that one
of his vertebrae was misaligned. On September 18th 1895,
he gave Harvey Lillard the first ever chiropractic adjustment.
Harvey’s hearing returned…and chiropractic was
born.
The years of struggle
Daniel Palmer was not first pioneer
to find the established medical world ranged against him. In 1845,
the American dentists Wells first used nitrous oxide (laughing
gas) to quell the pain of dentistry. He, and the later exponents
of anaesthetics such as chloroform and ether, met sometimes violent
opposition. In Vienna Semmelweis’s insistence on hygiene at childbirth
was ridiculed in 1847, in spite of the fact that it reduced maternal
mortality from 9.9% to 1.5%. Twenty years later, Lister used carbolic
acid and phenol sprays to reduce the risk of infection during
surgery. Surgeons who operated in swallow tail suits and prided
themselves on the bloodiness of their aprons, derided Lister,
too.
So David Palmer was in very good company. He preserved
and opened the first school of chiropractic in 1898. In spite
of opposition from the medical profession, five of the first 15
graduates were medical doctors. It’s also worth noting that half
the pupils were women, a tradition that is still maintained today
in most chiropractic schools. Daniel Palmer lived to see the dozens
of chiropractic schools open up across America.
He died in 1913, his death possibly contributed to by an injury
he sustained whilst serving his jail sentence. His statement after
receiving his sentence is perhaps his epitaph, too:
“I have never considered it beneath
my dignity to do anything to relieve a human suffering.”
The struggle went on. Many other chiropractors
were prosecuted and jailed. A landmark case was when Shegato Morikubo
DC, a graduate of Palmer’s school, was found innocent of practising
medicine…he was practising chiropractic. This was the first recognition
of chiropractic as a science in its own right.
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Years of Progress
In spite of opposition, the march of
chiropractic went on unchecked. Palmer’s mantle was taken on by
his son, B J Palmer, who refined the techniques and took over
the school. He also introduced into chiropractic the new tool
of X-Rays, enabling more accurate diagnoses of spinal misalignments.
In America, where
chiropractic was born and first flourished, milestone followed
milestone.
1913: Kansas was the first state
to license chiropractors.
1941: The first standards were set up to accredit
chiropractor’s schools in the USA.
1944: The GI Bill of rights made grants available
for returning veterans to study chiropractic.
1972: The US Congress voted to make chiropractic
available under Medicare.
Today in America, there
are around 50,000 practising chiropractors treating 15-20 million
patients. One in 15 Americans sees a chiropractor at least once
a year.
Chiropractic has come a long way from that day
in 1895 when Harvey Lillard complained to Daniel Palmer about
his deafness.
Chiropractors Today
Chiropractic soon spread outside the
United States
and, following the setting up of a body in 1947 to regulate and
monitor the standards of chiropractic education in America,
others were formed in Canada,
Australia
and Europe.
There are now around 900 working chiropractors
in Britain. This means the profession
has doubled in the last 5 years and will double again in the next
five years. About 75,000 patients consult a chiropractor each
week.
British chiropractic has its milestones, too.
In 1990, a report by the medical research Council published in
the British Medical Journal found Chiropractic to be more effective
than hospital out-patient treatment for low back pain.
Then in 1994, Royal Assent was given to the chiropractors
act after it had obtained all party support and the backing of
the medical profession. The act aims to ensure that only those
suitably qualified will be able to practise as a chiropractor.
It also set up a registration body, consisting of both chiropractors
and members of the public, to be responsible for the regulation,
development and promotion of the whole profession and the establishment
and maintenance of a statutory register.
In December 1994, the clinical standards advisory
group (an independent multidiscipline group commissioned by the
department of health) recommended that GP’ should send appropriate
patients with low back pain to chiropractors and members of other
recognised manipulative professions.
Most private health insurers now list chiropractic
among their policy benefits. Chiropractic treatment is becoming
increasingly available on the NHS.
As the millennium approaches, the future chiropractic
is obviously one of the continual progresses, and the next 100
years will see many more milestones in the service of alleviating
human suffering.
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