D.D. Palmer and Chiropractic Practice 1895

Physician Edward Schneider wrote: "Americans have a great interest in chiropractors. We are more likely to see a chiropractor than any other alternative care provider."

This healthcare service therefore deserves a place in this book.

Chiropractic practice began in 1895, when Daniel "D.D." Palmer claimed that he had improved a man's hearing by manipulating his back. A former beekeeper and grocer, Palmer wrote that he had received the idea for chiropractic from the spirit of a deceased physician.

Louis Pasteur's germ theory of disease, proposed in the 1860s, was well known. However, living in an era when unusual treatments were still performed and popular patent medicines were sold under colorful names with exaggerated claims, Palmer said:  

"Chiropractors have observed that every disease thought to be infectious affects the spinal cord. You can find a prominence in the spine corresponding to every kind of disease. If there were a hundred cases of smallpox, I could show you where to look in one person, and when you looked in the same place in the other ninety-nine, you would recognize the common factor." 

Palmer's son B.J. was also a pioneer of chiropractic treatment.

Today, chiropractic generally involves treating musculoskeletal pain and other diseases through manipulation of the spine and other joints. Traditional chiropractors have often referred to vertebral subluxation, a type of spinal joint dysfunction that interferes with the functioning of the body and its organs. 

Palmer initially assumed that subluxations caused pinched nerves. Later, however, he proposed that they made nerves too loose or too tense, thereby affecting the health of the organs with which they interacted. 

Today, many modern chiropractors use mainstream medicine when appropriate. Debate continues over the extent to which the placebo effect plays a role in chiropractic pain relief.

Description of the Article Image: A 1956 painting by Chester Paciorek showing D.D. Palmer practicing chiropractic on Harvey Lillard in 1895.

Historical Figures Mentioned in This Article: Daniel David "D.D." Palmer (1845–1913), Bartlett Joshua "B.J." Palmer (1882–1961)

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