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[Illustration: A. T. Still.]
Philosophy of Osteopathy;
BY
ANDREW T. STILL,
DISCOVERER OF THE SCIENCE OF OSTEOPATHY AND
PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN SCHOOL
OF OSTEOPATHY.
PUBLISHED BY
A. T. STILL, KIRKSVILLE, MO
1899.
Copyrighted, 1899, by
A. T. STILL.
Lithoprinted by
EDWARD BROTHERS, INC.
Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S.A.
Preface.
Many of my friends have been anxious ever since Osteopathy became an
established fact, that I should write a treatise on the science. But I
was never convinced that the time was ripe for such a production, nor am
I even now convinced that this is not a little premature. Osteopathy is
only in its infancy, it is a great unknown sea just discovered, and as
yet we are only acquainted with its shore-tide.
When I saw others who had not more than skimmed the surface of the
science, taking up the pen to write books on Osteopathy, and after
having carefully examined their productions, found they were drinking
from the fountains of old schools of drugs, dragging back the science to
the very systems from which I divorced myself so many years ago, and
realized that hungry students were ready to swallow such mental poison,
dangerous as it was, I became fully awakened to the necessity of some
sort of Osteopathic literature for those wishing to be informed.
This book is free from quotations from medical authors, and differs
from them in opinion on almost every important question. I do not expect
it to meet their approval; such a thing would be unnatural and
impossible.
It is my object in this work to teach principles as I understand them,
and not rules. I do not instruct the student to punch or pull a certain
bone, nerve or muscle for a certain disease, but by a knowledge of the
normal and abnormal, I hope to give a specific knowledge for all
diseases.
This work has been written a little at a time for several years, just as
I could snatch a moment from other cares to devote to it. I have
carefully compiled these thoughts into a treatise. Every principle
herein laid down has been fairly well tested by myself, and proven true.
The book has been written by myself in my own way, without any ambition
to fine writing, but to give to the world a start in a philosophy that
may be a guide in the future.
Owing to the great haste with which the book has been rushed through the
press to meet the urgent demand, we will ask the indulgence of the
public for any imperfection that may appear. Hoping the world may profit
by these thoughts, I am,
Respectfully,
A. T. STILL.
Kirksville, Mo., Sept. 1, 1899.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
SOME INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.
Not a Work of Compilation--Authors Quoted--Method of Reasoning--The
Osteopath an Artist--When I Became an Osteopath--Dr. Neal's Opinion--The
Opinions of Others--What Studies Necessary--What I Mean by
Anatomy--Principles--The Practicing Osteopath's Guide--The Fascia--Not a
pleasing Task--Without Accepted Theories--Truths of Nature--Body, Motion
and Mind--Osteopathy to Cure Disease--The Osteopath Should Find
Health. Page 11
CHAPTER II.
OSTEOPATHIC EXPLORATIONS.
Divisions of the Body--Searching for the Cause--Duty of the Osteopathic
Explorer--Classification and Division--The Abnormal--Nerve
Powers--Witnesses to Examine--Abnormal Growths--Cerebro Spinal
Fluid--Body in Perfect Health--Chemistry--Nature's Chemistry. Page 29
CHAPTER III.
THE HEAD.
A Free Circulation--Death Blows--Something of the Neck--Order of
Treatment--The Pelvis--Brains of Animals--Arterial Motion--Mental
Vibrations--Overburdening the Mind--Hemiplegia. Page 43
CHAPTER IV.
EAR WAX AND ITS USES.
Nature Makes Nothing in Vain--A Successful Experiment--A Question for
Ages--The Position--Meaning of Life--Some Questions Asked--Condition in
Certain Diseases Caused by Cold--Cerumen in Fluid State--Winter Kills
Babies--Some Advice to Mothers--A Case in Point--Connection of the brain
and Other Nerves in Digestion--Unaided Investigation. Page 53
CHAPTER V.
DISEASES OF THE CHEST.
Where Confined--Consumption--Can Consumption Be Cured--Consumption
Described--No Time for Surrender--Cerebral Spinal Fluid--How to Destroy
Deadly Bombs of Decay--Battle of Blood for Life--Miliary
Tuberculosis--Conversion of Bodies Into Gas--Forming a
Tubercle--Breeding Contagion--The Seeds of Disease--Generating
Fever--Whooping Cough--Clouds and Lungs Are Much Alike--The Wisdom of
Nature--Water Formed in Lungs--The Law of Fives--Feeble Action of
Heart--The Heart--From Neck to Heart--Dyspersia or Imperfect
Digestion. Page 68
CHAPTER VI.
THE LYMPHATICS.
Importance of the Subject--Demands of Nature on the
Lymphatics--Dunglinson's Definition--Dangers of Dead Substances--Lymph
Continued--Solvent in Nature--Where Are the Lymphatics Situated?--The
Fat and Lean. Page 104
CHAPTER VII.
THE DIAPHRAGM.
Investigation--A Struggle With Nature--Lesson of Cause and
Effect--Something of Medical Etiquette--The Medical Doctor--An Explorer
for Truth Must Be Independent--The Diaphragm Introduced--A Useful
Study--Combatting Effect--Is Least Understood--A Case of Bilious
Fever--A Demand on the Nerves--Danger of Compression--A Cause for
Disease--Was a Mistake Made in the Creation--An Exploration--Result of
Removal of Diaphragm--Sustaining Life in Principles--Law Applicable to
Other Organs--Power of Diaphragm--Omentum. Page 114
CHAPTER VIII.
LIVER, BOWELS AND KIDNEYS.
Gender of the Liver--Productions of the Liver--A Hope for the
Afflicted--Evidences of Truth--Loaded With Ignorance--Lack of Knowledge
of the Kidney--How a Purgative Acts--Flux--Bloody Dysentery--Flux More
Fully Described--Osteopathic Remedies--Medical Remedies--More of the
Osteopathic Remedy. Page 138
CHAPTER IX.
THE BLOOD.
Uses for Fluids--Blood an Unknown Fluid--Harvey Only Reached the Banks
of the River of Life--Blood Is Systematically Furnished--Fatality of
Ignorance--To Find the Cause Must Be Honest--Following Arteries and
Nerves--Feeding the Nerves--The Blood on Its Journey--Powers Necessary
to Move Blood--Venous Blood Suspended. Page 149
CHAPTER X.
THE FASCIA.
Where Is Disease Sown?--An Illustration of Conception--The Greatest
Problem--A Fountain of Supply--Fascia Omnipresent--Connection with
Spinal Cord--Goes With and Covers All Muscles--Proofs in
Contagion--Study of Nerves and Fascia--Tumefy--Tumefaction. Page 161
CHAPTER XI.
FEVERS.
Be Armed With Facts--Union of Human Gases With Oxygen--Fever and
Nettle-rash. Nature Constructs for a Wise Purpose--Processes of Life
Must be Kept in Motion--No Satisfaction from Authors--Animal
Heat--Semeiology--Symptomatology--Definition of Fever--Fevers only
Effects--Result of Stoppages of Vein or Artery--Aneurisms. Page 175
CHAPTER XII.
SCARLET FEVER AND SMALLPOX.
As defined by Allopathy--Scarlet Fever as Defined by
Osteopathy--Smallpox--Power to Drive Greater Than in Measles. Page 190
CHAPTER XIII.
A CHAPTER OF WONDERS AND SOME VALUABLE QUESTIONS.
Wonders on the Increase--What Is Life?--How Is Action Produced--Acquaint
Yourself With the Machinery--Duty of the Osteopath--Formation of
Sacrum--The Pelvis--Appearance of OEdema--Do All Diseases Have
Appearance in OEdema. Page 193
CHAPTER XIV.
HAS MAN DEGENERATED?
The Advent of Man--Care of the Stock Raiser--Mental Degeneration Makes
It Unpleasant for an Original Thinker--Original Thinkers of the
Ancients--Methods of Healing--Failure of Allopathy--Primitive
Man--Evidences of Prehistoric Man--Mental Dwarfage. Page 203
CHAPTER XV.
OSTEOPATHIC TREATMENT.
Five Points--Visceral List--Care in Treating the Spinal Column--Most
Important Chapter--Perfect Drainage--A Natural Cure. Page 213
CHAPTER XVI.
REASONING TESTS.
The Vermiform Appendix--Operating for Appendicitis--Expelling Power of
the Vermiform Appendix--Care Exercised in Making Assertions--Reasoning
Tests--A List of Unexplained Diseases--Concluding Remarks. Page 223
CHAPTER XVII.
OBSTETRICS.
Overloading--Similarity of Stomach and Womb--Births--Preparation for
Delivery--Caution--Lasceration Need Not Occur--Care of Cord--Severing
Cord--Putting on Belly Band--Delivery of Afterbirth--Preparing for
Mother's Comfort--Post-Delivery Hemorrhage--Treatment for--Food for
Mother--Treatment for Sore Breast. Page 234
CHAPTER XVIII.
CONVULSIONS.
Old Phrases--Results of Stoppage of Fluids--Old Theory of Fits--What the
Real Cause may be--Listen for the Cause--What is a Fit--Sensory System
Demanding Nourishment--The Causes--The Remedy--Dislocation of Atlas and
of the Four Upper Ribs. Page 250
CHAPTER XIX.
CONCLUDING REMARKS.
Thoughts for Consideration--Offering a New Philosophy--Lymphatics and
Fascia--A Satisfactory Experiment--Natural Washing Out. Page 258
CHAPTER XX.
THE SUPERIOR CERVICAL GANGLION.
With What It Has Communication--Its Course--One of its
Functions--Stimulation or Inhibition--Result Produced. Page 263
Philosophy of Osteopathy.
CHAPTER I.
SOME INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.
Not a Work of Compilation--Authors Quoted--Method of Reasoning--The
Osteopath an Artist--When I Became an Osteopath--Dr. Neal's
Opinion--The Opinions of Others--What Studies Necessary--What I
Mean by Anatomy--Principles--The Practicing Osteopath's Guide--The
Fascia--Not a Pleasing Task--Without Accepted Theories--Truths of
Nature--Body, Motion and Mind--Osteopathy to Cure Disease--The
Osteopath Should Find Health.
NOT A WORK OF COMPILATION.
To readers of my book on the Philosophy of Osteopathy, I wish to say
that I will not tire you with a book of compilations just to sell to the
anxious reader. As I have spent thirty years of my life reading and
following rules and remedies used for curing, and learned in sorrow it
was useless to listen to their claims, for instead of getting good, I
obtained much harm therefrom, I asked for, and obtained a mental divorce
from them, and I want it to be understood that drugs and I are as far
apart as the East is from the West; now, and forever. Henceforth I will
follow the dictates of nature in all I say or write.
AUTHORS QUOTED.
I quote no authors but God and experience when I write, or lecture to
the classes or the masses, because no book written by medical writers
can be of much use to us, and it would be very foolish to look to them
for advice and instruction on a science they know nothing of. They are
illy able to advise for themselves, they have never been asked to advise
us, and I am free to say but few persons who have been pupils of my
school have tried to get wisdom from medical writers and apply it as
worthy to be taught as any part of Osteopathy, philosophy or practice.
Several books have been compiled, called "Principles of Osteopathy."
They may sell but will fail to give the knowledge the student desires.
METHOD OF REASONING.
The student of any philosophy succeeds best by the more simple methods
of reasoning. We reason for needed knowledge only, and should try and
start out with as many known facts as possible. If we would reason on
diseases of the organs of the head, neck, abdomen or pelvis, we must
first know where these organs are, how and from what arteries the eye,
ear, or tongue is fed.
THE OSTEOPATH AN ARTIST.
I believe you are taught anatomy in our school more thoroughly than any
other school to date, because we want you to carry a living picture of
all or any part of the body in your mind as a ready painter carries the
picture of the face, scenery, beast or any thing he wishes to represent
by his brush. He would only be a waster of time and paint and make a
daub that would disgust any one who would employ him. We teach you
anatomy in all its branches, that you may be able to have and keep a
living picture before your mind all the time, so you can see all joints,
ligaments, muscles, glands, arteries, veins, lymphatics, fascia
superficial and deep, all organs, how they are fed, what they must do,
and why they are expected to do a part, and what would follow in case
that part was not done well and on time. I feel free to say to my
students, keep your minds full of pictures of the normal body all the
time, while treating the afflicted.
WHEN I BECAME AN OSTEOPATH.
In answer to the questions of how long have you been teaching this
discovery, and what books are essential to the study? I will say I began
to give reasons for my faith in the laws of life as given to men, worlds
and beings by the God of nature, June, 1874, when I began to talk and
propound questions to men of learning. I thought the sword and cannons
of nature were pointed and trained upon our systems of drug doctoring.
DR. NEAL'S OPINION.
I asked Dr. J. M. Neal, of Edinburg, Scotland, for some information that
I needed badly. He was a medical doctor of five years training, a man of
much mental ability, who would give his opinions freely and to the
point. I have been told by one or more Scotch M. D.'s that a Dr. John M.
Neal, of Edinburg, was hung for murder. He was not hung while with me.
The only thing made me doubt him being a Scotchman was he loved whiskey,
and I had been told that the Scotch were a sensible people. John M. Neal
said that "drugs was the bait of fools"; it was no science, and the
system of drugs was only a trade, followed by the doctor for the money
that could be obtained by it from the ignorant sick. He believed that
nature was a law capable of vindicating its power all over the world.
THE OPINIONS OF OTHERS.
As this writing is for the information of the student I will continue
the history by saying, that in the early days of Osteopathy I sought the
opinions of the most learned, such as Dr. Schnebly, Professor of
Language and History in the Baker University, Baldwin, Kansas; Dr.
Dallas, a very learned M. D. of the Alopathic faith; Dr. F. A. Grove,
well-known in Kirksville; J. B. Abbott, Indian agent, and many others of
renown. Then back to the tombs of the dead, to better acquaint myself
with the systems of medicine and the foundations of truth upon which
they stood, if any. I will not worry your patience with a list of the
names of authors that have written upon the subject of medicine, as
remedial agents. I will use the word that the theologian often uses when
asked whom Christ died for, the answer universally is, ALL. All
intelligent medical writers say by word or inference that drugs or
drugging is a system of blind guess work, and if we should let our
opinions be governed by the marble lambs and other emblems of dead
babies found in the cemeteries of the world, we would say that John M.
Neal was possibly hung for murder, not through design, but through
traditional ignorance of the power of nature to cure both old and young,
by skillfully adjusting the engines of life so as to bring forth pure
and healthy blood, the greatest known germicide, to one capable to
reason who has the skill to conduct the vitalizing and protecting fluids
to throat, lungs and all parts of the system, and ward off diseases as
nature's God has indicated. With this faith and method of reasoning, I
began to treat diseases by Osteopathy as an experimenter, and
notwithstanding I obtained good results in all cases in diseases of
climate and contagions, I hesitated for years to proclaim to the world
that there was but little excuse for a master engineer to lose a child
in cases of diphtheria, croup, measles, mumps, whooping cough, flux and
other forms of summer diseases, peculiar to children. Neither was it
necessary for the adult to die with diseases of summer, fall and winter.
But at last I took my stand on this rock and my confidence in nature,
where I have stood and fought the battles, and taken the enemy's flag in
every engagement for the last twenty-five years.
WHAT STUDIES NECESSARY.
As you contemplate studying this science and have asked to know the
necessary studies, I wish to impress it upon your minds that you begin
with anatomy, and you end with anatomy, a knowledge of anatomy is all
you want or need, as it is all you can use or ever will use in your
practice, although you may live one hundred years. You have asked for my
opinion as the founder of the science. Yours is an honest question, and
God being my judge I will give you just as honest an answer. As I have
said, a knowledge of anatomy with its application covers every inch of
ground that is necessary to qualify you to become a skillful and
successful Osteopath, when you go forth into the world to combat
diseases.
WHAT I MEAN BY ANATOMY.
I will now define what I mean by anatomy. I speak by comparison and
tell you what belongs to the study of anatomy. I will take a chicken
whose parts and habits all persons are familiar with to illustrate. The
chicken has a head, a neck, a breast, a tail, two legs, two wings, two
eyes, two ears, two feet, one gizzard, one crop, one set of bowels, one
liver, and one heart. This chicken has a nervous system, a glandular
system, a muscular system, a system of lungs and other parts and
principles not necessary to speak of in detail. But I want to emphasize,
they belong to the chicken, and it would not be a chicken without every
part or principle. These must all be present and answer roll call or we
do not have a complete chicken. Now I will try and give you the parts of
anatomy and the books that pertain to the same. You want some standard
author on descriptive anatomy in which you learn the form and places of
all bones, the place and uses of ligaments, muscles and all that belong
to the soft parts. Then from the descriptive anatomy you are conducted
into the dissecting room, in which you receive demonstrations, and are
shown all parts through which blood and other fluids are conducted. So
far you see you are in anatomy. From the demonstrator you are conducted
to another room or branch of anatomy called physiology, a knowledge of
which no Osteopath can do without and be a success. In that room you are
taught how the blood and other fluids of life are produced, and the
channels through which this fluid is conducted to the heart and lungs
for purity and other qualifying processes, previous to entering the
heart for general circulation to nourish and sustain the whole human
body. I want to insist and impress it upon your minds that this is as
much a part of anatomy as a wing is a part of a chicken. From this room
of anatomy you are conducted to the room of histology, in which the eye
is aided by powerful microscopes and made acquainted with the smallest
arteries of the human body, which in life are of the greatest known
importance, remembering that in the room of histology you are still
studying anatomy, and what that machinery can and does execute every
day, hour, and minute of life. From the histological room you are
conducted to the room of elementary chemistry, in which you learn
something of the laws of association of substances, that you can the
better understand what has been told you in the physiological room,
which is only a branch of anatomy, and intended to show you that nature
can and does successfully compound and combine elements for muscles,
blood, teeth and bone. From there you are taken to the room of the
clinics, where you are first made acquainted with both the normal and
abnormal human body, which is only a continuation of the study of
anatomy. From there you are taken to the engineer's room (or operator's
room) in which you are taught how to observe and detect abnormalities
and the effect or effects they may and do produce, and how they effect
health and cause that condition known as disease.
PRINCIPLES.
Principles to an Osteopath means a perfect plan and specification to
build in form a house, an engine, a man, a world, or anything for an
object or purpose. To comprehend this engine of life or man which is so
constructed with all conveniences for which it was made, it is necessary
to constantly keep the plan and specification before the mind, and in
the mind, to such a degree that there is no lack of knowledge of the
bearings and uses of all parts. After a complete knowledge of all parts
with their forms, sizes and places of attachment which should be so
thoroughly grounded in the memory that there would be no doubt of the
intent of the builder for the use or purpose of the great and small
parts, and why they have a part to perform in the workings of the
engine. When this part of the specification is thoroughly learned from
anatomy or the engineer's guide book, he will then take up the chapter
on the division of forces, by which this engine moves and performs the
duties for which it was created. In this chapter the mind will be
referred to the brain to obtain a knowledge of that organ, where the
force starts, how it is conducted to any belt, pully, journal, or
division of the whole building. After learning where the force is
obtained, and how conveyed from place to place throughout the whole
body, he becomes interested and wisely instructed. He sees the various
parts of this great system of life when preparing fluids commonly known
as blood, passing through a set of tubes both great and small--some so
vastly small, as to require the aid of powerful microscopes to see their
infinitely small forms, through which the blood and other fluids are
conducted by the heart and force of the brain, to construct organs,
muscles, membranes and all the things necessary to life and motion, to
the parts separately and combined. By this minute acquaintance with the
normal body which has been learned in the specification as written in
standard authors of anatomy and the dissecting rooms, he is well
prepared to be invited into the inspection room to receive comparisons
between the normal and abnormal engines, built according to nature's
plan and specification, and absolutely perfect. He is called into this
room for the purpose of comparing engines that have been strained from
being thrown off the track, or run against other bodies with such force
as to bend journals, pipes, break or loosen bolts; or otherwise
deranged, so as to render it useless until repaired. To repair signifies
to readjust from the abnormal condition in which the machinist finds it,
to the condition of the normal engines which stand in the shop of
repairs. His inspection would commence by first lining up the wheels
with straight journals; then he would naturally be conducted to the
boiler, steam chest, shafts, and every part that belongs to a completed
engine. To know that they are straight and in place as shown upon the
plan and described by the specification, he has done all that is
required of a master mechanic. Then it goes into the hands of the
engineer, who waters, fires and conducts this artificial being on its
journey. You as Osteopathic machinists can go no farther than to adjust
the abnormal condition, in which you find the afflicted. Nature will do
the rest.
THE PRACTICING OSTEOPATH'S GUIDE.
The Osteopath reasons if he reasons at all, that order and health are
inseparable, and that when order in all parts is found, disease cannot
prevail, and if order is complete and disease should be found, there is
no use for order. And if order and health are universally one in union,
then the doctor cannot usefully, physiologically, or philosophically be
guided by any scale of reason, otherwise. Does a chemist get results
desired by accident? Are your accidents more likely to get good results
than his? Does order and success demand thought and cool headed reason?
If we wish to be governed by reason, we must take a position that is
founded on truth and capable of presenting facts, to prove the validity
of all truths we present. A truth is only a hopeful supposition if it is
not supported by results. Thus all nature is kind enough to willingly
exhibit specimens of its work as vindicating witnesses of its ability to
prove its assertions by its work. Without that tangible proof, nature
would belong to the gods of chance. The laws of mother, conception,
growth and birth, from atoms to worlds would be a failure, a universe
without a head to direct. But as the beautiful works of nature stand
to-day, and in all time past, fully able by the evidence it holds before
the eye and mind of reason, that all beings great and small came by the
law of cause and effect, are we not bound to work by the laws of cause,
if we wish an effect? If the heavens do move by cause when was its
beings divorced from that great common law? Are we not bound to trust
and work by the old and reliable self-evident laws, until something
later has proven its superior ability to ward off disease and cure the
sick.
THE FASCIA.
I know of no part of the body that equals the fascia as a hunting
ground. I believe that more rich golden thought will appear to the
mind's eye as the study of the fascia is pursued than any division of
the body. Still one part is just as great and useful as any other in its
place. No part can be dispensed with. But the fascia is the ground in
which all causes of death do the destruction of life. Every view we
take, a wonder appears. Here we find a place for the white corpuscles
building anew and giving strength to throw impurities from the body by
tubes that run from the skin to tanks of useful fluids, that would heap
up and are no longer of use in the body. No doubt nerves exist in the
fascia, that change the fluid to gas, and force it through the spongy
and porous system as a delivery by the vital chain of wonders, that go
on all the time to keep nerves wholly pure.
NOT A PLEASANT TASK.
I dislike to write, and only do so, when I think my productions will go
into the hands of kind-hearted geniuses who read, not to find a book of
quotations, but to go with the soul of the subject that is being
explored for its merits,--weigh all truths and help bring its uses front
for the good of man.
Osteopathy has not asked a place in written literature prior to this
date, and does not hope to appear on written pages even to suit the
author of this imperfectly written book.
WITHOUT ACCEPTED THEORIES.
Columbus had to launch and navigate much and long, and meet many storms,
because he had not the written experience of other travelers to guide
him. He had only a few bits of drift-wood not common to his home growth,
to cause him to move as he did. But there was a fact, a bit of wood that
did not grow on his home soil.
He reasoned that it must be from some land amid the sea whose shores had
not before been known to his race. With these facts and his powerful
mind of reason, he met all opposition, and moved alone; just as all men
do who have no use for theories as their compass to guide them through
the storms. This opposition a mental explorer must meet.
I felt that I must anchor my boat to living truths and follow them
wheresoever they might drift. Thus I launched my boat many years ago on
the open seas, fearlessly, and have never found a wave of scorn nor
abuse that truth could not eat, and do well on.
TRUTHS OF NATURE.
We often speak of truth. We say great truths, and use many other
qualifying expressions. But no one truth is greater than any other
truth. Each has a sphere of usefulness peculiar to itself. Thus we
should treat with respect and reverence all truths, great and small. A
truth is the complete work of nature, which can only be demonstrated by
the vital principle belonging to that class of truths. Each truth or
division as we see it, can only be made known to us by the self evident
fact, which this truth is able to demonstrate by its action.
If we take man as our object to base the beginning of our reason, we
find the association of many elements, which differ in kind to suit the
purpose for which they were designed. To us they act, to us they are
wisely formed and located for the purpose for which they were designed.
Through our five senses we deal with the material body. It has action.
That we observe by vision which connects the mind to reason. High above
the five senses on the subject of cause or causes of this, is motion. By
the testimony of the witness the mind is connected in a manner by which
it can reason on solidity and size. By smell, taste and sound, we make
other connections between the chambers of reason and the object we
desire to reason upon; and thus our foundation on which all five
witnesses are arrayed to the superior principle which is mind.
After seeing a human being complete in form, self moving, with power to
stop or go on at will, to us he seems to obey some commander. He seems
to go so far and stop; he lies down and gets up; he turns round and
faces the objects that are traveling in the same direction he does.
Possibly he faces the object by his own action. Then by about facing, he
sees one coming with greater velocity, sees he can not escape by his own
speed, so he steps aside and lets that body pass on, as though he moved
in obedience to some order. The bystander would ask the question, "How
did he know such a dangerous body was approaching?" He finds on the most
crucial examination, that the sense of hearing is wholly without reason.
The same is true with all the five senses pertaining to man, beast, or
bird. This being the condition of the five physical senses, we are
forced by reason to conclude there is a superior being who conducts the
material man, sustains, supports and guards against danger; and after
all our explorations, we have to decide that man is triune when
complete.
BODY, MOTION AND MIND.
First the material body, second the spiritual being, third a being of
mind which is far superior to all vital motions and material forms,
whose duty is to wisely manage this great engine of life. This great
principle known as mind, must depend for all evidences on the five
senses, and on this testimony, all mental conclusions are bad, and all
orders from this mental court are issued to move to any point or stop at
any place. Thus to obtain good results, we must blend ourselves with,
and travel in harmony with nature's truths. When this great machine man,
ceases to move in all its parts, which we call death, the explorers
knife discovers no mind, no motion. He simply finds formulated matter
with no motor to move it, with no mind to direct it. He can trace the
channels through which the fluids have circulated, he can find the
relation of parts to other parts; in fact by the knife, he can expose to
view the whole machinery that once was wisely active. Suppose the
explorer is able to add the one principle motion, at once we would see
an action, but it would be a confused action. Still he is not the man
desired to be produced. There is one addition that is indispensable to
control this active body, or machine, and that is mind. With that added
the whole machinery then works as man. The three when united in full
action are able to exhibit the thing desired--complete.
OSTEOPATHY TO CURE DISEASE.
The Osteopath seeks first physiological perfection of form, by normally
adjusting the osseous frame work, so that all arteries may deliver blood
to nourish and construct all parts. Also that the veins may carry away
all impurities dependent upon them for renovation. Also that the nerves
of all classes may be free and unobstructed while applying the powers of
life and motion to all divisions, and the whole system of nature's
laboratory.
A full and complete supply of arterial blood must be generated and
delivered to all parts, organs and glands, by the channels called the
arteries. And when it has done its work, then without delay the veins
must return all to heart and lungs for renewal. We must know some delay
of fluids has been established on which nature begins the work of
renewal by increased action of electricity, even to the solvent action
of fever heat, by which watery substances evaporate and relieve the
lymphatic system of stagnant, watery secretions. Thus fever is a natural
and powerful remedy.
THE OSTEOPATH SHOULD FIND HEALTH.
To find health should be the object of the doctor. Anyone can find
disease. He should make the grand round among the sentinels and
ascertain if they are asleep, dead or have deserted their posts, and
have allowed the enemy to get into camps. He should visit all posts.
Before he goes out to make the rounds, he should know where all posts
are, and the value of the supply he has charge of, whether it be shot,
shell, grub, clothing, arms or anything of value to the Company or
Division.