“Osteopathic stimulation” is another term loosely used without
extensive clinical experience to support it. Mechanical stimulation
is frequently utilized in the physiological laboratory. But to employ
it extensively and comprehensively in the treating room or at the
bedside the therapeutic potency of it will be found wanting; that is,
to employ it to the exclusion of that most important basic treatment,
readjustment, is a great mistake.
Clinically, the pathologically slowed heart may be stimulated by a
stimulus to the cervical sympathies, the gall-bladder emptied by a
stimulus near the costal cartilages of the ninth and tenth ribs (this
is probably via the spinal segments), etc. Normally, these organs and
others may be temporarily stimulated. Experimentally, Burns[33] of
Los Angeles and Pearce[34] of San Francisco have shown the potency
of osteopathic mechanical stimulation. For example, stimulation
(mechanical) in the middle and lower dorsal regions irritates and
increases peristaltic action and vaso-constriction in the stomach and
intestines.