At the convention of the American Osteopathic Association held in
Boston in 1918, I gave a short talk on the above subject, and during
the day after I had given the lecture, two women and one man, graduate
osteopaths, asked me if I really meant to convey the impression that we
actually gave osteopathic treatments to recent surgical cases. I do not
know whether I convinced them or not, but I do know that they convinced
me that there are people practicing osteopathy who have absolutely no
concept of its merits and underlying principles.
To my surprise I have found that a great many osteopaths who consider
themselves absolutely “pure” are just a bit startled at the thought
of handling post-operative complications by treatment. These are
invariably fellows who have had most of their experience in office
work, and who do not come in contact with acute cases. Still it is
difficult to conceive how a man can believe that osteopathy is specific
for certain diseased conditions and not for others. As a matter of fact
osteopathic treatment has not proved itself more satisfactory in any
field of therapeutics than it has in post-operative conditions.
The common post-operative conditions are pneumonia, pleurisy, backache
and headache, nephritis, vomiting, neuritis, phlebitis.
Taking up these subjects and discussing the least serious first we
would of necessity discuss pneumonia last, as it is the most serious,
and is less influenced by other conditions. It will also serve to
illustrate many of the details in treatment.
We will therefore briefly take up the other conditions and then discuss
pneumonia more fully.