property of successfully resisting all germ action. Indeed, the
fundamental proposition of Serum-Therapy is that under stress of the
presence of dilute germ infusions the body _does_ develop special
chemicals which neutralize the germ poisons and kill the germs and
which remain after the inoculation to guard against any further
entrance of germs of the same kind and vulnerable to the same
protective chemicals.
This theory is sufficiently correct to have served as an unassailable
basis for a most illogical procedure. The truth is that the
auto-protective power of the body must be lower than normal and the
germs must find a weakened area for development and multiplication
before they can develop sufficiently to produce disease. Once they gain
a foothold they tend to multiply with great rapidity and to develop
alarming symptoms often leading to death.
Only in a few instances does modern science believe that a pathogenic
germ can successfully attack a healthy body, but is claimed that there
are a few germs, such as the Klebs-Loeffler bacillus (diphtheria
producer) and the bacillus of anthrax, which may find lodgment in any
organism, healthy or unhealthy, to produce disease.
Now, the susceptibility of the body to germ invasion requires
explanation. Merely to say that one is susceptible and another is not
leaves too wide a field of possibility for error. It is easy to reason
from the fact that all persons are at some time exposed to contagious
or infectious diseases while comparatively few contract them that
some persons are vulnerable to certain diseases while others are not.
It is plain that while a person may be susceptible to typhoid fever
because he has a weakness in the intestines, he may be quite immune
from pneumonia or tuberculosis or any other infectious or contagious
disease. But why this difference? Let us look at the problem from
another angle.
Chiropractors find with every contagious or infectious disease certain
subluxations whose location with relation to the disease is constant
and demonstrable. Thus all cases of pulmonary tuberculosis show a third
Dorsal subluxation with only enough exceptions to prove the rule;
tonsilitis is invariably accompanied by subluxation of the second,
third or fourth Cervical. Correction of the subluxation is, in all
except the most fully and virulently developed cases, followed by a
radical cure. Indeed, in many of the germ diseases it is possible to
abort the fever with improvement of all symptoms in from five minutes
to twelve hours. We are so accustomed to checking germ diseases at
once that failure to do so leads us to immediate investigation of
our palpation and adjustment to discover some technical error in the
application of the principles of Chiropractic to the case in question.
It is manifestly impossible by vertebral adjustment to raise the body
beyond _normal power_. Nothing is added to the body; no energy is
utilized other than the energy of the body itself which is provided
by Nature and released through restoration of the normal carrying
capacity of nerves. The highest goal attainable is normality, and it
is observed that no matter whether the impingement be in the nature of
an excitation or an inhibition of nerve action the effect of a correct
adjustment is always in that direction--toward normality. It may be
as well to digress here long enough to remark that abnormal change is
never the result of _adjustment_ but always of _maladjustment_, and
those who claim to be able to produce stimulation by moving a given
vertebra one way and inhibition by moving it another are entirely wrong.
It is evident from the results of adjustment in germ disease that
the normal body is entirely capable of throwing off the poisons and
exterminating the germs, which conclusion quite agrees with science.
The fact, not known by other branches of science, and asserted by
Chiropractic is simply that _the subluxation is the factor which
determines susceptibility_.
Upon ascertaining that a certain vertebra is in normal alignment we may
say with absolute certainty that the organs innervated by the nerves
passing through its foramina are not and cannot be the site of any
pernicious germ activities. To go further, it has been demonstrated in
a number of cases that the subluxation existed before the contagion
or infection developed. A man has been known to have a second Lumbar
subluxation for many years without effects other than a tendency to
constipation and on the appearance of a typhoid epidemic to contract
the disease. Correction of the subluxation afforded a cure. Such
instances might be cited in great numbers. No person without the
necessary subluxation ever contracts a germ disease and the necessary
subluxation can be exactly located for the vast majority of such
diseases. Unfortunately it is impossible to find a person who has not
_some_ subluxations and is not, therefore, subject to _some_ form of
contagion or infection.
So far Chiropractic agrees with general knowledge of germ disease and
its etiology, simply adding the explanation of susceptibility which all
other modes of investigation have failed to afford. In one particular
we find apparent disagreement.
We have said that several bacilli are supposed to have power to cause
disease in healthy bodies. Diphtheria is a disease caused by one of
these. Yet Chiropractic adjustments have rapidly aborted diphtheria,
apparently proving that the body has power to react strongly enough to
conquer even this germ, providing the nerve channels be opened to allow
of exertion of its full activity. It is probable that all diseases fall
under the same law and that _no_ germ can find lodgment in healthy
tissue. Chiropractic affirms this as a truth and as yet no experience
has tended to disprove it; the belief is strengthened by the years.
The experiments which are said to have proven that certain
micro-organisms can attack healthy tissue are based upon the
supposition that careful examination demonstrated the absence of
disease in the animals experimented upon by inoculation. Since these
experiments and these examinations were made without any knowledge of
vertebral subluxations, and consequently without discovering whether
or not there existed latent weaknesses of various organs, we doubt the
validity of the experiments. Our own examination of human and animal
spines has thus far failed to discover any perfectly normal specimens.
Our clinical experience with diphtheria at least absolutely disproves
the conclusions of Pasteur and others in regard to its origin.
Increase of Subluxations
It has been observed that in many instances the subluxation which
existed previous to infection or contagion is greater and more
noticeable during the febrile and active stage of the disease than
before, and this fact has led some careless or insufficiently skilled
palpaters to assume that the disease caused the subluxation.
The development of germ life is accompanied by the excretion of
toxins of greater or less virulence which circulate through the blood
and affect the entire body. This poison, irritating sensor nerves,
brings about motor reactions in the segments irritated and, since
the normal operation of the laws of reflex action is interrupted
somewhat by subluxation, and since the muscles immediately around a
subluxated vertebra tend to pull upon it with unequal leverage, this
motor reaction is likely to _increase_ already existing malalignments,
especially in the same body segment in which the poison is generated
and in which the irritation is consequently greatest. Thus subluxation
is most pronounced during the activity of the disease caused by it
and reacting upon it and thus a disease which began as a localized
destructive process may manifest systemic effects through its action
upon other abnormal spinal segments.
DIET
The internal chemistry of the body varies so greatly under changing
conditions, the operation of any two different organisms is so hard
to compare accurately, that it is impossible to set down any rule for
diet which will apply properly to all patients or to all with the same
disease or habit of body. In fact, only experiment with an individual
can determine the exactly proper diet for him.
Through lack of judgment or of observation of the effects of certain
foods upon us we often eat that which our bodies cannot properly digest
and assimilate. Sometimes through accident or negligence we partake of
food which is proper in kind for us but improper in quality, perhaps
partially decomposed. Improper food, when taken into the body, tends to
exert a deleterious effect upon health. This fact should not lead us to
confine ourselves to reasoning superficially that improper foods _cause
disease_ or that dietary measures will _cure_ disease.
Some Chiropractors have held that the hunger of individuals for certain
foods is a safe guide to a proper diet. This is manifestly untrue
in some cases; the voracious appetite of the convalescent typhoid
patient is an example. But it would probably be true _if all men were
normal_. Close observation of a few exceptionally well-developed and
normal individuals has disclosed an interesting fact. If a man has no
subluxation in that portion of the spine which controls the stomach,
the ingestion of decomposing food, even though the alteration be so
slight as to escape notice on casual examination, induces immediate
vomiting followed by no untoward consequences. Only occasionally
does one find persons without subluxations in some way affecting the
stomach; in such cases the body promptly rejects and expels injurious
material.
This carries us to the rather surprising conclusion that _the normal
person is not susceptible to the influence of bad food_. In the
majority of individuals, some degree of abnormality existing, improper
food has a decidedly bad effect. Passing through the alimentary canal
it is improperly digested; toxins are developed; these chemically
affect the entire body, perhaps leading only to a congestion and
inflammation of some part of the lining of the alimentary tract,
perhaps producing a general fever, malaise, diarrhea, and the other
effects of a general poisoning.
It has been found that proper adjustment is followed by quick relief
in such cases, the commonest effect being the rapid expulsion of the
deleterious matter by vomiting and diarrhea with breaking of the fever
and lessening of all symptoms.
It has also been observed that during the suffering from dietetic
error the subluxation controlling the stomach or some part of the
small intestines is often found increased in degree with tension of
the adjacent muscles. With adjustment and relief of the other symptoms
the muscular tension tends to disappear. This motor reaction from the
irritation of food poison undoubtedly serves to _increase_ subluxation
already existing, thus intensifying effects. But for its primary effect
food poison requires a previous subluxation lowering the natural
protective power of the body. Food poisoning is often a secondary cause
of disease.
When it is found in any specific case that certain foods exert a
bad influence upon the progress of the case, that the symptoms are
aggravated by the taking of these foods, they must be abandoned. Yet no
rigid diet need be prescribed in any case. Every patient will require a
different diet, nor is it possible to understand the intimate chemical
relations within the body sufficiently to fix a proper diet except by
experiment.
A word here about fasting. If improper food were a primary cause of
disease, fasting would be an effective, though somewhat radical,
removal of the cause of disease and a logical procedure. Since improper
food is _not_ a primary cause of disease and since nature requires
food for the repair work made possible through adjustments, it would
seem unwise for Chiropractors to prescribe fasting. Also it is well to
remember that fasting and starvation are synonymous and their symptoms
identical.
POISONS
Any substance taken into the body and not usable as food may be
considered poison. Most drugs administered as medicine or used
habitually are either directly poisonous and commonly so considered
or are poisonous in the sense that they do not build but rather tend
to injure the body. Injurious substances accidentally taken into
the body; certain products included in the preparation of otherwise
nutritious foods, alcohol, tobacco, etc., affect the body in varying
degrees but in accordance with the same laws. Poisons may be internally
generated through the action of pathogenic germs or through the failure
of the body to digest food and to prevent injurious chemical changes in
it. It has even been said by some that abnormal mental states so affect
metabolism as to cause the formation of certain auto-toxins which
injuriously affect the entire body.
However poison may make its appearance in the body its presence
is associated with certain bad effects. Poison may be corrosive,
destroying tissue wherever it touches; it may be stimulating, affecting
the nerves so as to increase their activity, following which waste of
energy there is a weakening reaction; it may be narcotic, lowering some
physiologic process below normal.
If a man without subluxation--and therefore normal--have poison
introduced into his body one of two effects will follow. Either the
poison will be sufficient to produce death in a short time, and will do
so, or the poison will be ejected from the body and the patient recover
naturally and without treatment, and recover fully.
This is the statement of the ideal, not the real. The fact is that
no person has yet been found without subluxation in some part of
the spinal column. Occasional cases have been reported but always
by Chiropractors whose statements are open to question on account
of imperfect training in vertebral palpation or a known habit of
unconsidered statement. And in the weakened body, whose natural
protective power has been lowered, the effect is different.
The body fails to throw off all the poison normally and some of it
remains in the circulation and tends to cause progressively increasing
damage. In addition to the direct effect of the poison upon the
tissues, the irritation of sensory nerves gives rise to a motor
reaction which increases subluxation generally throughout the spine but
especially in the segment in which the sensory irritation is greatest.
If the poison be taken into the stomach the vertebrae affecting that
organ are most affected in the resulting motor disturbances. When
vaccine virus is introduced into the arm the greatest influence is upon
the last two Cervicals and first Dorsal, causing increased weakening of
the nerves to the arm. If the vaccination does not “take” it is because
the body is so normal as to be able to take up and rapidly excrete the
poison or to neutralize it with an internally generated antitoxin.
This tendency of poisons to increase subluxations already existing has
caused many to conclude that _new_ subluxations could be produced by
the motor reactions from poison. The laws governing reflex action make
this impossible. If a mild stimulus be applied in the segment occupied
by a given, and normally aligned, vertebra, the resulting contraction
will tend to appear on the same side as the irritation and would--if
sufficient to subluxate the vertebra--draw it _toward_ the irritated
side. If a stronger stimulus were applied the resulting reaction would
appear on _both_ sides and with sufficient intensity on the opposite
side to the irritation so that the difference between the contractions
on the two sides would never be sufficient to overcome the fixity and
inertia of the vertebra. If this bit of theorizing be doubted, let me
add that if poisons _could_ cause subluxation they would undoubtedly
cause drawing of the vertebra _toward_ the irritated side--which is
not the way we find them in poisoning cases. Almost without variation,
the subluxation is _away from_ the affected side. Such a subluxation
produces most impingement on the side of the irritation; the only kind
which could follow poisons would produce its effects on the opposite
side.
In acute poisoning cases which may possibly proceed to a rapidly fatal
termination, while immediate adjustment may be sufficient to cause the
expulsion of the poison and the recovery of the patient it is probably
wisest to administer an antidote or to call a physician with a stomach
pump. Just so, the pulmotor should be summoned for gas asphyxiation;
but at least one case was recently encountered in which an adjustment
started the heart and artificial respiration movements restored
consciousness before the pulmotor could arrive. There are few, if any,
acute poisoning cases in which an adjustment will not aid. Sometimes it
should be assisted by other measures not strictly within the province
of Chiropractic.
Chronic poisoning, such as lead poisoning from paint work, yields
well to adjustments providing the secondary cause, the persistent
inhalation of lead fumes, be discontinued.
Poisons may wound or injure the body whether or not it be normal; in
such case they might properly be classed with trauma. But no poison
causes disease except through the medium of vertebral subluxation
previously produced. Some subluxation which has never been sufficient
to produce active disease may be so increased by the action of poisons
as to be of serious effect even though the poison has long since been
eradicated from the body--for the subluxation is permanent until
affected by force outside itself. In considering the etiology of any
disease the possibility of its being augmented by medicines, drug
habits, or dietetic errors should be weighed with other evidence.
EXPOSURE
By this term is especially meant exposure to sudden temperature
changes. The body may sustain a very high or a very low outside
temperature providing the change is gradual enough so that the
heat-regulating mechanism may adapt itself properly to protect the
body and maintain an even temperature within. A sudden change from a
very warm room to a very cold atmosphere; a quick transportation from
cold air to a superheated apartment; or a sudden draft of air whose
temperature is sharply at variance with surrounding air and therefore
with the condition of the body surface may have a very bad effect.
The skin and mucous membranes of the body have become accustomed
to a certain temperature; the change irritates them. And the
immediate result is a motor reaction increasing subluxation in the
same body segment in which the irritation is greatest and probably
producing first an irritation of the nerves at the spine and then an
inflammation of the exposed surface. Thus a “cold” is produced. One
who has no subluxation affecting the respiratory tract--a rare degree
of normality--may escape coryza, bronchitis, or pneumonia, the most
common effects, but may suffer a congestion of the stomach walls or
of other parts of the body. It is said that the cold “settled on the
stomach.” The fact is that the motor reaction takes advantage of the
weak parts of the spine and affects them most, like the pernicious
habit of spine-stretching which used to prevail among Chiropractors.
This explains why “cold in the head” is so very frequent. The fourth
Cervical vertebra is situated at the middle point of the neck and is
very freely movable and easily subluxated and, in fact, more often
displaced than other Cervicals.
Noxious or poisonous vapors may have an effect identical with that of
sudden temperature change. Sleeping in an improperly ventilated room
often appears to cause “cold.” Careful study of the part of the body
exposed to draft, and of spino-organic connection, will show that in
most instances the effect of such exposure is first felt in the same
body segment.
It is a well-known fact that not all people are “subject to colds.” One
may be “subject to lung colds,” another to “cold in the head.” The
susceptibility is entirely governed by the condition of the spine, the
person having no middle Cervical subluxation being immune from coryza
even though subjected to the same exposure which will produce it in
others. The pollen of plants produces hay fever in the susceptible
in much the same manner that draft produces coryza, both acting as
secondary causes.
BODILY EXCESSES
In this division of secondary causes may be mentioned overwork,
continuous loss of sleep, overeating, venereal excesses, etc.
They act in this manner. Wasting and overusing the bodily resources
they lower the general vitality. Now, though there be subluxations at
various points in the spine there is still transmitted through each
impinged nerve a certain amount of Vital Force which to a certain
extent maintains the functions of the body and keeps it in a state
of activity sufficient for ordinary demands. When the entire stock
of vitality is lowered through excess the amount of energy passing
through each nerve in the body is lessened, but the effect of such
lessening is felt most where there is subluxation. At the high tide
of vitality the subluxations are not sufficient, perhaps, to produce
serious disease. At low ebb, every organ whose nerve is interfered with
suffers keenly. Under such conditions the body is much more subject to
adverse influences, to shocks and jars, to contagion or infection, to
the action of cold or exposure. Thus bodily excess acts as a secondary
cause of disease.
ABNORMAL MENTAL STATES
There are many who believe that fear, worry, hate, grief, etc., are
in themselves sufficient to produce disease in a normal organism.
Shock following the demise of a loved one or some deep disgrace is
occasionally alleged as a cause of death or of a rapid decline in
health which terminates fatally.
The failure of Suggestive Therapeutics to cure disease except when it
is largely imaginary rather argues against this theory. It is also
true that proper Chiropractic adjustments not only lead to the cure of
disease apparently caused by abnormal mental states but also, restoring
proper blood-supply and nutrition to the brain, induce a happier mental
state in the patient. Even insanity has been cured in a number of cases
by Chiropractic.
We hold that worry, fear, etc., are abnormal; that they arise from the
improper expression of Mind through disordered brain-cells. “Diseases
of the Mind,” in the strictest sense, cannot occur, but only diseases
of the physical medium through which mind is expressed and translated
to the physical plane of being--the brain.
A condition of abnormal mental expression or activity, especially
worry, fear or anger, probably has a two-fold effect: it rapidly wastes
the body energy and, like bodily excess, renders every subluxation more
effective; it is possible that it may also really produce auto-toxins,
generated by abnormal brain-action and affecting the body metabolism
adversely. In this way disease appears through the action of abnormal
mental states as secondary causes.
They themselves are the result of subluxation of the first or second,
sometimes third, Cervical, impinging the nerves which control the
blood-supply to the brain and hence its nutrition. Correction of the
subluxation causes them to disappear.
INFLAMMATION
Inflammation is a morbid process characterized by the presence of
increased temperature and one or more of the symptoms, pain, redness,
and swelling. It is distinguished from fever by being confined locally,
while fever is a general functional disturbance showing elevation of
temperature, increased katabolism, decreased secretion, etc.
Our clinical experience with fevers leads us to accept Metchnikoff’s
conclusion that the essential phenomenon of inflammation is hyperaemia.
Upon the hyperaemia depend the swelling, pain, and local increase in
heat-production. Hyperaemia in turn depends upon disturbance of the
vasomotor nerves either as a direct result of some local subluxation or
as an indirect consequence of local irritation.