pre-ganglionic axons which connect the spinal nerves with the
sympathetic ganglia. If these ganglia send out post-ganglionic axons
which are vaso-motor in function, an inflammation may be produced
without the intervention of any secondary cause. On the other hand,
there may be a subluxation producing weakness of some part; through
injury to that part or the introduction of poisons or irritants such as
germ infection, sensory end-organs are affected and the motor reaction
which follows increases the subluxation; this slight increase produces
acute irritation of the nerve and hyperaemia, with its resultant
phenomena, follows. Stated briefly, irritants produce inflammation
only by acting through the medium of the spine. If the spine be normal
these irritants are insufficient to produce morbid process. Local
inflammation tends to develop toxins, especially if it be of bacterial
origin, which may in turn affect the entire organism--an effect which
will be discussed presently. Exception must be made in those traumatic
cases in which hyperaemia is essential to the reparatory process,
and which are attended by what may be termed a normally increased
heat-production. This beneficent and reparatory condition cannot be
termed disease or morbid process.
The normal temperature of the body depends upon the balance maintained
between heat-production and heat-expenditure. This balance is
maintained through a complicated nerve mechanism consisting of various
nidi in thalamus, medulla, spinal cord and sympathetic ganglia, and
a network of communicating axons of both the cerebro-spinal and
sympathetic systems, controlling the amount of blood passing through
any given body area at a given time, the secretion of the perspiratory
glands, the internal metabolic processes, etc. Most important are the
vaso-motor nerves, directly, but not originally, derived from the
sympathetic, and governing the size and caliber of all blood-vessels
so as to control the amount of blood flowing to and through the surface
capillaries on the one hand, or the deep-seated, heat-making organs on
the other. More than seventy per cent of the body’s heat expenditure
is through the skin by evaporation, radiation, and direct conduction.
The major portion of the heat production is in the muscles and the
parenchymatous viscera, such as liver, spleen, etc., where metabolism
is active.
This mechanism is so delicately adjusted that when the outside
temperature is lowered the amount of blood passing to the skin is
reflexly lessened while internal heat production is increased and the
bodily temperature retained at normal. Conversely, the body perspires
freely and the surface is flushed with blood in a high temperature, so
that heat production is lessened and its discharge accelerated, again
tending to maintain an even and normal temperature.
The nervous mechanism is responsive to many and various forms of
stimuli--thermic, emotional, mechanical, physiologic need, toxic.
Poisons in circulation may affect the bulbar center and produce general
fever. A number of centers in the spinal gray may be stimulated with
like result. Or there may be purely local irritation which results in
local hyperaemia and inflammation.
It will always be found that the primary cause of any permanent
derangement of the mechanism lies in vertebral subluxation impinging
some of the nerves and thus throwing the mechanism out of its natural
balance and poise. Other forms of disturbance are transient and the
very nature of the mechanism makes it normally capable of adjusting
itself to thermic, mechanic, or emotional stimuli in a short time.
Only the subluxation produces permanent elevation of temperature. When
such elevation does occur there are many associated changes, increased
katabolism, lessening of secretions, anorexia, sometimes mental
changes, such as delirium or coma. Fevers vary according to the part of
the nerve mechanism affected and the action of any secondary causes.
Fever due to vertebral subluxation alone without any secondary cause
operating is very rare. Ordinarily fevers come about in this way. A
subluxation occurs which weakens tissue and permits germ invasion;
toxins enter the circulation from the germ action and motor reaction
increases the original subluxation and causes local inflammation; germ
activity is favored by the increasing degree of abnormality and toxins
from rapid tissue destruction are added to those already present.
The poison-loaded blood then affects the general centers for heat
regulation, blood becomes internally engorged, and a chill (internal
fever) followed by general increase of temperature occurs. At this
juncture any subluxation previously existing is likely to be increased
and to add its quota of harm to the rapidly developing picture.
Our problem is to find the original subluxation which controls the
site of the original pathologic change and to correct that. In nearly
all cases where this is done, even partially, the body is enabled to
care for the remainder of the damage and to throw off the accumulated
toxins. It is not uncommon that the temperature falls two degrees in
five or ten minutes after a proper adjustment. We expect always to
abort or check a fever in twenty-four hours or less.
There are cases in which the temperature drops after adjustment
but presently rises again. This indicates the virulence of the
autointoxication or that some other area of poison production is
operating than the one our first adjustment would control. A correct
diagnosis will enable one to give specific adjustment and check
practically any fever except a chronic one with much tissue destruction
already accomplished; even some of these yield.
The commonest cause of fever is at the fifth or sixth Dorsal vertebra,
long known as Center Place, or Fever Center. Here emerge many
pre-ganglionic fibres which distribute their impulses through lower
neurons in the sympathetic system to the coeliac plexus and thence to
the blood-vessels supplying the major portion of the abdominal viscera.
Adjustment here causes a sudden contraction of these abdominal vessels
and a forcing of the blood to the surface with rapid cooling.
Often, however, this adjustment is followed by a recrudescence which
indicates that some other vertebra must be adjusted. Many fevers,
such as typhoid, pneumonia, tonsilitis, etc., yield to specific local
adjustment without any involvement of the so-called Center Place.
I have said that we expect to check or abort a fever with spinal
adjustments. The facts that we do so and that the more rapidly
we accomplish the result the more rapid the convalescence and the
less likely are complications and sequelae argue loudly against the
correctness of any theory which supposes fever to be a beneficial and
cleansing process. According to such theory it would be totally wrong
and dangerous to abort a fever but wiser to encourage it in taking its
course. The exact opposite proves true under Chiropractic. The very
fact that fevers _do_ diminish and disappear under proper adjustments
is a proof that they are abnormal, since adjustment does not in any
case tend to lessen normal processes, but only to restore normality no
matter in what way the functions of the body have departed from that
condition.
All the clinical evidence gathered by Chiropractors in regard to
inflammations and fevers tends to prove the correctness of the theories
herein set down. Fever plays a part in so many diseases that it has
been considered advisable to consider the subject under a special head.
IN CONCLUSION
The vertebral subluxation is the primary cause of all truly
pathological conditions. Through its existence the action of a large
number of secondary causes becomes possible. Upon no other hypothesis
can we explain the remarkable percentage of cures of all known classes
of disease through the specific vertebral adjustment.
THE PROCESS OF CURE
Nature is the only real _curative_ agent. Neither suggestion,
manipulation, adjustment, nor any other known method applied by Man
for the eradication of disease has in itself any power to heal. No man
possesses power to do more than so arouse the vital energies of the
patient that the body heals itself.
We contain within our own bodies the possibilities of perfect
normality. Unless interfered with by powerful outside force we should
continue normal from birth to death and death itself would only
occur through the simultaneous wearing out of all the parts of the
human mechanism. The Chiropractor, insofar as his work succeeds in
its purpose, assists the body by adjusting displaced structure and
affording the body a free and unhindered opportunity for the exercise
of its own self-healing powers. It may be interesting and instructive
to analyze the process of cure and to study the exact effects of
vertebral adjustment as we have studied the exact effects of vertebral
subluxation.
Cure of Simple Subluxation Disease
An acute subluxation--that is, one resulting entirely from concussion
of forces within twenty-four or forty-eight hours prior to the moment
of adjustment--rarely produces a condition which could be named as any
particular disease. The symptoms are those of “wrenched back,” if any.
A single adjustment usually suffices to correct such subluxation just
as a single movement might correct a dislocated humerus within the
same period, and any symptoms promptly disappear. This is probably the
maximum benefit to be derived from adjustment and the best time for
its administration, because it leaves the spinal column in an exactly
normal condition and no more susceptible to further jars or shocks than
before the injury. All disease which might have resulted from that
subluxation has been fully prevented.
Older subluxations must be dealt with differently because they present
a different condition. Adaptative changes have taken place in the shape
of the vertebra itself and of every surrounding tissue as they prepare
to make the best of their situation. But a vertebra once displaced
has lost its poise and broken or modified the reflex arcs through its
nerves so that it becomes more likely to respond to further forces
applied, or to muscular contractions within the body, by further change
of position. Such changes are always followed by further adaptation of
the surrounding parts.
The degree of nerve impingement must change to keep pace with the
developing malposition and thus, by gradually successive steps, disease
develops in the area of peripheral distribution of the nerves. The
nerve is under a thumbscrew gradually tightening.
To adjust such a vertebra many successive movements are required. An
apparently full and free movement of a subluxation meets the elastic
resistance of the solidly packed tissues and the pull of the modified
intervertebral disk--strains at these tissues--and rebounds so as to
settle almost, but not quite, in its old abnormal position. The amount
gained in a single adjustment can rarely be appreciated by palpation.
To the touch it would appear that no change had been made, except
occasionally in the Cervical region. But with repeated adjustments
the vertebra will be found to have approached its normal position.
Sometimes in a few weeks, sometimes in a few months, the gain becomes
palpable and then perhaps visible to the eye in thin subjects.
The relief of impingement then is not usually an instantaneous process,
but proceeds by gradual steps. Each movement of the vertebra is
accompanied by a shock to the nerve against some part of which the bone
is pressing, which may produce some disturbance in the diseased organs
and may even appear to have aggravated disease for a time. Some pain
and soreness around the vertebra may accompany the necessary adaptative
changes of shape which readapt the tissues to their proper shape and
relation.
As the impingement of the nerve is gradually relieved the disease is
gradually modified and finally disappears. As the course of adjustments
nears its conclusion and the impingement has been reduced to a
comparatively slight one there may appear a stage of irritation of the
nerve which is a reduplication of the first steps which appeared in
the development of the disease. As most subluxations appear not all at
once but by a series of changes, so disease develops synchronously,
passing from stage to stage with the changes in the impingement. Often
it passes through first an acute and active stage due to irritation
and then a chronic and comparatively passive stage due to heavier,
inhibiting impingement.
Under adjustment these successive stages tend to reappear in reverse
order, the most alarming sometimes appearing last and just before the
cure is completed. It must be remembered that from the moment one
practitioner administers medicine or other remedy and the other adjusts
a vertebra, the clinical courses differ widely. No text-book on medical
practice has as yet described the clinical course of the various
diseases under Chiropractic adjustment.
In chronic diseases where the nerves are paralyzed there may be a
period under adjustment during which no change is apparent. This is
followed by a period of rapid gain leading to complete recovery. This
may be accounted for by the fact that the nerves are degenerated
and must be repaired all along their course before communication is
reestablished between nerve centers and peripheral organs. When this
repair is sufficiently completed to allow communication, the cure is
really well advanced, although evidence of it then first appears. This
has been noted especially in locomotor ataxia.
Cure of a Germ Disease
First, under adjustment, the acute or acutely increased impingement is
relieved. The caliber of the blood-vessels is at once regulated and the
destructive action of fever checked. At the same time the vitality of
the local tissue in which the germs are active is suddenly increased
and there ensues a struggle between the body, as represented by its
phagocytes and auto-protective chemicals, and the germs, which if
adjustments be continued results in the rapid destruction of the germ
colony. Also the elimination of the toxins already in the body proceeds
so rapidly that if the fever can be held in check it takes only a short
time for the body completely to overcome and eradicate the germs.
Cure of Mental Disease
Mental diseases--so-called--usually depend upon disturbance of the
blood-supply to the brain, controlled by the Cervical sympathetic.
Adjustments, relieving the pressure on the sympathetic ganglia or
cord and perhaps the direct impingement from the vertebral arteries,
restore a normal circulation to the brain. The time required by Nature
to effect a cure depends upon the rapidity with which the impingement
is removed and the amount and character of the damage to brain tissue
which must be repaired. The cure often requires time for a change
of materials in brain cells or fibre tracts, by which they are
reconstructed and again become capable of expressing normal function.
Cure of Dietetic Disease
When the subluxation is corrected, or partially so, the appetite
changes and the craving for food becomes more normal. Adjustments may
lessen a voracious appetite, increase a too capricious one, or abolish
a perverted. At the same time the stomach is enabled to digest its
contents more properly, the intestines to take it up and continue it,
and the tissues to assimilate that which is brought to them. The body
eliminates its waste with less effort and in some extreme cases the
first effect of the adjustment may be to cause vomiting and diarrhea
and thus purge the alimentary tract of materials which have become
unusable.
If injurious diet be persisted in the effects of the adjustments will
be partly counteracted, the tendency of the poisons generated within
the body being to increase subluxation while the tendency of the
adjustments is to correct them.
Cure of Poisoning Cases
In acute poisoning by way of the alimentary canal and sometimes when
poison has been injected hypodermically, the body rids itself of the
menace to its integrity by means of vomiting, diarrhea, and increased
secretion of urine. Chronic cases tend rather toward the gradual
absorption and removal from the body of the poisons and their cure
depends upon the cessation of the poisoning; i. e., it is useless to
try to cure a morphine case while the patient is still using the drug.
In acute poisoning the muscular contraction often increases subluxation
and counteracts the effect of the adjustments, so that it becomes
necessary to give very frequent adjustments until relief is had.
Cure of Exposure Disease
After the acute irritation of nerves arising from the exposure and
causing irritation has been removed, perhaps by the first adjustment,
if the exposure is not repeated the body heals itself with great
rapidity, repairing with comparative ease the damage done.
Cure of Bodily Excess Disease
This depends upon the nature of the excess. If it be overeating,
perhaps a more moderate diet will of itself and without adjustments
enable the body to rid itself of the bad effects and restore general
equilibrium. Adjustments will aid and accelerate this process. Venereal
excess is most often engendered by an improper state of mind, perhaps
demanding attention as a mental disorder, or by an irritation of the
genital organs which demands local adjustment for its relief. Normality
of the reproductive tract leads to sane forgetfulness and libidinous
habits always suggest sexual weakness or disease. Often where a cure
would be possible with right habits, no cure can be effected without
their correction. A little good sound advice which will arouse the will
of the patient to co-operation may aid. Boys with the masturbation
habit offer small chance for favorable results in enuresis or nervous
disorders unless the secondary cause be understood and overcome.
ADJUNCTS
In this connection the author cannot forbear a reference to the use of
other methods to relieve disease in combination with the Chiropractic
adjustment. From the foregoing study of the laws governing the cause
and cure of disease it will be seen that therapeutical methods have
little direct bearing upon the removal of disease. The logical method
of effecting the cure is the removal of the cause. The subluxation
being always the primary cause, its correction is always the logical
method of effecting a cure. Not sometimes but _always_.
We know that when the subluxation is corrected the body naturally
heals itself. Can we accelerate and aid that healing with stimulant
or narcotic? Logic says no; experience says no: the use of any method
which strikes at the disease beyond its primary cause and operates upon
some of the effects of that cause without touching the cause itself is
inconsistent with belief in Chiropractic.
Administration of poisonous drugs to the well body is considered
poisoning; their administration to the sick body is also poisoning,
whose symptoms combine with the disease to produce different outward
signs. Fasting is starvation. Massage is stimulation or inhibition.
Spondylotherapy means exhaustion of the spinal nerve centers in riotous
expenditure of their stored-up energy.
It would require a wisdom beyond the human to improve upon the natural
healing processes with which the body has been provided. It should
be our entire business to remove the obstructions which hinder the
full exercise of that healing power--the subluxations--to remove them
dexterously and decisively and to interfere in no other way.
Other methods may and do serve to scatter or modify disease but not to
cure it--unless they affect subluxations, as they sometimes do without
intent. This accidental adjustment factor is valueless in the presence
of a scientific and intelligent adjustment.
Let Medicine, Osteopathy, Spondylotherapy, Christian Science, Massage,
and Electricity have their field. It is not ours. Nor can any of
these methods be rationally combined with Chiropractic. Their basic
principles contradict ours; their application interferes with the
results of adjustment. If you claim to remove the cause of disease, _do
so_, and do not mar your work by treatment of effects.
SPINO-ORGANIC CONNECTION
It has been said in a previous section that when subluxation and
disease are associated the subluxation always precedes the disease and
that the former is the cause, the latter the effect. So clearly do we
understand this law that we are able to say _what_ subluxation would
cause a certain disease and err by only so many cases per centum as
there are variations from the usual structure of the spinal column and
the nervous system.
But merely to state that a second Dorsal subluxation causes heart
disease is not enough. We must know why and how it causes heart disease
and whether, perchance, some other subluxation may sometimes have a
like effect. We must map out the sphere of malign influence of each
possible subluxation so that when our fingers encounter it it at once
and inevitably suggests its possible effects, from which, by diagnostic
methods, we may choose the one toward which most symptoms point. And we
must know the relation of every nerve in the body to peripheral organs
and their functions so that when we encounter indubitable evidence of
some functional or organic disease we may know exactly where, in the
spinal column, to seek for its cause.
We have learned how to discover a subluxation, how to adjust it, and
how that adjustment permits a natural cure of its abnormal effects. We
must now learn exactly _where_ to apply adjustment for any given organ
in the body or for any disease. It must be understood in interpreting
this statement and all those which follow in this section that it is
never proper to adjust a vertebra merely because it is stated to be the
cause of a disease believed to exist in a patient. No vertebra should
be moved unless palpation determines it to be subluxated. Rather let it
be known that _as a rule_ the statements of spino-organic connection
here made will prove to be verifiable by palpation. There is no rule in
Chiropractic without some exceptions, and mere diagnosis of disease is
too notoriously unreliable to serve as a guide to adjustment without
the verification of the trained touch.
The Field of Study
We wish to know the relation existing between each part of the Nerve
System and other parts and between each part and the other organs of
the body. Especially we wish to understand the relation between each
part of the Nerve System and the spinal column, by which permanent
subluxations of the latter interfere with the former’s action and
therefore with the peripheral organs.
This requires a general knowledge of anatomy, physiology, and pathology
which we shall presuppose the reader to possesses so that we may
present only facts to which his attention should be particularly
called. Let us begin with the relation of nerve tissue to other tissues
where this relation can be most clearly comprehended, namely, with the
development of the human embryo.
Segmentation
The complete human organism represents the snarled fusion of a series
of similar, yet specialized, somatic segments, each presenting most
of the attributes of a simple animal, though the association and
co-ordination of all are required for the production of higher animal
phenomena.