| CHAPTER VI OSTEOPATHY AND THE PEOPLE. And from the discontent of man The will of the people is a factor that must be considered in all cases except where they are abject slaves. In the broad sense of the term they know no classes. They are not the representatives of capital or labor, of wealth or poverty, of learning or ignorance, of profession or handicraft. When left to themselves they are tolerant in religion and politics. They do not recognize any school of medicine. They will patronize those who show the best returns in the way of health and length of days. They will often go so far as to throw their influence in favor of the oppressed. Hence it is that the people generally act right when they have a chance to give a subject consideration without the interference of any special selfish interest. The people supply the sound sense and the energy that brings about reform. They generally need a leader and the leader is supplied by the natural processes of evolution, or, if you please, by the divine plan. The people of England of the time of James I and Charles I in their fight against the iniquitous theory of the divine right of kings, evolved John Milton to fight their battles with the pen, and Oliver Cromwell to subdue their enemies with the sword. When the people act under such inspiration the work is quickly done. We find a like condition in all the walks of life. When the people become sick at heart of misrule they apply an effective remedy. When the people want better schools they build them. When the people want to banish oppression they rise in their might and throw off the yoke of bondage. They always find a leader, but a leader is powerless if he appears before the people have evolved to the condition where they are prepared to combine so as to be led. General Fremont, by authority vested in him as commander of a certain military division early in the Civil War, issued a proclamation freeing all the slaves within the territory over which he had jurisdiction. President Lincoln had to annul that act, the time was not ripe for such a radical measure; but as soon as the people were ready for such a step, he did the same thing on a much larger scale. The same principle applies in the evolution of Osteopathy. Many people had turned against the extreme practices of the medical profession before the present generation came upon the stage of action. The writer remembers a case or two in point when he was a boy. A neighbor had his foot injured and the doctor wanted to amputate it. The young man had ideas of his own, and was not afraid to express them. He said he would kill the doctor if he cut that foot off. That useful member remained on and served its purpose till the man reached at least the age of threescore years. Another neighbor told the doctor that he would "lick" him if his calomel ever salivated one of his family. The doctor soon stopped salivating people in that neighborhood. The custom of bleeding patients was abandoned only when the people declared they would not tolerate it. The drastic and disgusting doses that used to be administered to the sick had to be withdrawn, and the sugar-coated pill and the placebo substituted when the people demanded the less harmful or the more innocent remedies. Recently a patient with typhoid fever said to her nurse that she would rather die comfortably under osteopathic treatment than to take the doctor's nasty medicine. Doubtless every reader of these lines could cite other instances of similar import. Truly the time was ripe for a vigorous revolt against the practices of the medical profession. If not, how can we account for the sudden growth and popularity of mesmerism, hypnotism, mind cure, faith cure, Christian Science, massage, electricity, water cure, mud baths, etc., etc? The enumeration of these modes of healing in the same connection is not to be interpreted to mean that they are at all similar, or that they possess equal merit. Doubtless all of them have some merit, but they surely do not appeal to a scientific mind. The people were ready for anything to get relief from the thraldom of the dominant medical school.
From what has been said in Chapter II we are justified in claiming that the growing distrust among the people for drugs as curative agents, had much to do in prompting Dr. Still to greater effort to discover some means which would not only relieve suffering, but also satisfy the judgment of the learned and the unlearned, who had minds that could be satisfied only by comprehending the relations of cause and effect. At any rate, he, a man of the people, always in close touch with the people, and at the same time a lover of nature and a profound student of her mysteries, was on the ground, so to speak, to take advantage of the situation and utilize all those forces that were battling against empiricism and seeking a more rational way. The people were in the main in the right as usual and they found a man in the person of Dr. A. T. Still to lead them. One peculiarity of the osteopathic movement is the tremendous impetus given it by a very small proportion of the people. There is nothing of the religious element in it to create enthusiasm and give it momentum as in Christian Science or Dowieism. There is none of the mysticism that appeals to the credulous as in most of the other systems of healing. There is none of the glamor of supposed superiority of learning as when a physician looks at the tongue, feels of the pulse, uses a thermometer, looks wise, draws from his pocket a mysterious looking scratch pad, and writes a prescription in a language that is intended to baffle all but a select few, recommending drugs the properties of which and the mode of action of which are unknown to the doctor as well as the patient. None of these things has contributed to the success of Osteopathy, except by contrast. Wherever Osteopathy has been introduced it has met with favor from the people. Two reasons can be assigned for this. First, in most cases what the sick want is a substantial cure, not a temporary relief such as generally results from the use of drugs, but a relief that leaves them well and enables them to go about the performance of their duties in the full enjoyment of life. Osteopathy has met this want in thousands of cases when nothing else could. Second, the people are ready to listen to reason, especially when it is based upon indisputable facts. They do not accept as final the statements of any person with "an axe to grind." They are susceptible to reason and in the long run are influenced only by the logic of facts. We may, therefore, rest assured that Osteopathy will not suffer when the people shall have been informed as to its theories and results.
The manner in which the medical trust has undertaken to influence legislatures and courts is shown in Chapters IV and V. Its members, claiming to be the only conservators of the health of the people and practically the only possessors of scientific knowledge relating to disease, have tried to place a stigma upon every act not in conformity with their dictates. It took them a long time to exhaust their venom after the passage of the first Missouri law. Their concern for the people always has a "rider" attached which shows a greater concern for some particular class of the people. Dr. Duncan, President of the Missouri and Illinois Medical Association, at its meeting in St. Louis, is reported by the Globe-Democrat of May 20, 1897, as saying: "Recent insults offered to the people and the medical association by the chief executive of Missouri should prompt the doctors of the State to exert their influence to elect a man who would be broad enough to listen to his fellow citizens. The act of Governor Stephens [referring to the osteopathic bill] was the greatest insult ever received by six thousand professional men. It was unwarranted, unexplainable, and showed his inability to fill the position to which we have helped elect him. It gives me pleasure to speak of his predecessor in this connection, who listened to the people in this matter." The predecessor referred to was Governor Stone, who vetoed an osteopathic bill in 1895 after it had passed both houses of the general assembly by overwhelming majorities. Then after two years Governor Stephens would indeed have been acting for a class instead of for the people, had he also vetoed a bill a second time which the people demanded almost without dissension. The Medical Fortnightly, of St. Louis, continued the attack with the following scathing denunciation of Governor Stephens for signing the osteopathic bill, and praise for Governor Tanner, of Illinois, for vetoing a bill of similar import, overlooking the fact that he said: "I am not unfriendly to this science of Osteopathy; on the other hand I see much merit in it, but I object to the form of the bill." "Take the governor of Illinois, who lately has shown the medical profession what a blessing it is to have an executive who is intelligent and broad-minded. Contrast Tanner, of Illinois, with Stephens, of Missouri, and you see at a glance, as we say in medicine 'the differential signs of progress and poverty.' Tanner, alive to the needs and good of his State, Stephens, a selfish, unstable, ambitious, inane man, alive to what may accrue to Stephens, but caring little for the State he represents. In the train of such a man's acts comes poverty to the state." It is difficult to see what accrued to Governor Stephens except the consciousness of duty well done, and the approbation of the people who, by his act, were freed from the baneful effects of the medical trust. The company of governors, of which he would have been an early martyr if the M. D.'s could have had their way, has steadily grown, and in 1905 has attained quite respectable proportions. Neither has the State of Missouri become impoverished by his acts. What had Governor Stephens done to bring upon himself the anathemas of the medical profession of the two great States of Missouri and Illinois? He had refused to accede to the arrogant demands of a class rather than act in accordance with the will of the people of all classes except one, as known in every section of the state and as expressed through their representatives in two legislatures. But even the common, honest, Christian people, always meaning well, have often been influenced by the pressure brought upon them by those who were opposed to Osteopathy. The experience of Dr. H. H. Gravett is a case in point. He was annoyed in various ways besides being arrested and tried in the courts. (Chapter V) But he was not disposed to submit without a contest except in so far as it seemed necessary to save his friends from embarrassment. He writes as follows concerning his experiences in Ohio in the year of our Lord, 1897: "Imagine my surprise when within less than two weeks time, the few acquaintances I had made came to me and said, 'We will have to be a little guarded about letting people, especially the doctors, see us go to your office, or have you come to our homes.' Then came the minister of the church to which my family and myself had always belonged and attended, requesting us to stay away, as 'our attendance was affecting the standing of the church in the community.' I did as he requested (although it was hard to swallow), and served God and man better by studying my Anatomy on Sundays. In a short time after I received notice from the State Board that I was practicing medicine under the state law and to comply with the provisions of that law or move on. A good lawyer and friend fixed this matter up for me after making a few trips to Columbus. "I was making Greenville my place of residence and naturally most of the opposition at this time came from the M. D.'s and their friends at Greenville. Although very much discouraged over the cutlook at this time, I knew I was on the right side and that I had what the people wanted, and if I could prove this no power on earth could keep me from practicing. But I did need some encouragement and it was forth-coming. One day soon after there came into my office a fatherly appearing old gentleman who introduced himself as Mr. Herndon Albright, saying he had had some satisfactory experience with Osteopathy at Kirksville some time since; he had just learned of my locating in Greenville; he wanted to wish me well and take some treatments. I never was so glad to see anyone in all my life. To his influence, and that of his three sons, Osteopathy is greatly indebted. He still lives three miles west of Greenvile, in Darke County." In all ages there are found individuals who seem to embody the practical, common sense of the people. Ben Franklin was the great commoner as well as the great scientist, philosopher, and statesman of his time. He was an original thinker and far ahead of his generation. When ill he followed the dictates of his native good sense rather than the whims of doctors. His Poor Richard's Almanac contains many wise sayings pertaining to health, such as the following: "To lengthen thy life, lessen thy meals." "Many dishes, many diseases; many medicines, few cures." "God heals and the doctor takes the fee." "He is the best physician who knows the worthlessness of the most medicines." He quotes the "Italian epitaph upon a poor fool that killed himself quacking: 'I was well; I would be better; I took physic and died."' He was a firm believer in the use of pure water and fresh air. "Physicians, after having for ages contended that the sick should not be indulged with fresh air, have at length discovered that it may do them good. It is therefore to be hoped that they may in time discover likewise that it is not hurtful to those who are in health." Concerning his suffering from gout and gravel, he wrote John Jay as follows: "I am cheerful, enjoy the company of my friends, sleep well, have sufficient appetite, and my stomach performs well its functions. The latter is very material to the preservation of health. I therefore take no drugs, lest I should disorder it. You may judge that my disease is not very grievous, since I am more afraid of the medicines than of the malady."
Julian Hawthorne, in reviewing the first two volumes of Cohen's "System of Physiologic Therapeutics" in the North American of August 26, 1901, said: "If, being in the advance line of medical students, you have arrived at the conclusion that drug-giving is a mistake and an anachronism, and that 'natural methods' are better, and indeed the only methods worth employing as a general thing, then you can not express the revolutionary opinion in suaver terms than those used by Messrs. Cohen and Jacoby. But whether you do the thing sweetly or sourly, you are sure to have the public on your side. They don't believe in drugs, either; and fortunes have been made any time during the last quarter century by persons, authorized or otherwise, diplomated or not, who advertised ways of getting well and keeping well that did not include buying bottles of stuff. The doctors were the last to concede the justness of the revolt - the last, I mean, to publicly confess that it was just; but they have begun to confess now, and ere long we may expect to see a stampede. And the prospects of an enormous general benefit from the change would seem, even from a perusal of these two initial volumes of the eleven that are forth-coming, to be roseate." Mark Twain and Sam Jones have spoken in rather uncomplimentary terms of present methods of medical doctors and warned us against their encroachments upon civil liberty and constitutional rights. The last named gentleman spoke as follows of the governor's veto of the osteopathic bill in Georgia a few years ago "The action of our governor in the matter of his veto of the Osteopathy bill brings me to my feet with a few brief, short remarks, in my weak and feeble way. I want to say that the action of the governor in this case was an outrage upon civil liberty and constitutional rights. I want to say again that the governor did just what the physicians of Georgia wanted him to do, nothing more and nothing less. "The idea of Governor Candler vetoing this bill because it would give Dr. M. C. Hardin the right to administer medicine, when the osteopathist no more pours calomel and oil down his patients than the maker of a Steinway piano would open up its chords and pour calomel, and dovers powders in on the piano to put it in tune. No true osteopathist ever gave a pill or powder. They are no kin to Christian Scientists, and they don't run with the faith cure crowd. It is a science based on anatomy and physiology. If the governor bad seen what I have seen and knew what I know about it, he would have signed and approved that bill if every M. D. in America had been hounding at his feet." The late John R. Musick was a well known magazine writer and author of the "Columbian Historical Novels," which were greatly admired by President McKinley. He gives the following testimony "I am often asked my opinion in regard to the newly discovered science of Osteopathy. The world is perhaps more interested in the art of healing diseases than in any other subject. Being so fortunate as to enjoy a long acquaintance with Dr. A. T. Still, the discoverer of the science, and having for years witnessed the results from osteopathic treatment, I am capable of saying that the science is one of the greatest blessings to mankind. I have seen the lame made to walk, the blind to see, the paralytic restored to health, and many snatched, as it were, from the grave. I have seen old chronic diseases which have defied the skill of the best physicians in the world yield to the new system of healing. One who for twenty five years has lived within the rays of the new light, can only wonder at the results. Does Osteopathy cure all and raise the dead from the grave? No, but the case which Osteopathy cannot reach is certainly very hopeless. The success Osteopathy has scored has been from cases that were abandoned. How do they heal? I don't know. I am no Osteopath. It takes two long years of hard study to know how it is done, and I have never studied the science an hour, but I have seen thousands of cures before and after taking, and I am fully convinced that Osteopathy can accomplish wonders." Massachusetts Journal of Osteopathy contained the following extract from the pen of Marian Harland, who conducts a department in one of Boston's daily papers. Such "unsolicited testimonials" as this show how Osteopathy is winning its way by good works: "I am not an osteopath, as to general belief and practice, but I have seen wonders wrought upon partially paralyzed children and nervous adults by the system of intelligent manipulation which goes by that name. One instance which I shall hold forever in grateful remembrance was that of a darling three-year-old whose mysterious lameness was pronounced by three eminent specialists to be 'infantile paralysis.' She was rigged up with steel braces and condemned to wear them for two years! At the end of two months the lameness was worse instead of better, and the spectacle of the horrible steel harness was insupportable to those who loved her. In sheer desperation it was taken off and the released fairy - still pitiably crippled - was subjected three times a week to the intelligent manipulation aforesaid. In a month she could stand firmly upon the lame foot - by now smaller than the other and curved inward. In two months she could walk and run easily. In three months the foot had regained its natural size, the child was as active and as graceful as the healthiest of her playmates, and was discharged 'cured.' "That was two years ago, and the paralysis has never returned; the foot is straight and sound. "I give the story absolutely true in every particular, for the comfort of others who have agonized in anxiety over the prospect of permanent deformity for their dearest and nearest. One word of caution: Quacks abound in every school of healing. Be exceedingly careful that your children do not fall into the hands of boastful pretenders. There is no real catholicon for fleshly ills. He who assumes to cure everything can not be depended upon to cure anything." The Concert Goer, dated April 7, 1900, a weekly newspaper of musical and dramatic comment, contains the following notice of Osteopathy by the editor, J. O. Wilcox, of New York: "Actuated purely by the principle that when one discovers something beneficial he should tell his fellows of it, I wish to call the attention of vocalists to Osteopathy as an instantaneous cure for congested organs. Through personal acquaintance of a doctor of Osteopathy I was led to try the treatment some months ago when I suffered from a congested throat and was obliged to sing an elaborate offertory solo in church. To my surprise no less than my delight, I found complete and instantaneous relief; and was enabled to sing approximately as well and with as much comfort as if I had been free from cold. Since then I 'have on several occasions repeated this experience, so I feel sure that the result cannot be attributed to coincidence. I have not the space at command to even attempt a detailed explanation of the science of Osteopathy, but will state for the benefit of those who know nothing of it, that it consists in forcing circulation to diseased parts through physical pressure of the nerve centers, and the stretching of contracted muscles and ligaments. This is a very inadequate definition of a minute science, but it may give some sort of an idea to the reader. No medicines are used, but the treatment is external and its effect is at least in cases of congestion practically immediate. This is the feature that makes it particularly valuable to public singers who frequently cannot afford to wait for the slow action of medicine. Doctors of Osteopathy are now located in nearly every American city, and I heartily recommend singers who have trouble with congested throats to investigate the merits of their practice." Literary journals were not slow in recognizing the merits of Osteopathy when the people began to clamor for it. One of the first was Carter's Magazine for August, 1898, in which the editor, Opie Reed, spoke not only of what had become established facts, but of the future, and that prophecy has, in thousands of cases, been already fulfilled. He says: "Man is a machine, and recently there has come into notice a school of machinists to regulate the machine man - Osteopathy. Most cheerfully do I subscribe to this science. I have felt the benefit of it, and I honestly believe it to be one of the most wonderful discoveries of any age. If my voice, though limited in range, may help the suffering, it is my duty to l if t it. My associates know that I am a firm believer in Osteopathy, and they know that I here set down what I conceive to be the truth. I have no fear of writing a 'puff;' I have no edge to whet, no graft to gather. In my humble way I am as earnest as Joseph Medill was when he advocated, in his great newspaper, the benefits of the Keeley Cure. Every man, not wholly vicious, would like to aid the suffering. The fear of advertising a public blessing is an evil. "Recently I heard a farmer say that patent medicines for his family cost him more than his taxes. Taxes upon his land and taxes upon his ignorance; and yet he is not much worse off than the man who is constantly swallowing drugs prescribed by regular physicians. Both are victims of a time worn error. "It will never be a fad, for that would be like decking common sense with a ribbon; it will be the recourse of the wise. The man shut up in his office will find that he need no longer suffer from nervousness, the victim of overwork will learn that within a few moments he can be freed from weariness, and the farmer will cease to exchange eggs for patent medicines." From personal knowledge of its methods and results, Ella Wheeler Wilcox has long been an ardent advocate of Osteopathy. She spoke as follows in the New York Journal in 1903, in giving some advice to a young physician: "The day of powder and pill and knife is nearing its end. The world is becoming too intelligent to be drugged and hacked in a search for health when more agreeable methods can be obtained at the same price. "If you are a sensible young man you will form a partnership with some graduate of a school where cold water and massage are taught or you will supplement your old school methods by a thorough knowledge of medical electricity, and I would suggest Osteopathy - even if that word offends you as a red rag offends the bull. The world wants it. It is absolutely harmless, and is more in harmony with nature than drugs. Even if you do not believe in it, why not add a thorough knowledge of it to your other education? Better spend your time for the next year or two in acquiring skill in the 'New Notions' by which your competitors succeed, than in cursing the folly of the public. The old time doctors bled, leeched, and dosed their victims with mercury and arsenic. The later school drugged, cut and slashed them. The people are tired of both methods."
Newspapers are generally quick to catch the trend of public sentiment. They are anxious to publish news that is in line with popular opinion and thus keep in touch with the people. They are, as a rule, neutral upon all subjects except those upon which they specialize. It is not to be expected that they will take sides in the discussion of questions that are not of vital importance to the public. Hence they generally stop with the publication of the news and leave the reading public to reach its own conclusions. But even a conservative public press has rebelled against the monopolistic tendencies of the medical profession for the last ten or twelve years. All over the country we find this dissatisfaction on the part of a long suffering public reflected through the public prints. After the doctors of Iowa had railroaded a bill through the legislature in 1897, giving them the most rigid and exclusive protection, the Dubuque Herald, in an editorial, said: "All this is designed to foster a monopoly in the practice of medicine. The legislature is asked to bar out competition in this profession, and has done so. Physicians are the only class of men in any line who ask the legislature to protect them from competition. "It is gratifying to know that while the cry for this restrictive legislation is alone demanded by physicians, yet it is only by a portion of them, and not the best portion either. As a rule the loudest calls for shutting out the irregulars come from that portion of the profession that has not been able to work up much practice for themselves, and so seek to call in to their assistance the aid of the legislature by shutting out a portion of their competitors. Physicians, like all other classes, must in the end depend upon their merits, and here it is that hard work, study, diligence, and manner will bring them what they wish, and not the enactments of the legislative body. While it is true that these rigid laws are asked for by the medical bodies and a certain class of physicians, yet it is gratifying to know that a large class of the best physicians refuse to have anything to do with urging this petty warfare, and prefer to depend upon their own exertions." During the contest in Ohio in 1900, the Cleveland World of February 26, had this to say under the heading, "The Unlovely Love Bill:" "The Love medical bill is a new name for an antiquated farce that is now being enacted before the Ohio legislature. "It is a farce that has been enacted so continuously ever since scientific progress first began to occasion uneasiness in old fossils that its presentation in Ohio at the present might arouse no public interest or concern but for the fact that a powerful lobby has appeared at Columbus in its behalf. The personnel of the lobby discloses distinctly the class that alone would profit through the enactment into law of this relic of the dark ages. It is composed wholly of physicians of certain schools who see their field invaded and their profits lessened by disciple of newer schools. The undertaker has ceased to be the only man to whom they must relinquish their patients. Hence the tears. Hence the Love bill. Hence the lobby. "Not very many years ago the fight was against homeopathy. Now it is against Osteopathy. It is constantly waged against all other pathies than the particular pathy that happens to hold the middle of the path and wants to continue to hold it. So the farce goes on in continuous performance. "Now, it is quite natural for an individual, or a school, to assume that he, or it, knows all that is knowable. It is not natural, however, for the public collectively to accept that self-estimate or individually to tolerate legislative decision as to what particular dose shall be shoved by the strong arm of the law into their sick stomachs or what external treatment shall be applied by the same rude process to their disordered anatomy. "That there is much quackery abroad is true. That a portion of it operates under the name of Osteopathy is also true. This may be suppressed by means of a state board that shall pass upon the qualifications of applicants to practice, precisely as is now done in allopathy and homeopathy. "But the medical lobby is content with nothing short of the statutory assertion that all are quacks except themselves. "The Love bill is a good bill to kill"
Often the "funny" man has something to say of the Contest among opposing schools of medicine. Mr. Dooley says: "Father Kelley says th’ styles in medicine changes like the styles in hats. When he was a boy, they give ye quinine for whatever ailed ye, an' now they give ye strychnine, an' nex' year they'll be given you proosic acid, maybe, He says they're findin' new things th' matther with ye ivry day, an' of things that have to be taken out, ontil th' time is comin' when not more thin half of us will be rale, an' th' rest 'II be rubber. He says they ought to enforce th' law if assault with a deadly weepin' again th' doctors. He says that if they knew less about pizen and more about gruel an' opened fewer patients and more windows, they'd not be so many Christyan Scientists. He says th' diff'rence between Christyan Scientists an' doctors is that Christyan Scientist thinks they're no such thing as disease, an' doctors thinks there ain't anything else. An' there ye ar're." The Saturday Evening Post, October 1, 1904, contained "The Story of a Cowpuncher, an Osteopath, and a Cross-Eyed Horse by Emerson Hough," which is a pretty good "take off" on doctors, especially osteopaths. The reader will see that there is a generous admixture of common sense with the humor. The following illustrates the point; but the part played by the "cross-eyed horse" and the real merit of the story is found in the part of the article following the quotations given below: "'Everything else is changin', too,' he continued. 'Look at the lawyers and doctors there is in here now - and this country used to be respectable. Why, when I first come here there wasn't a doctor within a thousand miles, and no need for one. If one of the boys got shot up much we always found some way to laundry him and sew him together again without no need of a diploma. No one every got sick; and, of course, no one ever did die of his own accord, the way they do back in the States. "'As I was sayin', it was long about now Mr. Ostypath come in. He talks with the boss about locatin' around in here. Boss studies him over a while, and as there ain't been anybody sick for over ten years, he tries to break it to Mr. Ostypath gentle that the Bar T ain't a good place for a doctor. They have some conversation along in there, that a-way, and Mr. Ostypath before long gets the boss interested deep and plenty. He says there ain't no such a thing as gettin' sick. We all knew that before; but he certainly floors the lot when he allows that the reason a feller don't feel good, so as he can eat ten-penrsy nails, and make a million dollars a year, is always because there is something wrong with his osshus structure. He says the only thing that makes a feller have rheumatieni, or dyspepsia, or headache, or nosebleed, or red hair, or any other sickness, is that something's wrong with his nervous system. Now, it's this-a-way : He allows them nerves is like a bunch of garden hose. If you put your foot on the hose the water can't run 'right free. If you take it off everything's lovely. 'Now,' Bays Mr. Ostypath, 'if owin' to some luxation, some leeshun, some temporary mechanical disarraxtgement of your osshus Structure, due to a oversight of an All-wise Providence, or maybe a fall off'n a buckin' horse, one of them bones of yours gets to pressin' on a nerve, why, it ain't natural you ought to feel good. Now, it is?' says he. "'He goes on and shows how all up and down a feller's backbone
there is plenty of soft spots; and he shows likewise that there
is scattered around in different parts of a feller's territory somethin'
like two hundred and four bones, any one of which is likely any
minute to jar loose and go to pressin' on a soft spot, 'in which
case,' says be, 'there is need of a ostypath immediate."
The theater is a great public educator and throughout the ages some of the most advanced thoughts have been presented to the people through the drama. An introduction of Osteopathy to theatergoing people was made in January, 1945, at the Savoy Theater, New York. The play, "Mrs. Leffingwell's Boots," was written by Mr. Augustus Thomas and presented by Mr. Charles Frohman. Mrs. Daniel Frohman, known to the stage as Miss Margaret Illington, took the part of Mrs. Leffingwell, and Mr. J. G. Saville played the part of Dr. Rumsey, the osteopathic physician. Concerning the author, the play, and the performance, the New York Telegram presented the following clever criticisms "'If they would let me,' Mr. Thomas once said to a friend, 'I would write plays so serious that no one would come to them.' That was some time ago. It is safe to say that there is neither let nor hindrance on him now, but he has so thoroughly mastered the comedy form that he is even able to slip in some of his more serious thoughts without the audience being quite aware of the f act that they are being intellectually stirred as well as amused. "That's what Mr. Thomas has done in his latest play. Whether he believes in Osteopathy or not is not a matter of very great importance, but he certainly drew from the disputed science a dramatic situation that in its novelty and its insinuating possibility overmastered an apparently incredulous audience. Had Sardou written the scene in which, before the full view of the audience, the man is treated for an injury that has caused him to be morally wrong for years, there would have been agony piled on agony, and the nerves of the witnesses would have been almost rent in twain. In 'Mrs. Leffingwell's Boots' the scene was led to quietly, convincing almost imperceptibly, and when it was over the audience looked as though it had enjoyed as much of a reality as one can enjoy when looking into a three-sided room. "That was one of the daring things Mr. Thomas did last night. One of the others was to end what was called a farce comedy with a line that gave the whole play a reason and a purpose and a poetry that placed it among the finest American comedies of the day. "In a speech almost as clever as his play, Mr. Thomas declared that he and Mr. Fitch had decided that there was nothing in it for them in the dramatization of hotels, at least in the effete east. It was his first intention, he said, to mention a well known college of Osteopathy. Mr. Charles Frohman, however, objected, he said, because he did not think the college would show its appreciation in the right way. After much sarcasm, at the expense of both audience and actors, Mr. Thomas, the dramatist, poked this at Mr. Frohman "'Yon all know I am much indebted to Mr. Frohman. You all know my opinion of Mr. Frohman. My attorney informs me that I can say this much without being libelous."' Various explanations as to how the theatrical trust turned osteopathic are in circulation. This theory was given by New York Town Topics. "For years the young son of Augustus Thomas had a slight affection of the spine. Many specialists doctored the boy in vain, until Mr. Thomas took him to an osteopath. In a few weeks he was entirely cured. And now Mr. Thomas, out of gratitude, has made an osteopath one of the heroes of his new comedy, 'Mrs. Leffingwell's Boots! "
The unmistakable influence of the people upon the medical profession in compelling them to abandon the fad of drug medication is tacitly admitted by Dr. M. F. Pilgrim, in Medical News for January 24, 1903. Among other goods things he says: "For years our profession was reproached with the taunt from the lips of the critical, if not unfriendly laity, that while surgery had made rapid and brilliant strides, therapeutics had stood still. It was measurably true. The era of slavish dependence upon drugs is rapidly giving place to advanced therapeutic methods in the treatment of a large and increasing number of diseases of the human body. No matter whether we deplore it or rejoice because of it, the fact nevertheless remains that the propulsively progressive spirit of the age appears to be back of these movements and actually forcing what may be very properly called advanced therapeutics upon the attention of our profession." Unlike many other M. D.'s, Dr. Pilgrim does not consider all forms of mechanical treatment merely massage. He says of Osteopathy: "It is not massage. Nor is it similar to, or an improvement upon the Swedish movements. It embraces the beneficial qualities that inhere in all these methods, but is not subject to their limitations of usefulness." Sometimes even the medical journals recognize the fact that "ignorant popular enthusiasm" often forces the sleepy, "lazyminded" self-satisfied, self-centered medical profession to bestir itself. But, like the man in the fable who killed the goose that laid the golden egg, they berate the dear people as "ignorant," "bicepsworshipers," and the scientist who tells them what to do and how to do it as "quack," "charlatan;" and at the same time, by appealing to courts and legislatures, try to stop the onward progress of truth. Such a view is quoted below from an article in American Medicine, entitled "Ignoring the New until the Quacks Force it Upon Our Attention:" "An eminently sound and conscientious practitioner tried in vain for twenty years or more to arouse the profession to a sense of the value of massage and mechanical therapeutics in the treatment of certain diseases. At last he gave up in despair. It was not just then fashionable. Editors would not accept his articles, and the lazy-minded, the exploiters of the popular opinion, beguiled themselves with the old-fashioned sneer at the 'hobbies of hobby-riders' - and the world went on in its blind way. Then came the osteopaths and the biceps-worshipers of the cheap magazines, and what the profession would not listen to from its own members was willy nilly, forced upon the attention by the quack. It is true that other regulars and scientists prior to the quack knew all and far more than he of the value of massage, but like so much other knowledge, it was not realized in daily practice by the leaders and by the masses of the profession. It required the compulsion of ignorant popular enthusiasm to make us actually treat our patients by these methods, and put into use the partial, veritable truth turned into an untruth by the extremism and indiscrimination of the charlatan. But why need we carry out, generation after generation, this stupid belittling and ignoring of the new truth? There are many such illustrations as the one we have cited, of our strange indifference to methods of treatment, ten, twenty, or thirty years after demonstration has been made of their efficacy and value. Let us keep our minds open and flexible!" The medical profession is naturally expected to lead in all that pertains to the health of the people; but the facts do not show that it is fulfilling that expectation. A cleansing material may become so contaminated that it no longer possesses power to purify; and an organization may become so involved that it cannot accomplish its mission. The people have looked to the medical profession for help; but, alas 1 too often have they been betrayed. They have asked for bread and been given a stone. Instead of a fish they received a scorpion. This is not merely figurative language, but almost literally true. Instead of food the whole mineral, vegetable, and animal world has been ransacked for irritating and poisonous substances directly opposed, when taken into the system, to the established methods of nature; and the bulk of the medical profession is interested in the sale and consumption of these products. Whence, then, this cleansing power from these destructive influences? Let each reader answer for himself. Meantime the people are exerting their influence in the right direction, and may cleanse the medical profession of some of its heresies. The situation reminds one of that forceful little poem by Coleridge entitled Cologne: "In Kohln, a town of monks and bones, |