| CHAPTER XII OTHER PROCEEDINGS THAN DRUGGING IN MEDICAL PRACTICE. Better to hunt in fields for health unbought, As shown in Chapter XI the dominant idea in medical practice almost from the dawn of history has been the giving of drugs. Other methods have been employed from time to time, but most of them have never risen above the rank of adjuncts, used for temporary relief or as convenient remedies to be applied by novices. None of these adjuncts has ever risen to the dignity of a complete and independent system. Dosing must be practiced first, last, and all the time; and any effect produced by anything but drugs was considered only secondary and of little consequence. Hence it is safe to say that the world has had but one system of medical practice up to the time of the advent of Osteopathy; that is drug medication. In fact the use of other means except surgery has been considered entirely beneath the dignity of those educated in medicine as practiced by the dominant schools. Massage may be spoken of in illustration of this point. Almost all drug doctors believe in massage for certain conditions, but they seldom or never use it themselves upon their patients. An examination of the latest published courses of study in a number of medical colleges, including Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, Pennsylvania, and several in Cincinnati and Chicago, shows that massage is not taught in them, not even to the extent of giving a course of lectures upon the subject. Whence the information of the M. D.'s upon this subject about which they profess to know so much? No wonder they instruct the patient to employ a massuer, when any sort of manipulation is needed. They dabble a little with almost everything else, a little electricity, X-rays, N-rays, hydrotherapy, suggestion, etc., but not a word appears in any of the catalogues examined to show that the pupils receive instruction in any thing that has even the remotest resemblance to Osteopathy. Yet medical men persist in the absurd claim that they know all of the healing art, and that their schools teach all that is known or practiced by others. A conversation recently with a student in the medical department of the University of Cincinnati revealed the fact that the students think they are taught Osteopathy in that college. Who are responsible for these false notions? Is it possible that men of the reputations of the professors in that institution must deliberately resort to such misrepresentations in order to keep their pupils within the fold of the "regular" practice? Let us note a few of these adjuncts, some of which were so evidently devoid of merit that the people rejected them, and others which deserve credit as compared with the drug practice. Cohen's "System of Physiologic Therapeutics," in eleven volumes, is the latest and said to be the best treatise upon non-drug methods. It is the work of many eminent specialists in their respective departments unified and systematized by Dr. S. S. Cohen. Quotations in this chapter will be from that work unless otherwise stated.
Electricity adds nothing to or subtracts nothing from the substances composing the body or the vital force that animates it. It is an irritant and its effects are destructive. Hence its use is not in accordance with the teachings of physiology, and its application as a curative agent is untenable. There is probably no part of the body to which electricity is applied more often in the hope of curing diseases, than the brain and spinal cord. Let the authorities speak for themselves as to the effects. "In view of the fact that none of the phenomena described as due to galvanization of the head is of general, constant, and uniform occurrence, and that they can not be voluntarily reproduced in the same individual by the same manner of electrification, it is evident that pathologic alterations of such phenomena can not as yet be recognized. "The assumption that the spinal cord can be influenced by the application of two electrodes upon the intact skin, with currents such as may safely be employed in electrotherapy, is entirely gratuitous. "The results obtained by physiologists from direct stimulation of the cord have thus far led to discordant conclusions, and the application of any of these to the living human body is as yet unfruitful and unwarranted." - Vol. II, pages 63-64.) Every physician has been impressed with the child-like confidence many have in the efficacy of electricity. They have been told that the vital element is simply electricity. Hence they think that an electric current passed through a diseased part supplies it with vitality and restores health; and the sparks emitted by the electric belt, as shown in newspaper advertisements, is to many an ocular demonstration of the efficacy of this supposed life-giving fluid. Even medical journals carry illustrated advertisements which seem to be designed to show that electricity has a world-wide healing power. All such claims are deceptive, to say the least, and theresults do not justify the claims of even recognized authorities, as will be seen by the following: "When one reads in a paper published within the last year by an English neurologist whose name is known the world over, that the electric current possesses an invigorating action upon senile tissues, that it is curative in melancholia, post-epileptic insanity, paranoia chronica and acute hallucinatory psychoses, and that cases of epilepsy that have not been benefited by any medical treatment may be treated with good results by cortical galvanization; or when he reads how a well-known German observer applied a faradaic current to the occiput of a twelve-year-old boy, who, 'in consequence of great psychic excitement, had refused all nourishment,' and thus, 'directly acting upon the cortex of the basal surface of the brain in which the sense of hunger is localized, produced nutritional and metabolic processes in the brain, which removed the functional disorder in the ganglion cells and caused the boy to eat' - one can not but recognize that the scientific basis of electrotherapy is yet rather unstable, and that Mobius still has worlds to conquer." - Volume II, page 125. No one will claim that the applications of electricity to a patient is without results. Whether the results are benevolent or malevolent cannot be readily determined by the apparent effects. How the cure is brought about, if at all, is as uncertain as in the case of the use of drugs. In fact, it is necessary for the electrotherapeutist to fall back upon a fundamental principle in osteopathic practice, namely, the inherent power of an unobstructed organism to restore health. The following quotations are cited: "It is well to say at once that any direct curative influence upon the structural alterations caused by disease has not been proved and is not probable. We must, indeed, go even further, and admit that electric applications can have no specific action, inasmuch as electricity is a form of molecular motion and can therefore possess no inherent influence not possessed by some other form of dynamic treatment. "Indirectly, the function of an organ can be influenced only in one of two ways; either by stimulating - i.e., accelerating - or by inhibiting - i.e., retarding it. Clearly it is impossible to add any quality to those that an organ possesses physiologically; all that we can do is to modify the properties that it already has. As the editor of this system said in his Baltimore address, 'Neither morbific nor therapeutic agents endow the organism with new attributes or introduce into its operations new powers. As the one, so the other, can act only by modifying that which is habitual, or by evoking that which is latent.' "How it actually does act is the question that Mobius has propounded and that as yet - all assertions to the contrary, notwithstanding - has not been answered satisfactorily." - Volume II, pages 126-129. Whether the effects of electricity applied to a patient are psychical or physical, imaginary or real, temporary or permanent, are undetermined even in the minds of its champions: "That, however, psychic influence does form a very large part of the therapeutically beneficial action of electricity is undoubted, because the channels through which it may so act are manifold. Psychic influence may be exercised directly and indirectly, and, what is often forgotten, intentionally and unintentionally. "Electricity as a purveyor of suggestion is unsurpassed, and I know of no other means by which beneficial results can be obtained with so great certainty and rapidity in affections superinduced by psychic action." - Volume 11, pages 127-8 and 129-30. Fourteen pages devoted to the electric treatment in diseases of the motor nerves, muscles, and joints develop the following facts: "The main fact, however, must be recognized, that in the majority of cases of spasm, electricity is therapeutically useless. Only the most recent cases are at all susceptible to beneficial influence by this means, and perhaps only a minority of these. When pronounced cases of clonic or tonic spasm that have existed for some time are cured by means of electricity, this fact may be accepted as evidence of their hysteric nature. In the latter class of cases the value of static electricity is great." - Volume II, page 164. "No form of treatment whatever, consequently no form of electricity, will restore the lost function of the already destroyed muscular fibers, or prevent the unaffected fibers from becoming involved in the morbid process. Nevertheless, it is possible that the progress of the disease may be delayed, and for this purpose electric treatment is indicated." - Volume II, page 165. "For the treatment of gout and rheumatism by means of static electricity great claims have been made and recently renewed. Personally, I have never seen the slightest benefit from static electricity in acute attacks of any kind. In the chronic conditions characterized by pain on pressure of the joints, difficulty, more or less marked, on moving the joints, and spontaneous pain in and around the joints, I have had better success from stabile galvanization of the joint, followed by labile galvanization of the surrounding parts." - Volume II, pages 167-8. The following quotation tells us of the uncertainty of the effects, and the still greater uncertainty as to how the effects, if any, are produced in cases of neuralgia. But what value can we attach to electricity in two of the most distressing forms of pain after reading the following? "While we must admit that it is hardly possible in any individual case to preclude the possibility of the psychic effect, upon the patient, of electric treatment, yet I do not believe that there can he much doubt in the minds of those who have had considerable experience in the electric treatment of neuralgias that when such cases are benefited by this treatment, the benefit obtained is directly due to the electricity as such. This specific action of electricity upon neuralgias is generally recognized, but upon what it is de, pendent - whether upon the production of an altered state of excitability in the hyperesthetic nerve or upon the direct production of anesthesia through strong counter-irritation - cannot be stated with any degree of assurance." - Volume II, page 170. "So, also, trigeminal neuralgia, that most obstinate and most painful of all neuralgias, is often entirely uninfluenced by electric treatment. On the other hand, in some cases especially those occurring in young persons - systematic galvanization appears to curve tail the duration of the disease." - Volume II, page 173. "Of static electricity it may be said that in mild cases temporary relief may occasionally be obtained by the franklinic interrupted current, while in severe cases no static application, whether the spark, the spray, or franklinic interruptions, is of the slightest value" - Volume II, page 175. We see and hear much of electrical treatment for diseases of the brain and spinal cord and mental diseases. Many have been led to believe electricity a specific in such cases. The author comes to these conclusions: "It has been shown that we are able to reach the brain and spinal cord directly by means of an electric current percutaneously applied, but it is highly improbable that currents of sufficient strength to produce any of the action upon which the curative influence of electricity is supposed to depend, reach these organs." - Volume II, page 176. "Headache and dizziness due to organic disease, arteriosclerotic or otherwise, should, in my opinion, never be treated electrically." - Volume II, page 178. "The morbid processes in the cord extend further or less far, faster or slower, entirely uninfluenced by the electric current." - Volume II, page 180. "The treatment of psychoses by means of electricity unfortunately seems again to be gaining a foothold. In stupor, transitory improvements may be obtained by means of faradaic brushing, but never more than this. This sentence practically sums up my opinion of the value of electric treatment for psychoses, unless it be in those cases that are in themselves of mild nature, short duration, and of hysteric or neurasthenic origin." - Volume II, page 179. In diseases of the spinal cord, by any method, patience is desirable, but under electric treatment a special store is necessary. Even after a long course but little, at most, can be expected. As it is an "assumption that the spinal cord may be influenced by the application of two electrodes to the intact skin," the treatment may serve a purpose in keeping the patient from a rational treatment like Osteopathy. "Daily applications of from five to ten minutes duration are indicated. Months or years of continued treatment may be necessary, but the results obtained are better than those secured by means of any other single method of treatment, and no case should be given up as hopeless until after it has been subjected to a faithful and prolonged course of electricity." - Volume II, page 182. "Progressive muscular atrophy is but little, if at all, influenced in its course by electric treatment. I have seen no case in which a muscle once affected recovered its lost function, or in which the progressive implication of other muscles was stayed by the use of electricity. Not much more can be said of the influence of electricity upon other systematic diseases of the spinal cord. "In spastic spinal paralyses, ataxic paraplegia, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis electric treatment can serve only for the temporary amelioration of certain symptoms or for the hope of improvement that it may inspire," - Volume II, page 183. It would be hard to find any treatment more unsatisfactory in many cases than electricity. Concerning electric treatment for locomotor ataxia (tabes dorsalis), chorea minor, and paralysis agitans, he says: "If electricity is to be used at all in tabes, it should be used in the very early stages and not as a last resort." - Volume II, page 184. "Three courses of six weeks each, treatment being applied every second day, with an interval of six weeks between each course, should do all that can be expected from such treatment. Later, single symptoms may at any time require renewed electric treatment. The ataxia itself, whenever developed, is, I am sure, never influenced by any method of electric treatment. Of the disorders in the function of the bladder and rectum, the same may be said as of the analogous disturbances occurring in myelitis. An attack of gastric crisis may, like an attack of lancinating pain, often be curtailed by means of the sinusoidal current. The optic atrophy of tabes can in no case be arrested in its progression by electric treatment, and the possibility of being accused of having, by such treatment, produced an increase of the visual disorder, should make us very chary of its use in the treatment of this symptom." - Volume II, page 185. "My own experience has been such as to warrant me in saying that better results can be obtained in nearly all cases of chorea minor by some other means - e. g., medicinal treatment or rest in bed with ice applications to the spine. Single cases will, however, always be encountered that do not yield to any of the foregoing methods, and in these electricity, in view of the beneficial results claimed by authors, will merit a trial." - Volume II, page 186. "Various writers have recommended this or that electric method as palliative of certain symptoms and even as curative of the disease, but every conscientious observer who follows these recommendations must arrive at the conclusion that all forms and methods electric treatment, whether used in recent or in advanced cases, are useful only for their psychic effect." -Volume II, page 187. As to pulmonary affections, he says: "Personally, I have no experience in the treatment of either tuberculosis or asthma by means of electricity; the editor of this system tells me that he has observed such methods of treatment sufficiently to be convinced of their inutility." - Volume II, page 195. Is electricity useful for stomach troubles? Here is the answer: "It must be said, however, that not only among specialists, but also among general clinicians, there exists much difference of opinion concerning the therapeutic possibilities of electricity in affections of the stomach. The extravagant claims put forth by some tend to bring the whole subject into discredit." - Volume II, page 196. But little is promised for electric treatment in diseases of the eye, ear, nose, throat, pelvic organs, or skin. Space forbids quotations in proof of this assertion, but they are to be found in the declarations of those considered authority. Throw out the element of commercialism, the profits of electric treatment to the physician, the advertising journals, the dealer in electric appliances, and the manufacturer and what is certainly left to justify the recommendations of such treatment? While several different electrical appliances are used successfully in diagnosis, it is hardly to be expected that osteopaths, accustomed as they are to something definite and demonstrable, should snatch at so uncertain a straw as electricity. Let its value be demonstrated even to the satisfaction of its scientific votaries, and every true physician will be glad to welcome it as a therapeutic agent.
Almost any result, especially if the patient has faith sufficient, may be obtained by X-ray therapy, but the after effects may not always be satisfactory. "Numerous attempts have been made to utilize roentgenism in therapeutics, but thus far with few definite results. On some forms of bacterial growth its influence seems to be destructive, but upon others stimulant, and exact knowledge as to the conditions necessary for either effect upon any one organism or upon organisms in general is still lacking. "Psychically, its suggestive power is undoubtedly great. Either thus, or by more direct action, it has in many authentic instances relieved, for more or less protracted periods, muscular, articular, and neural pains of various origins. "The subject, as a whole, is fully worthy of serious investigation, but must be considered as yet in the experimental stage; and, moreover, the possibility of harm-doing should ever be borne in mind in all experiments of a clinical nature." - Volume II, page 211. The passing of medical fads is so rapid that we cannot help wondering what the profession will lay hold of next. Today's most trustworthy remedies are discarded and in many cases denounced tomorrow. Radium, for which so much was claimed only a few months ago, as a curative agent according to recent reports is being abandoned. With the medical profession, almost anything seems to be better than an application of our knowledge of the structures and forces inherent in the body, upon which Osteopathy relies with implicit confidence. In connection with X-ray treatment it will be in order to quote from Medical News, February 6, 1904: "The use of X-ray in cancer should be limited to recurrent and inoperable cases, with the sole exception of small superficial epithelioina of the face. Even here, I believe, the results of excision will prove to be better and more lasting, save in the proximity of the eyelids and nostrils. "It is most misleading to report as cures, cases in which malignant tumors have merely disappeared under the influence of the X-ray, since speedy return is the rule rather than the exception. "At the present moment there is no evidence to prove that any permanent cures have been obtained, save possibly in the case of rodent ulcer."
No one can be found who will deny the influence of water upon the human body, both in health and disease. Its use was coincident with the beginning of life. The physical properties of water and its own inherent harmlessness as well as its all-pervading presence in all the tissues of the body, make it an important influence in health and disease. On the other band, no one can read recent treatises upon the subject of hydrotherapy without being impressed with the limitations of this method of treating the human body when diseased. By water in this connection is meant water, simply water, not water plus some mineral or organic substance in solution. It would be as reasonable to speak of alcohol water, or tea water or coffee water as to speak of lithia water, or sulphur water, or chalybeate water. They are all misnomers and often mislead those who discard drugs into the belief that they are using something that has some mysterious curative power not possessed by drug medication and that its use is not attended with any evil results. Water is the chief solvent for crystalline substances, salts, and gases. Mineral waters are those in which the mineral ingredients are dissolved in water. It is a law of physics that the greater the amount of substances dissolved in water the less effective it is in dissolving other substances. Hence, as water, its power to dissolve impurities in the system is diminished. "The purest water is universally the best. Whatever beneficial effects are obtained from water drinking must be attributed to the water itself, and not to any ingredients which it contains. Mineral waters are simply diluted drugs. The ingredients may be obtained at any drug store, and if diluted to the same extent as that in which they are found in. the so-called natural waters, the effects obtained from their use would be the same. Medical experience has shown that the best of the so-called mineral waters are those which contain the least mineral ingredients. The very best water is distilled water which has been well aerated." - Kelloggs' Rational Hydrotherapy, pages 929-30. "In the employment of mineral waters for drinking-cures, it should especially be borne in mind that much more elaborate and complex pharmacologic preparations are concerned than those obtained from the apothecary; and, moreover, their use at health resorts takes place under such peculiar conditions that a curative agent is raised to the dignity of a therapeutic method. Nevertheless, the inference must be rejected that mineral waters are capable of any specific action not explicable by the chemical and physical laws applicable to other remedies of the pharmacopeia. " - Cohen, Volume IX, page 414. The thermic effects must not be lost sight of. Every physician makes use of hot or cold applications in some form. No one denies that water is an excellent and convenient means for applying or withdrawing heat, and that it is in almost universal use for those purposes. "Much therapeutic utility of water depends upon what Professor Winternitz terms its 'thermic influence;' that is to say, upon its physical availability for altering the body-temperature, generally and locally, primarily or secondarily, by addition or by abstraction of heat." - Volume IX, page 5. The laity have been taught to believe that the skin will absorb the curative elements in mineral waters, that the results are sure, and the processes scientific. Hence the repute in which resorts provided with mineral baths, mud baths, etc., are held by the people. Science has destroyed another idol. Yet fortunes continue to be made in practices of healing which have been exploded time and again. Those who have met with disappointment by not getting satisfactory results at famous bathing establishments comprise a large part of those taking osteopathic treatment. They are no less forcible in their declaration of failure by such means than the following shows the scientists to be. "That circumstances upon which, formerly, a particular emphasis was placed in estimating the value of mineral baths - namely, that the constituents of the mineral water employed for the bath were capable of exerting a direct influence by absorption into the blood - has been forced into the background by recent investigation. The question as to whether the uninjured human skin is capable of absorbing the substances dissolved in the water of the bath has been decided in the negative by recent thorough research. The results of earlier studies, apparently showing that increase in weight occurs after the bath and that this is due to absorption of water; that the increase in the quantity of urine secreted after the bath is a result of the absorption of water; and, further, that after simple muriated baths there is an increase in the urinary chlorids, indicating a diffusion of the salt of the bath, have not been confirmed. The positive results showing the presence of iodin in the urine after bathing in water containing iodin are likewise valueless, as the experimenters failed to make sufficient allowance for the volatility of iodin, so that the inhalation, during the bath of the vapors of this substance through the respiratory tract does not appear to be excluded. "It is true that substances capable of injuring the horny layer of the skin as, for instance, mercuric chlorid, arsenic, salicylic acid, salol - will, when added to the bath, be absorbed through the human skin." - Cohen, Volume IX, pages 369-70. "As the theory of absorption of the iron into the blood stream through the external integument can scarcely be accepted at present, any notable difference in effect between the steel baths and the acid baths is not to be expected. Steel baths, like other carbonated baths, are effective through irritation of the skin by the carbon dioxid." - Volume IX, page 398. There are no two other diseases that are supposed to receive so great benefit from the use of mineral waters as rheumatism and gout. Cohen, in Volume VI, states the conclusions to which those who have carefully investigated these subjects have arrived. He says "Mineral springs are often resorted to advantageously by rheumatics, who are helped both by the drinking of such waters and by bathing in them. It does not seem probable that the chemical constituents of these mineral springs play a, very important part in effecting the relief which sufferers from rheumatism so often experience. Without doubt it is through the copious use of water, the dilution of the blood and tissue fluids and the increased elimination of the soluble toxins by the various emunctories, particularly the kidneys and the skin, that the most good is accomplished." - Page 349. "There have been many spring-waters recommended as preventives of gout. It is probable that large quantities of water do more good by the physical presence of fluid in the blood-vessels and tissues than the various mineral ingredients which spring-water may from time to time contain." - Page 354. Once in a while advocates of other systems openly admit their inefficiency except as they can in some mysterious way stimulate the "natural independent remedial resources of the human body." Nature is the only healer. This fundamental principle of Osteopathy, as announced by Dr. Still in 1874, and implicitly relied upon by him and his followers, is slowly gaining recognition by the medical profession. Note again what Cohen says: "A study of the natural independent remedial resources of
the human body has been undertaken on numerous sides, and I have
myself attempted to show that the actual remedial value of the measures
applied in treatment - as the editor of this series has likewise
pointed out - is to be found in the invigoration of the organism
and of all of its functions; and that hydrotherapy, balneotherapy,
thermotherapy, and phototherapy exhibit these effects only when
the process of reaction are efficiently controlled." - Volume
IX, page 48,
Two volumes of Cohen's System are devoted to climatology and health resorts. All know that there are many cases that are benefited by a change from the debilitating grind and monotony of their daily duties. Others could so shape their daily lives, if they would, that there would be little need of the "change" thought so essential. And the benefits to be derived from the comforts of life, surrounded by quiet and the conveniences of a well-ordered home, would be immeasurably greater, in many cases, than the advantages to accrue when subjected to the excitement and annoyances generally experienced at resorts. Some people can't rest at home; let them go away. Some can't find anything good enough in America; let them go to Europe. Some can't find good drinking water where God has provided it most abundantly, and at least expense; let them go to some mineral spring resort where they can get impure water and pay well for it. The following paragraph taken in connection with what has been said about water, expresses the logical conclusion as to the general effect of sending patients away from home: "It is often difficult to form an estimate of how much of the benefit derived from health resorts is due to climate and how much to associated influences. At any rate, it must be clearly understood, in regard to the climates and health resorts here recommended, that the climate is merely one element in the treatment; the various other elements, such as mental rest, cheerful surroundings, open air life, altered diet and regimen, the use of mineral waters, and the like, will now briefly be considered." - Volume IV, page 245. Tuberculosis is one of the diseases that yields most readily through climatic influences. Cohen says, "The cure of tuberculosis, during the early stages at least, like its prevention, is possible in all healthful climates where good diet can be obtained and where much time can be spent in the open air." And the Ohio Society for the Prevention of Tuberculosis has conferred a boon upon those afflicted with consumption by making the statement below. It contains some good osteopathic doctrine applicable also to other diseases than consumption. "Certain climatic conditions are doubtless greatly favorable for the cure of tuberculosis. There is much less in climate, however, than was formerly supposed. The idea that there is some mysterious unknown property about the air of Colorado, Arizona, California, or any other state, which makes it a cure for consumption, should be dispelled. "For the most part it is simply a question of pure air; and pure air in Ohio is just as pure as the air in any other place. It is true that certain cases of consumption may be much benefited by certain climatic conditions not everywhere present. "It should be clearly understood that there is no drug cure for consumption. It is the natural forces of the body that destroy or imprison the germs of tuberculosis and heal the lungs, and the aim is to restore these forces and keep them at the highest possible point of effectiveness. "The body manufactures its own remedy, but can do so only under favorable circumstances. "The surgeon places the ends of a broken bone together and by appliances keeps them in proper position. Natural curative processes firmly unite them, and the broken bone is made whole. "In a similar way nature tries to cure diseased lungs, and the wise physician aids her by fresh air, and abundance of nourishing food, and a proper regulation of rest and exercise. These are the agencies used in the sanatorium treatment of consumption. "There is no drug that will cure the disease, and drugs are used only as temporary aids to natural forces. Beware of specific consumption cures. There is none." Let living in any climate in accordance with these rational views be accompanied by osteopathic treatment to improve the nerve and blood supply to the diseased parts and increase the oxydizing power in respiration, and, as proven in scores of cases treated early, the disease is shorn of almost all its terrors. Or even if the doctors would recognize the fact that there are "mechanical impediments" and put into their practice the "discovery" (at least thirty years old to Dr. Still) heralded by Dr. Work in the Philadelphia Press, April 18, 1904, they would cease to torture consumptives with drugs. This is what Dr. Work says: "The reduction of the consumptives' respiration in the first stage to about two-thirds of the normal volume, is due very largely to mechanical impediments. The circumference of his chest is constricted, its walls are unduly rigid and his respiratory muscles are quite unequal to produce adequate respiratory movements. But all these obstructions to normal breathing are readily amenable to passive movements prescribed for and applied to the patient by which the thorax can be expanded, the elasticity of the walls increased, and all the muscles of respiration including the diaphragm and those of the abdomen greatly invigorated. If by these means the volume of respired air can be increased only three cubic inches at each tranquil respiration over and above the reduced volume habitually breathed, the extra amount of air entering the lungs every twenty-four hours, would amount to about fifty cubic feet, enough to exercise notable curative influence."
Suggestion is a prominent element in many kinds of practice. Those who ought to know seem to think that it is the effective power in mind cure, faith cure, Christian science, Dowieism, divine healing, mental healing, hypnotism - in short all of those methods in which no material agency is used in the practice. It, doubtless, is a scientific principle and may be used to advantage in many diseased conditions. The above statement is not to be construed to mean that suggestion actually cures in cases where a real physical disturbance exists. When there is really nothing the matter with the patient, it is most effective. Probably many cases of cure attributed to suggestion are due to the vis medicatrix naturao - the healing power of natural ways a potent influence for good. "In mind cure and in faith cure, the essential feature of the treatment is the suggestion to the patient, or by the patient to himself, of the absence of the various symptoms which he presents. Combined with the negative hallucination of the absence of disease, or the non-existence of disease, there is also the positive belief of the patient in his well-being. The suggestions are made, or supposed to be made, in the waking state. In many of the reported cases, however, there is reason to believe that there was established some degree of hypnosis. Indeed, the very monotony of the repetition of the suggestion, the fixation of the mind of the subject upon one idea, and the constant repetition of the idea to him, or by himself in some set phrase, embrace the common factors of the induction of hypnosis. That powerful results, however, can be induced by suggestion in the waking state, we have already seen. Bernheim has repeatedly declared that hypnosis is not at all necessary to achieve startling effects by suggestion." - Cohen, Volume VIII, page 310. "The discussion of so-called Christian science as a religion is best left to theologians. As a therapeutic method it concerns not only medical practitioners, but every rational human being. Undeniably the treatment is one of suggestion, and, speaking more specifically, of suggestion by the induction of the negative hallucination." - Volume VIII, page 316. Hypnotism has received a great deal of attention from the best scientific minds. It has been subjected to scientific tests and many wonderful cures have been reported. The results, as often pointed out, may be dangerous. Theoretically, its influences might be as readily exerted for evil as for good; and demonstrated facts confirm the theory. At best, Cohen comes to the following conclusions: "To begin, if hypnotism be at all applicable as a method of treatment, it is applicable to an exceedingly limited number of cases. On the whole, however, the field for hypnotism, under the best conditions, is practically nil. Of a truth, hypnotism never cures any affections except those which are readily curable by other and physiologic measures; while it induces, let me repeat, a distinctly pathologic state. In spite of all that has been maintained to the contrary, proof is lacking that hypnotism possesses any genuine curative power. How 'artificially induced hysteria' can cure, passeth human understanding. It ranks of necessity with 'mind cure' and the imbecilities of Eddyism." - Volume VIII, page 304. American Medicine for March 12, 1904, has two articles by "regular" medical doctors advocating "mind cure," which must prove very gratifying to those who make most use of that factor in healing diseases of the body. The two quotations below are not given to support such a theory, but to show the blind pertinacity with which drug doctors class Osteopathy with the systems based upon "mind cure." They show also that there is a strong tendency on the part of the old medical profession to discard the use of drugs and fall back upon some other system that is equally mysterious and even more limited in its application to disease. So far there seems to have been nothing thought of, and tried, that has not received the sanction of the profession, except the fundamental osteopathic idea that a deranged structure may cause disease and the correction of the derangement may cure disease. "There can be no doubt that if the mental factor in medicine had been properly recognized, studied, and taught by our predecessors in medicine, quackery, witchcraft, faith cures, osteopathy, Eddyism, etc., would never have attained the position they hold to-day. "The neglect of the mental factor in medicine is a source of unpardonable weakness on the part of the medical profession. Our failure to appreciate this important fact in the past has been the one prolific cause of so much skepticism on the part of the laity, and 'has driven millions of our good paying and intelligent patrons to seek relief at the hands of uneducated fanatics and quacks, who play their role under the guise of Christian science, osteopathy, faith cures, etc." - Page 435. "Although, we are bound to reject what is false, we are under the same bonds to accept what is true, which applies as much to Christian science as to the other forms of mind cure. "The Christian science folk very wrongly claim that their cures are positive proof of the correctness of their theories, and all their theories. But with the same sort of reasoning, we should have to admit that the cures wrought by the various other forms of mind cure (faith cure, divine science, animal magnetism, osteopathy, the water of Lourdes, etc.) are equally positive proof of the theories given in explanation of them. For all these have cures as certain and theories as positive." - Page 437. Other methods of healing, unlike the forms of suggestion already alluded to, but practically the same, are no less mystic in their methods because they apparently make use of physical means. Metallotherapy was one of these which at one time had an immense clientage. Perkins's tractors were reputed to be wonderfully successful in this country and England. The electric belt and other appliances of a similar nature are the more recent forms which metallotherapy uses now under the guise of electricity. "Doubtless both in metallotherapy and in Perkins's tractors, as in Charcot's magnets, the dominant factor at work was suggestion. How powerfully suggestion acts in hysteria, even in the waking state, we have already seen. In addition, the monotonous impression produced upon the skin by the application of a metallic surface or the steady strokings of the Perkins's tractors, suggests the monotonous impression of the hypnotic experiment." - Volume VIII, page 310. Our author, Cohen, refers to "other mystic methods," and in the last sentence of the following quotation he may have reference to the practices of the medicine men of today. Being a "regular," he might not feel justified in openly arraigning his own school of practice and in denouncing its pet methods. As he may not have made that idea perfectly clear a quotation from Dr. S. S. Wallian's paper, read before the section in therapeutics and materia medica, at the International Medical Congress, at Washington, D. C., in 1902, is also presented: "Mystic medicine is as old as the race. Some forms have gone, others have come, but no matter how the dress has been changed, the method is always the same. The incantations of the 'medicine man' differ in no essential from the incantations of the Eddyist or the Doweyite. Each deals with disease as the result of sin and crime as evidence of the anger or the ill-will of the demons or of the gods, who must be appeased by prayer, charms, and magical rites; or who must be opposed by some occult knowledge or mystic power possessed by the healer. Civilization merely adds a complex outward raiment, but this raiment conceals the same old puerile superstition and magic that characterized the medical practice of our savage ancestors." - Volume VIII, pages 317-8. "Our inherited lunacy of logic makes us assume that this or that substance has a certain 'affinity' for this or that organ, tissue, or outlet. We teach, and try to believe, that it 'expends its force' as an 'inhibitor' of this or that set of nerve terminals; has 'primary' and 'secondary' "effects,' 'interrupts' this or that reflex. This is but the old gibberish, rewritten and set to music. The only notable change from the old. mythologies is a mere change of costume. The Deities now invoked are represented, not by brazen images and carvings in stone, but by chemic symbols and hypothetic equations. The modern fane is a laboratory; the later altar a dissection table. Thus we no longer ask the stars, but pin our faith to the distortions of the microscope, the muffled echoes of the pleximeter, the uncertain tracings of the sphygmograpb, and the sighing murmurs of the stethoscope. From these we gather our oracles, interrogating them each according to his personal idiosyncrasy or mere individual whim. Even food can never be in an active sense a factor. It is as passive as the wool that goes to the cards. The vital forces, with their limitless and little-understood actions and reactions are the only real factors." The dominant school of medicine takes delight in associating Osteopathy with the suggestive methods of the healers referred to above. As a matter of fact it is more unlike them, than drug medication. What can be said of bread pills and colored water (placebos), or even the high potencies as used by drug doctors? When practiced in its purity by one who thoroughly understands Osteopathy, both in theory and practice, that is, by an osteopath thoroughly trained as such, the element of suggestion is entirely absent.
Volume X of the "System of Physiologic Therapeutics" is devoted to pneumotherapy and inhalation methods. That an abundance of pure air and a well developed respiratory apparatus are necessary conditions, both in health and disease, goes without saying. All that is being done by the medical profession and physical culturists in their efforts to teach the people to use pure air, a healing power within the reach of almost every one, is to be commended. When the world realizes the value of pure air as a preventive of consumption and the doctors apply the principle of Osteopathy in seeing that there is no interference with the nerve and blood supply to and from the lungs, we may hope to stay the progress of "the great white plague" and its compeer, pneumonia. Inhalation methods have been but little more successful than other artificial or unnatural procedures; and our author records another failure as the result of adopting strange methods instead of holding close to nature. "It is the dream of all therapeutists, as it is the aim of many laboratory workers at the present day, to elevate medicine to the rank of an exact science with immutable laws and principles. But the dream is very far from realization. We are not yet justified in deducing a priori from our exact knowledge of the action of a therapeutic agent, its effect in a given case of disease. In practice, experience goes before theory. Waldenburg determined, with what he thought was mathematical precision, the effects of pneumotherapeutic apparatus on the lungs and on the circulation, and laid it down as a principle that these effects must be produced in every case. "Granted that the thoracic cage is comparable to the vessel with elastic walls, it must not be forgotten that the organism, in this, as in every other case, possesses the power of accommodating itself to the new conditions to which it is subjected; and Waldenburg was mistaken in denying the influence of nervous neuro-muscular, and vasomotor processes. On the contrary, the effort on the part of the organism, when suddenly placed under unusual conditions, to call these protective agencies into action, has been considered by many authors to be chiefly responsible for the main physiologic effects produced by the active (or differential) pneumotherapeutic methods. It is probably along these lines that the most satisfactory explanation for many of the therapeutic results obtained will be found, although I believe that in the majority of instances the results must be ascribed to purely mechanical causes." - Volume X, pages 236-7.
Newspapers often give unstinted praise to doctors upon insufficient grounds and long before the ultimate results of the treatment can possibly be known. A case in point is the enthusiasm with which they reported Dr. Lorenz's treatment of dislocated hips when he visited the United States in 1902. The reports by the newspapers, apparently sanctioned by the doctors, and even the claims of the medical journals would lead most readers to believe that the Lorenz method was almost invariably successful. The hopes of most doctors, except osteopaths and a few conservative surgeons, as will be seen by opinions freely expressed at the time, were unduly raised. While there is doubtless much to commend in the method, it has proven thus far to be a great disappointment. The New York and Philadelphia Medial Journal for April 2, 1904, reports a discussion on the results of Lorenz's work, in which Dr. Townsend said the cures "would probably be under twenty five percent." He also said: "That Dr. Lorenz himself returned to this country and removed several plaster casts. He dictated the notes. He examined four cases; there was not a case of the four which he said was a perfect anatomical reposition." Dr. Fisk said "The last time he looked up the record, about sixty percent had relapsed. He did not mean to say that forty percent were cured" "Dr. Myers mentioned a case, reduced three times with the ordinary manipulations of Lorenz, each time relapsing." The following special dispatch to the Cincinnati Enquirer is in marked contrast with the laudations freely bestowed upon Dr. Lorenz by the newspaper and press generally about the time he was engaged in performing his wonderful feats. The "cures" are on a par with most other cures, whether by drugs, surgery, or any other method in which resort is had to unnatural or violent means. "New York, March 4, 1904. - New York doctors are discussing the statement of Dr. John Ridlon that the Lorenz operation on Lolita Armour had been a failure. "Dr. Ridlon stated that the limb operated on by the Austrian surgeon was now an inch and a half shorter than before the operation. On the other hand, the leg which was operated on, in accordance with the usual surgical methods - under the knife - had been successfully treated. "Dr. Ridlon declared that the bloodless operation for congenital hip dislocation had been successful in only ten cases out of ninety three." Osteopaths had done similar work by their own methods before Dr. Lorenz had been heard of; but some of them, notably Dr. H. W. Forbes, have appropriated his good points, and, so far as the facts are at present obtainable, secured much better results than Dr. Lorenz or any of his followers.
There is much in Cohen's chapters on exercise that every osteopath can recommend to some of his patients with advantage; on the other hand, there is much that every osteopath should shun as he would calomel or digitalis. Exercises as remedial agents are of little use, and have often been positively dangerous, to many who have finally had to resort to Osteopathy for relief. On the other hand, they are often just what is needed, and, if wisely directed, they acre of special value as prophylactic agents for persons engaged in sedentary pursuits. Many of the recommendations as to exercises, games, sports, and gymnastics are valuable, and may be used to great advantage by all practitioners. In the estimation of the osteopath the unexcusable weakness of all these exercises is the failure to recognize the numberless small defects, especially in the spine, that are the primary causes of the gross lesions and weaknesses upon which so much stress is laid. A knowledge of these little abnormalities before they have culminated in disease would enable the trainer to understand the futility of most exercises as curative agents and the danger in some that might be suitable to other conditions.
The instruments of torture described in the chapter of Cohen's work on orthopedic apparatus are almost invariably relegated to the junk pile by the osteopath. Some of them may be used as a temporary expedient when indicated, or as a constant aid in a permanent deformity; but as curative agents they are scarcely worthy a moment's attention. The chapter on corrective manipulations in orthopedic surgery comes nearest to the osteopathic idea of any in the ten volumes; but as the treatments described apply only to correcting deformities, not to the removal of the cause of those deformities and the effects produced by them, it is, perhaps, doing violence to language as well as to truth to say that anything is to be found even here savoring of Osteopathy. Of course osteopaths do use the same procedures when they treat directly the place of disturbance; but they are such a small and ineffectual part of his work that they cannot be considered an element in osteopathic treatments.
Let it be stated again that osteopaths do not deny the efficacy of other methods of treatment. Massage is beneficial in many cases, and is sometimes used by osteopaths. In general, they believe its practice is unscientific because it does not strike at the cause or causes of the trouble. Like other methods it treats effects instead of causes. But the climax of ignorance or misrepresentation is reached when the claim is made that Osteopathy is massage. In reading on massage, Volume VII of Cohen's System, you will not find one osteopathic idea. You will not find in the chapters on massage a suggestion of the osteopathic idea as to the disturbance to the bones, not a hint as to the use osteopaths make of the spinal column, ribs, innominates, or joints in the treatment of diseases. On the other hand, you will find so much that is positively nonosteopathic, and diametrically opposed to all osteopathic ideas and practices that we can scarcely help marveling that a scientific mind should be so reckless as to confound the two. For example, the masseur lays stress upon movements which are accurately classified and described; he says, page 19, "As the value of massage and its good effects are wholly dependent upon the exact performance of the movements used, it will be necessary to describe them with some minuteness." The osteopath cannot, in one case in ten, use any routine or predetermined movement. He must always be guided in his movements by the conditions he finds in the tissues, that is, their approach to or departure from their normal condition. Many cases in which Osteopathy is indicated are not to be treated by massage. Cohen specifies a number of cases in which massage is counter-indicated, in all of which Osteopathy is indicated. Evidently massage would be injurious in most of the cases mentioned and the warnings given are timely. But as the movements described are not even suggestive of the work of the osteopath in the diseases named, the warnings do not apply to the qualified osteopath. The following is Cohen's paragraph relating to the treatment of fever by massage: "First, as a rise of temperature is one of the results, the presence of fever in a case should forbid massage. It has, indeed, been used to reduce temperature, an end which may be attained by reversing the usual centripetal direction of the hand-grasps and thus slowing instead of hastening the blood-current; but the benefit of the procedure is more than doubtful, the possible evil results serious, and the operation disagreeable to the patient and very trying to the masseur. In certain feverish cases in which the treatment is indicated for general nutritive failure, - for example, in phthisis - a moderate application may be cautiously made during the afebrile interval." - Volume VII, pages 46-7. Just imagine an osteopath who would think of "reversing the usual centripetal direction of the hand-grasps and thus slowing in stead of hastening the blood-current," instead of resorting to the osteopathic way of controlling and reducing fever. The author also mentions the following "counter-indications to general massage," in all of which Osteopathy has won many a signal victory burns; wounds; cutaneous inflammations; pus formations; malignant growths; cystic tumors; menstruation; pregnancy; miscarriage; after child-birth; "where the pathologic tissue changes are limited in extent, massage may be used in the affected areas only;" "acute inflammatory conditions, local or general, periosteal, peritoneal, and so on, are with a few exceptions unsuited for treatment by massage;" "gastric and duodenal ulcers;" atheroma, aneurism, and severe varicose veins. Cohen's estimate of many of the mechanical devices intended to give massage, as "muscle-beaters," "roller apparatus," etc., is but little greater than that placed upon such machines by osteopaths. But a conservative agent would not speak more kindly of "the eclectic percussor by Granville" and "the gander system of massage by machinery" than does our author. We have often heard of the psychic effect of different methods of treatment, but the zenith of incongruity is reached when he says that some people, "May be given the necessary manipulation by machinery nearly as well as by hand, with the additional advantage that the mental effect produced by the huge and complicated machines may be a valuable adjunct. Moreover, if long continued treatment is necessary the cost to the patient of massage by machine will be less than that of treatment by hand a like period.'" - Volume VII, page 135. The claim that "the cost to the patient of massage by machine will be less" is a forcible argument to present to the poor; and the following concerning the Zander machines will surely catch the snobbish rich, who always measure the value of every thing by its cost in dollars and cents "The motive power is entirely separate and may be steam or electricity. The apparatus is only sold in sets, the first cost is very great, the expense of running and maintenance large, and the machines of considerable complexity." - Volume VII, page 132. The change in fashion in drugs is not more noticeable than the change in mechanical appliances for the correction of deformities. Manufacturers seem to be competing with each other to see which can produce the greatest number of complicated machines for the avowed benefit of mankind. The cuts shown opposite pages 340 and 388 are taken from Cohen, Volume VII. These machines are highly praised and are spoken of as up-to-date appliances for the purposes intended. How crude, cruel, and complicated are all such procedures compared with the methods used by Osteopathy ! Below is the description given for the treatment of lumbago: "As an example of the complexity of the treatment by apparatus, Friedlander's prescription for lumbago employs the Zander machines as follows: The letters are the designations of separate pieces of apparatus; 'C 1, by which the trunk is bent forward, sitting; C 2, by which the trunk is extended, sitting; C 4, in which the patient, sitting bent forward with extended legs, has the upper trunk extended; next, C 6 and C 7, for sidewise trunk-movements and trunk-twisting; finally several machines for active leg-movements, followed by B 2, which performs effleurage of the hip, and B 4, which applies simultaneous effleurage to the hip- and knee-joints.' Other authors suggest adding to this list of nine or ten machines, another for applying vibrations to the lumbar regions." – Volume VII, page 136. The popular clamor for Osteopathy has also stimulated the medical profession to try to furnish "something just as good." Believing as many do that Osteopathy is simply a system of mechanical stimulation, a dozen or more vibrators, sometimes also called "riveting machines," "pummeling machines," etc., for "vibratil massage" have been placed upon the market. It is not necessary to go into details. Suffice it to say, that all such machine treatment is as unlike Osteopathy in its application as is massage or hydrotherapy. While they may be useful, they are doubtless harmful in many cases in which Osteopathy is specially indicated. A bony lesion can not be removed by a senseless machine in untrained hands any more successfully than by untrained, uneducated, short term, or correspondence school osteopaths.
Volume VII of Cohen's System appeared in March, 1904, and is supposed to be up to date. It gives one and a half pages to Osteopathy, all of which is quoted below. This is done to enable the reader to see for himself the extremes to which opponents of the system go, the recklessness of their statements, and their ignorance of the subject. It would require a past master of the order of Ananias, and Baconian terseness, to condense a greater number of falsehoods in so short a space; particular attention is called to the last two sentences in the second paragraph below. In the next paragraph he admits. the fact that if "educated physicians had known what osteopaths know," the osteopaths would never have had a chance. Oh, that "if." As the eleven volumes are designed especially for the medical fraternity, and may be read but little by others than doctors, what is said about Osteopathy will help to deepen the ignorance of a class of doctors that have long been devoted to an unswerving opposition to truth, and to arouse the indignation of another class that recognizes that there is yet much to learn, and believe in old-fashioned truthfulness and fair dealing between man and man. Here is what Dr. J. K. Mitchell says on pages 79 and 80, including a foot-note, which repeats the old senseless claim that Osteopathy is "mental suggestion," and that it is "so severe as to be dangerous:" "Since the admirers of the very latest curative system that has gained vogue proclaim loudly that it is not massage, there is an evident necessity for one writing on massage to say something about that method which rejoices in the sufficiently barbarous name of Osteopathy. Its prophets announce that it is destined altogether to supersede ordinary medical practice. Ordinary medical practice, according to the prophets of the new dispensation, consists only in the administration of drugs; and with these, osteopathic practice asserts that it does not concern itself. In short, we have to deal with a new 'pathy,' that is to say, with an exclusive system, founded on one idea; an idea, to be sure, rather more rational than that now abandoned theory on which another exclusive system was built - namely, the origin of all chronic diseases in the itch. This 'osteopathic' idea is - or was that nearly all diseases are the result of displacements of bones, which, thus displaced, press upon various nerves and organs, and so give rise to manifold and varied symptoms. The 'osteopath' treats the resulting conditions, theoretically, by replacing the bones; practically, by a rather rude massage. It hurts his feelings to call the proceedings massage, and it is indeed rather hard - on massage; but that is what it is - a fact which is not altered by the claim of its having been invented in Missouri. The books of the school are numerous, and generally hyperbolic or ill-written; the work of its founder being particularly vague, windy, and pompous. In their manuals of practice may be found directions for the treatment of small-pox, scarlet fever, apoplexy, whooping-cough, and headache, by manipulation of certain regions in which they find 'lesions.' Everything is due to a ‘lesion,’ and a lesion apparently means only a bone out of place. Some of the 'lesions' which they commonly find are interesting. For example, 'Dr.' Hazard's book on the subject describes dislocation of a vertebra as a very frequent cause of disease and one easily remedied by proper manipulations; the atlas vertebra is particularly subject to 'lesion,' but is fortunately readily restored. Another fruitful source of trouble is 'displacement of a rib!' This causes heart disease, dyspepsia, constipation, and other difficulties. "Except for its wide spread, the matter is hardly worth wasting time on. The 'new school,' as it likes to call itself, knows nothing that is not already a part of legitimate medical literature, barring its absurd invention of ‘lesions.’ It magnifies and verbosely misapplies its little knowledge - and much unfounded assumption concerning the vasomotor or sympathetic nervous system. The 'osteopaths' put aside as useless lumber all physiology, all pathology, all etiology, all physical diagnosis except what they pretend to learn by touch - a wide enough claim, since they assert that they can touch a number of unreachable organs. Bacteriology, chemistry, and the normal and abnormal functions of the organs of digestion and assimilation are impartially ignored by them. "The fact is that if all educated physicians really knew and appreciated the proper place and value of massage and other forms of mechanical therapeutics, and made right use of the knowledge, the osteopaths would never have had a chance; for, let them say what they will, if study of their books makes any one thing certain about the system, it is that they have found out and exploited the usefulness of massage and manipulations. The force of the accusation against them lies in their claiming impossible things and doing harmful ones. [Footnote.] In a recent article (American Medicine, October 17, 1903) Dr. R. C. Newton, who states that the practice is of old Italian origin, suns up the osteopathic matter in the following excellent terms: 'Whatever permanent good the osteopaths do, they do by mental suggestion, followed by massage and manipulation, and in some cases by hydrotherapy and the use of beat and cold. They probably accomplish more than ordinary masseurs because they are fiercer and bolder in the application of their methods. The lesson they teach is that the human frame can not only endure, but can be benefited by maneuvers which are usually regarded as so severe as to be dangerous. To teach people the necessity of bodily exercise, if they wish to enjoy good health, has been and still is a difficult and discouraging task. But the people are learning their lesson for all that; and the osteopaths are contributing (albeit unwittingly) their share to the fund of human knowledge."' The fact that osteopaths do not always draw clearly the line of demarkation between Osteopathy and massage or other systems of mechano-therapy is not denied or ignored. There can be no doubt but many so-called osteopaths give more or less massage along with Osteopathy; in fact, so much, that their treatment might be called massage. But even that, lacking as it does the exactness of routine described in works on that subject and followed by the best masseurs, is so unlike massage in method and purpose that it can hardly be called by that name. Truly, massage, as practiced by osteopaths, if practiced at all, may justly be considered a crude form of massage, when judged by the standards of that system. Many a time has the writer heard patients who had taken massage say that they did not see how any one who was familiar with both could say that they were alike. Dr. F. J. Fassett draws the following conclusions in an exhaustive paper on "Systems of Mechanical Therapeutics - A Comparative Study," read at the Cleveland meeting of the American Osteopathic Association. It was published in the Journal o f the American Osteopathic Association for March, 1904, and is worthy a careful perusal by all who desire to be informed upon that subject: "I. In so far as osteopathic procedure consists in abdominal manipulations or in kneading of muscles intended to stimulate or to numb the nerves, or press out abnormal deposits, it differs very little from massage, and should be called by that name. "II. That which is new and essential in Osteopathy, properly so called, may be represented in the following: "(1). In theory: The habit of relating disease of tissue with irritation or malnutrition of the corresponding nerve centers, or disturbance along the nerve path connecting the tissue and the center. "(2). In diagnosis: The practice of searching for the cause of this malnutrition or irritation by detailed examination of the position of the bony structures, the tension or hardness of muscles and the development of the ligaments, all of these within a relatively circumscribed area about the center or in the region known to be physiologically connected with it. "(3). In treatment: The practice of directing the manipulation primarily to the region of the nerve center or to the exact point of discovered irregularity; of limiting the manipulation to such work as is thought necessary to remove the ultimate cause of the disease, and of then trusting restoration of nutrition and adjustment of normal degrees of activity to the natural regulating mechanism of the body." The late Dr. G. D. Hulett made the following clear statement in a brief article on "Wherein Osteopathy Differs from Massage," in the Journal o f the American Osteopathic Association, June, 1904: "In a recent communication from an author of a work on massage some reference to osteopathic writing was made which calls attention to a subject of prime importance to the further presentation of osteopathic principles. In the communication the charge was made that if osteopaths were at all familiar with the history and methods of manual treatment they would no longer make the claim that Dr. Still had 'discovered Osteopathy.' Unfortunately for our system, as well as for the information of the author in question, the article to which the latter called attention laid apparently greater emphasis upon mechanical stimulation and relaxing muscles than upon the essentially adjustive treatment. And this is the fact and the subject that requires careful consideration, if we expect to be able to defend ourselves against the unjust charge that our practice is but a 'crude form of massage.' If osteopaths would take the trouble to read Graham, Eccles, Teen, Kellgren, Ziegenspech, or any other authority on mechanotherapy, they would forever refrain from attempting to differentiate between certain procedures employed by osteopaths and those used by masseurs throughout the centuries. As soon as we get it pounded into our heads (we are unable to make use of a stronger expression, under the circumstances) that mechanical stimulation and inhibition, 'a good toning-up treatment,' direct relaxation of muscles, and the like, are not new, are not essential Osteopathy, but are fundamental massage procedures, we will be a little more careful in our expressions, and let us hope, a little more correct in our treatment, and much more successful in therapeutic results." Volume XI of "The System of Physiologic Therapeutics" had not appeared in May, 1905. It is to present the latest information on radiotherapy, serotherapy, organotherapy, blood-letting, principles of therapeutics, etc. Recent opinions by the highest authorities on most of these subjects have been presented in other chapters of this book. It remains to be seen whether these methods also have proven entirely futile, according to the latest conclusions, in preventing the ravages of disease. From what has appeared in this and the preceding chapters of this book, as well as from the thoughtful study of the history of medical theories and practices, as presented by reputable authorities, it is evident that present prevailing methods are substantially the same as for centuries. The preparation of drugs has become more refined and elaborate, their terminology has been altered to conform to new chemical compounds, and their administration has been varied to suit changing fads or fashions. But with it all the assumptions of the profession are unchanged, its empiricism is unaltered, and its arrogance is more lofty than ever before. Mineral poisons are used as hitherto; and the putrefactive and toxic products of animal life are more highly praised than ever before. There may be "refinement" in the preparations, but the same old theories and practices remain, notwithstanding the claim of the profession that medicine is now scientific and far in advance of all previous conditions. Still clinging to the idea of stimulating, or depressing, or inhibiting, or soothing, or hypnotizing, or doing something by the use of extraneous agencies, the profession has not only tried almost every conceivable means of drug medication, but has also invented numberless appliances equally unscientific and ineffective. It has sought in vain for some specific that could overcome each disease or each symptom and restore health. Not till Dr. Still laid down as a verified fact the principle that all protective and curative power lies within the body itself, and that the body is a perfect mechanism, able, when properly adjusted, to perform all the duties devolving upon it, did it dawn upon the world that most of the agencies used by the medical profession are useless in nearly all cases, and positively harmful in many. |