The Chiropractor D. D. Palmer 1914   BIOLOGY  
 
    In all the affairs of life we prosecute careful investigation in order to determine exactly what are the facts.  Thinking we are right does not of necessity constitute righteousness.  Thinking right or wrong is a matter of education.  The standard of truthfulness may be quite different from the view we may happen to have.  If, for example, I had gotten the idea that two times three are seven and carry that erroneous multiplication into all of my arithmetical calculations, architectural and financial operations; the fact that such was my honest conception would not undo or make right the erroneousness of my figuring.

    We should think correctly in order that we may get at facts. In chiropractic, too many teachers manufacture their own definition of terms, make a dictionary according to thon’s conception.  What would be the result if each banker and broker should  invent and persist in using his own devised addition and multiplication table.  Herein arises the discordant, inharmonious jangling among chiropractors regarding what constitutes the principles of the science, the method of adjusting, palpation and nerve training, the philosophy of the science and the art.

    Biology presents only facts, the laws of which are of nature, natural, whether exhibited in health or disease.  As chiropractors we should continue to advance toward the truth in order to bring ouselves into closer relation with eternal realities.  A truthful statement of facts is correct, not because of our consideration, supposition or imagination, but because it IS right, because it conforms with everlasting truth.

    All is nature, natural, there is nothing supernatural, phenomena may be superusual and supernormal.  Any observable fact or event may appear miraculous when it is merely marvelous; it is because of our ignorance in regard to nature’s law that they appear so to us.

    Bio -- a combining form from the Greek Bios, life, used to indicate relation to, or connection with, life, vital phenomena, or living organisms.

    Biology is the science of life, the study of living beings.  It consists of a knowledge of principles and facts concerning life--the certainty that we live and the conditions which cause us to have an intelligent existence.  Life may be one of health or one of disease.  Biology treats of organized beings under their diverse relations, their organic structure, life, growth, action and reproduction.  I desire to give you some of the important principles of biology as observed from several view points, confining myself to the physiological branch which treats of the functions of the human body. You may accuse me of repetition.  Fleeting impressions are only veneered.  Essential ideas are worthy of repetition.

    What is life?  It is that quality which distinguishes a living animal or plant from an inorganic body, from one which does not live, whose movements are not determined by an intelligence.  Life consists of actions guided by intelligence.

    Life may consist of too much elastic force, too great or a lack of resisting vigor, such a condition is known as disease.

    Animals and plants have an existence because they live; they exist as living beings on account of their bodies being composed of organs controlled by an intelligence.  An organ is any part of an organism; an organism is an organized being.  An organized being is one which is composed of organs.  An organ is that which has a particular function to perform.  The sensory or sense organs receive impressions from objective realities through the sensory or sense organs, transform them into sensation -- conscious sense perception.  Eyes are organs of sight, ears that of hearing, the olfactory organ has the sense of smell, the nerves of taste are distributed to the palate, epiglottis, larynx and the tongue.  To these may be added the senses of pressure, temperature, pain, hunger and thirst.

    Bioloy in its broadest sense includes embryology, the development of the embryo in animals and plants; zoology, the form, nature and habits of animals; botany deals with plant life; physiology relates to the functions of living bodies, animals or plants; anatomy, the dissection of organized bodies, whether human, brute-animal, or vegetable; cytology, the science of cell life.  In common language it includes the principles and facts of the origin, development, structure, functions and distribution of plants and animals.  Life exists because of the exercise of organs. Physiologists study functions, the action of organs.  Physiology deals with the processes, activities and the phenomena incidental to life, the characteristic actions which constitute life, those qualities which determine a living organism from one which does not live, those actions which depend upon an intelligence.

    Life consists of the actions of a living organism, they may be of health, those desired to make us happy, give us ease, or they may be those known as disease, those which cause sensation and actions not desired.

    The body is incapable of creating new forces.  Force is that which originates or arrests motion.  Vital force is the energy which gives life or action to an organism, the vital power which distinguishes living matter from the dead.  Organic force is the inherent vigor latant in an organ.  Nerve force is the power or ability to conduct impulses.  Reserve force is the energy which is stored in an organ or organism that is not required for normal functionating.  Intelligent actions are the expressions of the sum total of life.  This intelligence is able to accumulate and store energy derived from without.  Certain fixed and definite conditions release this energy.

    The condition of an organ suitable for health is known as tone.  Tone consists of normal tension, normal firmness and normal renitency.  When nerves have the proper tension, the suitable solidity and the required resisting force, health is the result.

    Biology embraces a knowledge of living matter in contradistinction to substances which do not possess that vital force directed by an intelligence, a quality essential to intelligent beings.

    Physiology treats of the functions which create and continue a living existence, one which is normal, congenial and of health.  Pathologic physiology is that condition in which the functions are performed abnormally.

    Pathology treats of the modifications of functions and the changes of tissue coincident therewith which always accompany the disturbance of functions.  Pathology includes functions performed in an unusual manner, also changes in position from that of normal, as well as abnormal structure of organs.

    The philosophy of chiropractic, the reasons concerning the science and art, is an explanation of the phenomena of life in health and disease.

    The principles of biology are those of chiropractic; their associated elements constitute the science of chiropractic; when formulated they express in a clear and definite form the scientific part of chiropractic.  Chiropractic science is identified by the principles of biology; its existence depends upon biological self-evident facts; they are the constituent elementary parts.  To comprehend chiropractic it is essential that we should know of biology, the science of life, the physiological action of organs.
We are, therefore, especially interested in that branch of knowledge which deals with the activities and phemomena incidental to and characteristic of living organisms.  The science of chiropractic, the principles and facts pertaining to life, are distinct from anatomy, that branch of knowledge which deals with the structure only.  In consideration of the above I would give much more time to the study of the science of chiropractic than to that of anatomy.  The medical fraternity have studied tissue structure for centuries and yet did not become acquainted with the practical application of the principles which compose the science of chiropractic.

    The power or faculty of receiving impressions through the five senses is from without, is of the animal functions, not organic.

    While in the new-born organic life is perfect, physical life is not yet manifested.  The faculty of receiving mental impressions through the action of sense organs is one of education.  Actions known as organic are not of education.

    The vital organs perform each of their normal function from the first; the animal functions have to be developed.  The recently born child has eyes to see, but it sees not; ears to hear, but it hears not; hands to grasp, but they do not grip; legs to walk, but they do not take a step.  It has a mouth to suck by which it imbibes nutrition.  The taking of sustenance is imperative for the continuance of life, therefore it may be considered an organis function directed by the creator, the intelligence which directs, controls and builds the body.  The entire organism is devoted to sustaining life.  To discern what is food and what is not, the senses of taste and smell are present birth, even so in the child born a month or two before the proper time.  The child shows satisfaction or disgust with ingesta which is pleaseant or unpleasant to the taste, as shown by its facial expression, which is not acquired or imitative.  As the infant advances in age its face becomes more expressive, its liking for sweet food continues during lactation, also a dislike for that which is sour.
 
    To be a food in a physiological sense the substance must not affect injuriously the nutritive process by which food stuff is transposed into tissue. In the infant sugar is needed to form fat, furnish elasticity to muscles and nerves. In diabetes the sugar is carried out of the system, in consequence of which the patient becomes quite thin and emaciated. Carbohydrate fat is of a more solid consistency than the fat derived from other sources. The physiological assimilation of sugar in the production of fat is a vital organic process and cannot be imitated in the laboratory. The human milk contains a ratio of one of albumen, two of fat and 4.2 of sugar. Acids as ingesta produce rigor, rigidity, shortening of nerves and muscles. Emotional states of the mother modify the quantity and quality of milk, indicating the connection between the mammary glands and the nervous system. Innate, the spirit, selects that which contains sugar instead of acids. To the infant acids create a toxic effect, a pathological condition, contraction of the nervous system. It will be readily seen why the controlling intelligence selects substances which are sweet instead of sour.
 
    The sense of smell is closely allied to that of taste.  The nose often suggests to the mouth whether to accept or reject an article for ingesta.

    Feeling is first experienced and manifested through the lips.  What the adult would feel with the hands, the infant tries with its lips and mouth.  Feeling with the lips is followed by sensing with the hands and feet, stuffing everything reachable into its mouth to feel and taste.  In time sight and hearing are developed.  While sight gives us nine-tenths of perception, it is the last of the five senses to come into activity.

    Creative intellect is rare.  Everyone cannot be an original thinker.  The world’s mental work is mainly done by a few matter-of-fact individuals.  It requires peculiar geniuses of certain mental characters, an aptitude that qualifies a person for special success in a given line, one of distinctive taste, an inclination, a disposition and natural bent of intellect to originate and vizualize the telegraph, the telephone, the phonograph, the moving picture, the aeroplane and chiropractic.  While everyone cannot be an original thinker, anyone can learn to be reliable, observe and husband the knowledge acquired by others, make it useful and profitable.