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Chiropractic History: a Primer

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PracticeMakers_504474 3/21/05 3:35 AM Page 1

Chiropractic History: a Primer

Joseph C. Keating, Jr., Ph.D.
Secretary & Historian, National Institute of Chiropractic Research
Director, Association for the History of Chiropractic

Carl S. Cleveland III, D.C.

President, Cleveland Chiropractic Colleges
Director, Association for the History of Chiropractic

Michael Menke, M.A., D.C.

Faculty Member, National University of Health Sciences
Faculty Member, University of Arizona

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PracticeMakers_504474 3/21/05 3:35 AM Page 2

The NCMIC Insurance Company is proud to make this primer of chiropractic history
possible through a grant to the Association for the History of Chiropractic. NCMIC
recognizes the importance of preserving the rich history of our profession. This primer will
hopefully stimulate your interest in this saga, help you to understand the trials and tribula-
tions our pioneers endured, and give you a sense of pride and identity.

Lee Iacocca, in his book about LIBERTY said:

I know that liberty brings with it some obligations. I know we have it today because others
fought for it, nourished it, protected it, and then passed it on to us. That is a debt we owe. We
owe it to our parents, if they are alive, and to their memory if they are not. But mostly we have an
obligation to our own kids. An obligation to pass on this incredible gift to them. This is how
civilization works... whatever debt you owe to those who came before you, you pay to those who
follow.

That is essentially the same responsibility each of us has to preserve and protect the
extraordinary history of this great profession. We share this primer with you, and hope that
you in turn will do your part for the good of the order. Enjoy.

Louis Sportelli, D.C.

President NCMIC Group, Inc.

(c) 2004, Association for the History of Chiropractic, Davenport, Iowa

Layout by Alana Callender, M.S.

Cover design by Amelia Trollinger
Printed by Sutherland Companies, Montezuma, Iowa

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PracticeMakers_504474 3/21/05 3:35 AM Page 3

Contents

Why Chiropractic History?............................................................................................5

Pre-chiropractic: Nineteenth Century Medicine and Alternative Healing....................6
The Palmers and the Birth of Chiropractic...................................................................8
Early Chiropractic Schools..........................................................................................14
Prosecution and Legislation.........................................................................................18
Evolution of Theory, Technique and Instrumentation.........................................................23
Legitimizing Chiropractic Education...........................................................................30
In Moral Defiance........................................................................................................32
The Research Enterprise (1975 to present)..................................................................35
The Straight/Mixer Controversy...................................................................................38
Integration and the Future of the Profession................................................................44
References....................................................................................................................47

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The authors gratefully acknowledge the

support of the Cleveland Chiropractic
Colleges and the National Institute of
Chiropractic Research.

The mission of the Association for the History of

Chiropractic is to gather, preserve, and disseminate
the creditable history of the chiropractic profession.

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PracticeMakers_504474 3/21/05 3:35 AM Page 5

Chiropractic History: a Primer

WHY CHIROPRACTIC HISTORY?

With all the study demands to learn the basic sciences which weigh upon the new
chiropractic student, you may well wonder where you will find the time to learn the history
of your chosen profession. After all, it’s all behind us now! And yet, if we wish to under-
stand philosophy in chiropractic, it will help to know how the cherished concepts of doctors
of chiropractic (DCs) emerged and blossomed over
time. If we wish to appreciate chiropractic theory
and technique in all its rich diversity and myriad
forms, knowing how techniques developed, the one
from the other and sometimes in oppositional reac-
tion to each other, history can make all the differ-
ence. If you expect to earn a diploma, obtain a
license and succeed in the business of clinical prac-
tice, understanding how these possibilities came
about may make the difference between a rocky
road vs. smooth sailing. Chiropractic did not spring
into existence fully grown, but has been evolving
and unfolding for more than a century. And though
history can offer no blueprint for the future, it can Lyndon McCash, DC, in jail in Oakland, Calif.,
aid us to see options and strategies that might oth- in 1920, one of hundreds of California chiroprac-
tors incarcerated for unlicensed practice prior to
erwise remain obscure. passage of the Chiropractic Act in 1922.
Perhaps more importantly, history shapes
identity. Like the adolescent who seeks to define
her/himself in comparison with the peer group (other teenagers), professions also tend to
define themselves in part by comparison with each other. Now, after more than 100 years of
service to the public, we in chiropractic have reached a more mature stage, and we must
appreciate and define ourselves from a more adult and longitudinal perspective. Our place
in society, both as individuals and as a profession, is significantly shaped by the paths we’ve
taken. We are not merely the “un-medicine,” but also the sum of all the experiences we have
come through.

Patients protest outside the Ohio jail where their doctor, Herbert R. Reaver, D.C., was imprisoned.

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Chiropractic History: a Primer

And so the Association for the History of Chiropractic (AHC) offers this brief intro-
duction to chiropractic history. We hope this primer will tickle your history bone as we
briefly explore the triumphs and tragedies, wonders and warts, passion and determination,
the funny, the sad and the bizarre in the saga of chiropractic. It’s been a heck of a ride, and
now it’s part of your heritage, too. Welcome aboard!
PRE-CHIROPRACTIC: NINETEENTH CENTURY MEDICINE AND ALTERNATIVE HEALING
Chiropractic emerged in the final years of the 19th century, a time of great change
and growing public awareness of the incredible possibilities inherent in science, technology
and social organization. The 1800s saw the dawn of the machine age, and ushered in such
marvels as the steamboat, the railroad, telegraphy, and mass production via the assembly
line. The century was also a time of great upheaval in America, and the Civil War tore the
nation and families apart. Wounds were left, both physical and psychic, that no doctor could
heal. Spiritualism and séances grew in popularity as people yearned to make contact with
their departed loved ones.
Health care in the 19th century was a smorgasbord of competing theories, practi-
tioners, potions and schemes (see Table 1). Except in urban centers, doctors were scarce, and
most health care was provided in the home by family members. Hospitals were even scarcer
than doctors, and were seen as places of doom where the terminally ill went to die. In a
nation dominated by self-reliant farmers who had liberated themselves from the British
crown, populist sentiments ran strong, and physicians were often seen as elitist pretenders
to authority. By mid-century, most of the early statutes regulating the practice of medicine
had been repealed at the insistence of the electorate (Starr 1982). Alarmed at the loss of its
quasi-monopoly, the dominant medical sect organized the American Medical Association in
an effort to re-establish its authority.

Table 1: Several health care options available to Americans in the 19th century
bonesetting herbalism| Native American remedies Physical Culture
Christian Science heroic medicine naturopathy phrenomagnetism
eclectic medicine homeopathy osteopathy Thomsonianism
electro-medicine magnetic healing patent medicines

Heroic medicine was the most prevalent form of

“orthodox” practice in the first half of the 19th century.
Championed by Benjamin Rush, M.D., a signer of the
Declaration of Independence (Starr 1982, p. 83), heroic
practice involved the notion that the harshness of the doc-
tor’s remedies should be in proportion to the severity of the
patient’s disease. This meant that the sickest patients were at
risk of iatrogenesis (illness caused by treatment), since hero-
ic doctors’ black bags were filled with strong emetics and
cathartics comprised of alcohol, mercury and other toxins,
Benjamin Rush, MD as well as the physician’s notorious lancet. George
Washington, it might be noted, died from blood-letting at
the hands of his doctors who sought to remove impurities

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Chiropractic History: a Primer

from his circulation. Although heroic medicine was in decline by 1850 (Starr 1982, p. 56),
its use continued through the rest of the century (Joachims 1982).
Against this backdrop of heroic medicine, the Native American and Thompsonian
traditions of herbal and other botanical remedies grew popular, and were joined in the early
part of the 19th century by the infin-
itesimal doses of homeopathic med-
icine (promoted by Samuel
Hahnemann, M.D., of Germany)
and the magnetic healing methods
of Franz Anton Mesmer, M.D.
Mesmer’s doctoral dissertation at
the University of Vienna in 1776
had introduced “animal magnetism”
as a vital and transferable force in
living things. Although the French
Academy of Sciences, including
prominent member Benjamin Dr. Franz Anton Mesmer, 1734-1815 19th c. caricature of the
Franklin, repudiated Mesmer’s magnetic practitioner
ideas as little more than suggestion
(Armstrong and Armstrong 1991,
pp. 186-8), magnetic methods were imported to the New World in the 1830s where they
grew to be as popular as in Europe. As well, magnetic healing concepts and practices would
influence the founders of several other alternative health care schools, including Mary Baker
Eddy, founder of Christian Science; Andrew Taylor Still, founder of osteopathy (Gevitz
1982); and D.D. Palmer, father of chiropractic (Gielow 1981; Keating 1997a).
Political medicine had much to be humble about, but instead behaved in rather
aggressive and arrogant fashion towards its competitors. Organized medicine wrapped itself
in a cloak of science, and worked to convince governments and a sizable portion of the pop-
ulace that it alone had the knowledge to justify licensure. Although medical statutes were
rarely enforced in the 19th century, they laid the groundwork for allopathic dominance in
years to come. Medical doctors became the nearly exclusive source of advice to lawmakers,
and the sole arbiters of health care within the embryonic government hospitals and health

Table 2: Reintroduction of medical statutes in America, 1873-1899

(Wilder 1901, pp. 775-835)(courtesy of Robert B. Jackson, D.C., N.D.)

1873: Arizona Territorial Act Tennessee South Carolina, Utah,

1874: Missouri 1890: Florida, Washington Virginia
1875: Nevada 1891: Alabama, Nebraska, North 1895: Arkansas, Delaware,
1875-6: California Dakota Indiana, Maine, Minnesota,
1876: Vermont 1892: Maryland, Mississippi Montana, Oregon, Rhode
1878: Cherokee and Choctow 1893: Connecticut, Kentucky, Island, New York amended
Nations in Indian Territory New York, Pennsylvania, 1896: District of Columbia, Ohio
1879: Kansas, Texas South Dakota 1897: New Hampshire,
1881: Colorado 1894: Georgia, Louisiana, Wisconsin
1886: Iowa Massachusetts, Maryland 1899: Illinois, Michigan
1889: Idaho, North Carolina, amended, New Jersey, n.d. Wyoming

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Chiropractic History: a Primer

services (e.g., Mullan 1989). These early political advances shaped health care in American
ever after (e.g., Wilk 1996; Wolinsky & Brune 1994).
THE PALMERS AND THE BIRTH OF CHIROPRACTIC
In 1886, when Daniel David (“D.D.”) Palmer first hung his shingle as a magnetic
practitioner in Burlington, Iowa (Gielow 1981, pp. 43, 105), the licensing of doctors was
still a novelty in the Hawkeye State. Encouraged by the belief that he had a personal excess
of vital magnetic energy, he offered his services to the many patients who were wary of
orthodox medicine. As was the custom of the day, Palmer adopted the title “Doctor,” and
conducted his clinic with little concern about interference from his allopathic competitors.
Had he practiced quietly in Burlington and later in Davenport, Iowa (where he relocated in
1887), his destiny might have been much different. But Dr. Palmer was a man of strong con-
victions and irrepressibly sharp tongue, and he broadcast his views on the horrors and abom-
inations of mainstream medicine by means of a newspaper-sized advertiser (successively
known as The Educator, The Magnetic Cure, and The Chiropractic) which reached thou-
sands in Davenport and surrounding communities. D.D. Palmer was a lightning rod for con-
troversy.
D.D. was born on 7 March 1845 in rural
Ontario, just west of Toronto (Palmer 1910, pp. 17-
8). His parents and siblings relocated to the
Mississippi River valley in the waning days of the
Civil War. Here the young man occupied himself as
a farmer, grocer, bee keeper, and school teacher
before taking up the healing art (Gielow 1981;
Palmer 1908, p. 14). His formal education did not
extend past the sixth grade, but he was an avid
reader in a variety of subjects, including spiritual-
ism, vitalism and the mechanical and biological
sciences of his day. Surviving records from his
businesses and career as schoolmaster reveal a very
well organized mind; Palmer attended to detail and
sought to understand the complexities of his world.
These qualities extended into his work as a “mag- This photo from the 1880s or early
netic,” and his curiosity led him to search for expla- 1890s shows, seated (l-r): D.D. Palmer
nations for the beneficial effects his patients report- and his father Thomas. Standing are
younger brothers Thomas J. and Bart.
ed.
After nine years of clinical experience and
theorizing, D.D. had decided that inflammation was the essential characteristic of all dis-
ease. With his sensitive fingers, Palmer sought to locate inflammation in his patients. His
magnetic treatment involved pouring his personal, excess vital magnetic energy into the site
of inflammation so as to cool it off. By not later than 1895, D.D. had decided that the cause
of inflammations, and hence of all or most “dis-ease,” were displacements of anatomic
structures. In the 1896 issue of his advertiser, The Magnetic, a homeopathic physician
offered a testimonial concerning Palmer’s work which spoke to the anatomical specificity of
D.D.’s orientation:

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Chiropractic History: a Primer

He heals the sick, the halt, the lame, and those paralyzed, through the medi-
um of his potent magnetic fingers placed upon the organ or organs diseased
and not by rubbing or stroking, as other ‘magnetic curers’ do… Dr. Palmer
seeks out the cause, the diseased organ upon which the disease depends, and
treats that organ. Magnetics generally treat all cases alike, by general stroking,
passes or rubbing. I think Dr. Palmer’s plan is much more rational, and should
be the most successful” (Livezey, cited in Palmer 1896).

The same issue of The Magnetic included Palmer’s thoughts about treatment of the internal
organs:

I strengthen the weakened parts by magnetic treatment. It is a specific for

their relaxed and debilitated condition. It imparts to the female a life giving
force, a healthy tone, a healthy stimulus, which is much better than using the
knife or supporters. This treatment quickly relieves any inflammation of the
ovaries (Palmer 1896).

By late 1895 or early 1896, Palmer’s theorizing had progressed even further. Based
on the premise that inflammation occurred when displaced anatomic structures rubbed
against one another, causing friction and heat, he sought to manually reposition the parts of
the body so as to prevent friction and the development of inflamed tissue. The first recipi-
ent of this new strategy was a janitor in the building where Palmer operated his 40-room
facility. Patient Harvey Lillard reported in the January 1897 issue of The Chiropractic that:

I was deaf 17 years and I expected to

always remain so, for I had doctored a
great deal without any benefit. I had
long ago made up my mind to not
take any more ear treatments,
for it did me no good.
Last January Dr.
Palmer told me that my deaf-
ness came from an injury in
my spine. This was new to
me; but it is a fact that my
back was injured at the time I
went deaf. Dr. Palmer treated me
on the spine; in two treatments I
could hear quite well. That was eight
months ago. My hearing remains good.
Harvey Lillard, 320 W.
Mr. Harvey Reverend Samuel Weed
Lillard, c. 1906 Eleventh St., Davenport, Iowa
(Palmer 1897)

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Chiropractic History: a Primer

Delighted with this first informal experiment,

Palmer extended his new work as a “magnetic manipulator”
(Palmer 1897) to patients with a variety of other health
problems, with reportedly good results. In the summer of
1896 he sought and obtained a charter for the Palmer School
of Magnetic Cure, wherein he would teach his new method
(Wiese 1896). With the assistance of his friend and patient,
Reverend Samuel Weed, D.D. adopted Greek terms to form
the word “chiropractic,” meaning done by hand. His school
became known informally as Palmer’s School of
Chiropractic (PSC), and he trained a few students, several B.J. Palmer, Christmas 1900
of whom were allopathic and osteopathic doctors.
In the spring of 1902, perhaps in response to threat
of prosecution, Old Dad Chiro departed Davenport and set-
tled in Pasadena, California. Left to manage the Palmer
School and to cope with a sizable debt (approximately
$8,000) was young Dr. B.J. Palmer, newly graduated from
his father’s institution. Only 20 years of age, the young man
proved remarkably resourceful in assuming his father’s role.
He secured financing from the local banks, grew a beard to
appear older, and established his own clientele of patients
and students. While his father taught and practiced as an
itinerant healer along the California coastline, B.J. restored
the Palmer School and infirmary to financial health.
D.D. returned to Davenport late in 1904, and the two
Palmers operated the school together. However, theirs had
always been a stormy relationship, and circumstances Advertisement for the Palmer
would strain their patience to its limits. Among the chal- School, c. 1904
lenges they confronted was competition from former gradu-
ates, most notably the American School of Chiropractic and
Nature Cure in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, which was owned by
1901 Palmer graduate Solon M. Langworthy. In addition to
the competition for students, the father of chiropractic was
incensed by Dr. Langworthy’s introduction of naturopathic
remedies (e.g., stretching machines, herbal remedies) in the
curriculum; it was the beginning of the feud within the pro-
fession between “straights” and “mixers.” When
Langworthy and associates succeeded in having a chiro-
practic licensing bill passed by both houses of the
Minnesota legislature in 1905, the Palmers (with a bit of
help from the medical community) persuaded the governor
Drs. Alva Gregory and D.D.
to veto the legislation (Gibbons 1993). Palmer in Oklahoma City, c. 1907
The pages of the Palmers’ house organ, The

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Chiropractic History: a Primer

Chiropractor, filled with anti-mixing rhetoric. And D.D.’s continuing diatribe against
allopathy and his use of testimonial advertising prompted his arrest for practicing medicine
without a license late in 1905. Tried, convicted and sentenced in 1906 to 105 days in Scott
County jail or a fine of $350, Old Chiro went to jail for principle, insisting that he was not
practicing medicine when he practiced chiropractic. B.J. featured his father as a “Martyr to
His Science” in the pages of The Chiropractor, but when the elder Palmer finally paid the
fine and was released after several weeks behind bars, the friction between father and son
reached a pinnacle. They negotiated a settlement of their shared property, and the elder head-
ed for Medford, Oklahoma, where his brother Thomas was in business. For a while, the
father of chiropractic once again operated a grocery store, but by 1907 had established yet
another school, this time in partnership with Alva Gregory, M.D., D.C. The school survived
for several years, but D.D. Palmer again found it difficult to share leadership, and left the
Palmer-Gregory College of Chiropractic for greener pastures. In November 1908, he estab-
lished the D.D. Palmer College of Chiropractic in Portland, Oregon. It was here that he
authored his classic, thousand-page volume, The Chiropractor’s Adjuster: the Science, Art
and Philosophy of Chiropractic (Palmer 1910). It was apparently in Portland as well that his
third and final theory of chiropractic (Palmer 1914) emerged.
B.J. Palmer, meanwhile, continued the growth of the PSC, expanding enrollments
and developing extensive marketing programs for the school and its graduates. He was a
curious soul; B.J. engaged in
some of the earliest research in the
profession and greatly expanded
the osteological collection his
father had established. He hired a
succession of MDs for his faculty,
who provided a degree of legal
protection from prosecution (Iowa
did not pass a chiropractic law
until 1921). In 1908 the PSC com-
menced publication of a series of
volumes on the chiropractic art
that would be known as the “green
books,” and in 1910 B.J. intro- B.J. (center) and the Palmer osteological collection, c. 1915
duced x-ray technology to the pro-
fession.
Old Dad Chiro died of typhoid fever in Los Angeles in 1913. Father and son had vied
with one another for recognition as the “developer of chiropractic” for several years, and
there was unresolved bitterness. Several of the elder’s followers campaigned to have B.J.
prosecuted for injuring his father during a chiropractic parade down Davenport’s Brady
Street hill (home of the PSC) earlier that year, but three grand juries refused to indict him
(Gibbons 1994; Keating 1997a). Nevertheless, B.J. would be haunted by unjustified claims
of patricide for the rest of his life. It was a bitter pill, and perhaps one that explains some of
his ferocity in challenging his political opponents within the profession in later years.
From 1913, when his father passed away, until his 1924 introduction of the neu-

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Chiropractic History: a Primer

rocalometer (NCM), B.J. Palmer was
the clear majority leader of the chiro-
practic profession (Keating 1997a).
Much of this time was spent in build-
ing the legal apparatus to defend the
many thousands of chiropractors who
were arrested for practicing medicine
without a license. The PSC expanded
phenomenally, its student body sup-
ported by veterans benefits following
World War I (Keating1994), and
reached a record 3,000 students in the
Broadcasting towers above the PSC campus in the 1920s early 1920s. B.J. Palmer became a
wealthy man, his fortune eventually
expanded by his investment in the burgeoning field of radio (Keating 1995a). Radio station
WOC in Davenport, and later sister station WHO in Des Moines, became the western relay
for the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), and brought Palmer and his message of chi-
ropractic healing to millions in the “unseen audience.” B.J., the former vaudeville show-
man, became a genuine national celebrity as the broadcast media grew in popularity
throughout the 1920s and 1930s.

Dr. Dossa D. Evins Dr. B.J. Palmer, c. 1920

Early model of the neurocalometer

A significant turning point in B.J.’s career and in the course of the profession came
in 1924 with the official inauguration of Palmer’s “BACK-TO-CHIROPRACTIC” program
at the PSC’s lyceum (homecoming) (Palmer 1924b). The NCM, a two-pronged spinal-heat
sensing instrument, was heralded as the only scientifically valid method of detecting spinal
subluxations, and henceforth, the “Developer” announced, practice without the device
would be considered unethical (Keating 1991 1997). Invented by engineer-chiropractor

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Chiropractic History: a Primer

Dossa Evins, the instru-

ment was presumably
reliable as a thermometer,
but B.J.’s claims for its
validity as a subluxation-
detection methods were
difficult for many in the
profession to accept. “[It
was] the most valuable
invention of the age
because it picks, proves
and locates the cause of
all dis-eases of the human
race,” he insisted (Palmer
1924a). What was more,
the NCM was not avail-
able for purchase, but
could only be acquired
through a ten-year lease
costing more than $2,000,
an exorbitant sum. As
well, B.J. filled the pages
of his Fountain Head
News (weekly newspaper)
with threats to prosecute
anyone who infringed
upon his patents on the
Poster prepared by the International Chiropractors Association in 1947. device.
Palmer’s authority in
the profession had already begun to wane, owing to his campaigns to purge “mixers” from
state chiropractic societies (Keating 1996a), but now many of his previously loyal, straight
chiropractic followers also fell away (Quigley 1995). The American Chiropractic
Association (ACA), organized in 1922 in opposition to Palmer’s Universal Chiropractors’
Association (UCA), swelled in membership as Palmer loyalists joined its ranks. Undaunted,
Palmer persuaded the UCA to require an NCM lease as a condition of membership in the
society (Quigley 1995). However, in 1925, B.J. resigned as secretary of the UCA, and failed
in his re-election bid. Shortly thereafter, the Chiropractic Health Bureau (forerunner of
today’s International Chiropractors Association/ICA) was established by Palmer and those
who remained faithful to his brand of chiropractic. B.J. served as president of the ICA until
his death in 1961, but never again would he enjoy the support of a majority of the profes-
sion.
In the final three decades of his career, B.J. Palmer continued the theoretical and
technique innovations that had marked his earlier career. In the mid-1930s he committed his
school to strict adherence to a restricted form of intervention limited to the upper cervical

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Chiropractic History: a Primer

(atlas and axis) spinal adjusting only. This “Hole-in-One” (HIO) technique became firmly
rooted within the Palmer camp; generations of PSC students would have to seek additional,
off-campus training in adjusting in order to pass the practical examinations offered by some
of the state boards of chiropractic examiners. And well into the 1950s, the PSC would per-
sist in limiting its curriculum to the 18-month course established in the 1920s; the PSC resis-
ted many of the expansions and improvements in chiropractic education offered at other chi-
ropractic colleges.
EARLY CHIROPRACTIC SCHOOLS

Dr. John F.A. Howard Dr. T.F. Ratledge Dr. Charles Cale founded Attorney-chiropractor
founded the National founded the Ratledge the Los Angeles College of Willard Carver founded
School of Chiropractic in System of Chiroprac- Chiropractic in 1911. his first school in
1906. tic Schools, Los Oklahoma City in 1906.
Angeles, in 1911.

Early chiropractic education resemble the

the training
training offered
offered to allopathic
to allopathic students
students in theinnine-
the
nineteenth
teenth century:
century: a few amonths
few months of classroom
of classroom instruc-
instruction
tion in thesciences,
in the basic basic sciences, and abitlittle
and a little bit of
of super-
supervised
vised clinical
clinical practicum.
practicum. Also Also like most
like most of theirof
their allopathic
allopathic forerunners,
forerunners, early chiropractic
early chiropractic schools
schools
were were almost
almost all proprietary,
all proprietary, that is,that is, operat-
operated for
ed forbyprofit
profit their by their There
owners. owners.was There
strong was strong
incentive
incentive
to emphasizeto emphasize
quantity quantity (of students)
(of students) over
over quality
quality
(of (of instruction).
instruction). High school Highgraduation
school graduation
was not
was notrequired,
usually usually required, and laboratory
and laboratory facilities
facilities were few
were few and far between. Some justification
and far between. Some justification for this mea- for
this meager preparation can be found
ger preparation can be found in the need to turn in the need
to turn
out out a volume
a volume of doctors
of doctors in orderintoorder to estab-
establish the
lish the profession.
profession. However, However, the largest
the largest of chiro-
of chiropractic
practic institutions,
institutions, the PSC,the setPSC, set an example
an example by insisting by
insisting
for decadesfor decades
that no that
morenothanmore18than 18 months
months were
were needed
needed to train
to train a competentchiropractor.
a competent chiropractor. B.J.
Palmer, president of the PSC, paradoxically Advertisement for American University (Rehm
1992)
claimed that education “constipates the mind.” He
would rather train plumbers in chiropractic rather

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Chiropractic History: a Primer

Table 3: Several early schools of chiropractic, 1896-1922

Founding
Date Institutional Name Location Founder

1896 Palmer School of Magnetic Cure Davenport, Iowa DD Palmer

1903 American School of Chiropractic & Nature Cedar Rapids, Iowa Solon Massey Langworthy, DC
Cure
1904 Marsh School of Chiropractic Portland, Oregon John E. Marsh, DC
1904 Pacific School of Chiro-Practic Oakland, California Harry D. Reynard, DC
1905 American School of Chiropractic New York City Benedict Lust, MD, ND, DC
1905 Parker School of Chiropractic Ottumwa, Iowa Charles Ray Parker, DC
1906 Carver-Denny School of Chiropractic Oklahoma City Willard Carver, LLB, DC &
Lee L. Denny, DC
1906 National School of Chiropractic Davenport, Iowa John FA Howard, DC
1907 Palmer-Gregory College of Chiropractic Oklahoma City DD Palmer & Alva Gregory,
MD, DC
1908 D.D. Palmer College of Chiropractic Portland, Oregon DD Palmer & LM Gordon DC
1908 Texas Chiropractic College San Antonio, Texas JN Stone, MD, DC
1908 Michigan College of Chiropractic Grand Rapids, Michigan NC Ross, DC
1908 Ratledge System of Chiropractic Schools Guthrie, Oklahoma TF Ratledge, DC
1908 Minnesota Chiropractic College Minneapolis, Minnesota Robert Ramsay, DC
1909 Wichita College of Kiropractic Wichita, Kansas JG Wilson, DC
1909 Robbins Chiropractic Institute Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario WJ Robbins, MD
1909 Pacific College of Chiropractic Portland, Oregon William O Powell, DC
1910 Universal Chiropractic College Davenport, Iowa Joy M Loban DC
1910 New Jersey College of Chiropractic and Newark, New Jersey Frederick W Collins, DO, DC
Naturopathy
1910 San Diego School of Chiropractic San Diego, California FBC Eilersficken, DC
1911 Ratledge System of Chiropractic Schools Los Angeles, California TF Ratledge, DC
1911 Los Angeles College of Chiropractic Los Angeles, California Charles A Cale, DC
1911 Oregon Peerless College of Chiropractic and Portland, Oregon John E LaValley, DC
Neuropathy
1911 Bullis and Davis School of Neuropathy, Los Angeles, California Benson Bullis, DC & Andrew P
Ophthalmology and Chiropractic Davis, MD, DO, DC
1913 California Chiropractic College Los Angeles, California Albert W Richardson, DC
1914 Canadian Chiropractic College Hamilton, Ontario Ernst DuVal, DC
1918 Eastern College of Chiropractic Newark, New Jersey Craig M Kightlinger, MA, DC
1919 Columbia Institute of Chiropractic New York City Frank E Dean, MB, DC
1920 Missouri Chiropractic College St. Louis, Missouri Henry C Harring, DC, Robert
Colyer, DC & Oscar Schulte DC
1922 Cleveland (Central) Chiropractic College Kansas City, Missouri Carl S Cleveland, Sr., DC, Ruth R
Cleveland, DC & Perle B
Griffin, DC

Dr. Ernst Duval Dr. Craig Kightlinger

Adjusting class at Cleveland Kansas City, c. 1925

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Chiropractic History: a Primer

than university graduates, for the latter reputedly had no room for the simple truths Palmer
wished to impart.
Chiropractic schools proliferated in the first few decades of the profession (see Table
3). Spurred by federal funding for vocational training of veterans following World War I, the
number of chiropractic schools spurted to
more than 80 in the first half of the 1920s
(Ferguson & Wiese 1988), and the PSC
boasted an enrollment of more than 3,000
students. However, when veterans’ benefits
expired, most of these schools evaporated,
and the surviving institutions imploded. By
decade’s end, the PSC student body
declined by as much as 90% (Schools
1928). Unfortunately, among the survivors
Dr. Albert W. Richard-son Dr. N.C. Ross founded
founded the California were several correspondence schools, which
the Michigan College of
Chiropractic College in Chiropractic in 1908 purported to prepare doctors through mail-
1913 order instruction (Rehm 1992). Among the
most notorious of these was the American
University in Chicago (American 1919),
which may have continued in operation
until the mid-1930s. These sham schools,
and a few of the more serious educational
enterprises which also briefly offered par-
tial correspondence training, left a black
mark upon the profession that lingered for
decades.
Concern for the need to upgrade and
standardize chiropractic training was in
Dr. B.J. Palmer demonstrates to a large group at the PSC in
the early 1920s.
evidence in the 1920s, and brought efforts
by national organizations to try to imple-
ment such changes. The National College
in Chicago and the Metropolitan College
of Chiropractic in Cleveland, Ohio, took
the initiative in introducing curricula
which exceeded the 18-month limit insist-
ed upon by B.J. Palmer. As well, innova-
tions in chiropractic education included
enhanced diagnostic training and a few
examples of hospital-based instruction; for
a few years, students at the National
College were granted observation privi-
Dissection class at the National College of Chiropractic,
leges at Cook County Hospital. These
1920s privileges were lost when students inter-
rupted surgeries with cries of “Have you

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Chiropractic History: a Primer

tried chiropractic?” In lieu of the hospital, National established its

Chicago General Health Service, which still functions on an out-
patient basis today.

C.O. Watkins, DC,

established the first
NCA Committee on
Education in 1935; he
later made repeated
calls for research by
chiropractors

Several chiropractic college leaders, c. 1939; standing (l-r): Drs. Carl S.

Cleveland, Sr.; B.J. Palmer; Homer G. Beatty. Seated: Drs. George
O’Neil; Hugh B. Logan; T.F. Ratledge; Henry C. Harring; James R. Drain

By the mid-1930s an educational reform campaign, launched

by the National Chiropractic Association (NCA, predecessor of
today’s ACA), had begun in earnest. This initiative stimulated great
feuds within the profession. The NCA camp pressed for non-profit
schools and a four-year curriculum with significant improvements in
diagnostic and basic science instruction. Followers of B.J. Palmer,
organized as the International Chiropractors Association (ICA), Dr. John J. Nugent was
viewed the NCA’s reforms as an effort to “medicalize” the profession, appointed NCA Director
of Education in 1941,
and predicted dire consequences, including a significant decline in and organized the NCA
enrollments and capitulation to organized medicine. Council on Education in
1947

The NCA was not deterred by

this dissent, and in 1947 the society’s
director of education, 1922 Palmer
graduate John J. Nugent, established
the NCA Council on Education, fore-
runner of today’s Council on
Chiropractic Education-USA (CCE-
USA). Many in the profession were
The Logan Lancers, c. 1956, were typical of chiropractic col- outraged by Nugent’s efforts to com-
leges’ participation in sports. bine small, proprietary schools into

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Chiropractic History: a Primer

larger, non-profit colleges of chiropractic. B.J. Palmer referred to Nugent as the “anti-Christ
of chiropractic” (Gibbons 1985). However, with student enrollments swelling due to the G.I.
Bill following World War II, Nugent was largely successful in his consolidation efforts,
especially in New York and California (Keating 1996b; Keating and Phillips 2001). His
efforts continued until his retirement in 1959; a new generation of chiropractic educators
would carry on the quest for higher educational standards and federally recognized accred-
itation.
PROSECUTION AND LEGISLATION
The earliest known prosecution of a chiropractor for unlicensed practice dates to
1905 in Wisconsin, although earlier incidents may have occurred. D.D. Palmer was tried and
convicted of practicing medicine without a license in Davenport in 1906; he served 23 days
in Scott County jail. The legal basis for his conviction was an advertisement in his school
magazine in which he claimed to cure various diseases. This trickle of early cases would
become a torrent, and by 1931 it was estimated the DCs had collectively undergone 15,000
prosecutions (Turner 1931), although there were probably no more than 12,000 chiroprac-
tors in practice in that era.
B.J. and several other Palmer grads organized the
Universal Chiropractors’ Association (UCA) in 1906 to provide
legal services to chiropractors when arrested. Their first test
case came the following year in La Crosse, Wisconsin, when
Palmer alumnus Shegataro Morikubo was arrested for practic-
ing medicine, surgery and osteopathy (Rehm 1986). Palmer
hired former district attorney and state senator Tom Morris to
defend the doctor, and Morris persuaded district attorney Otto
Bosshard to drop the charges of unlicensed practice of medi-
cine and surgery on the grounds that Morikubo had only used
his hands in treating his patients. The trial proceeded on the
charge of practicing osteopathy without a license.
Dr. Shegataro Morikubo
To make the point that chiropractic and osteopathy
were “separate and distinct” health care
approaches, Morris called to the stand
several chiropractor-osteopaths, who
testified that the theory and practice of
the two schools were different.
Osteopathy, it was argued, was based on
the “rule of the artery,” and DOs were
not interested in the nervous system.
Chiropractic, they asserted, was based
on the “supremacy of the nervous sys-
tem,” and DCs were not interested in the
influence of the circulation upon health
Otto Bosshard, district attor- Senator Tom Morris and illness. Morris also entered into evi-
ney for LaCrosse, Wisconsin,
1907 dence the first text on chiropractic, writ-
ten by Smith, Paxson and Langworthy of

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Chiropractic History: a Primer

Dr. Herb Reaver, Sr., was Dr. Courtney adjusting in the Los Angeles Dr. Eckols and Irish in the
arrested repeatedly in Ohio County jail, 1922 San Diego County jail, 1921
for “practicing medicine
without a license.”

the American School of Chiropractic.

The book suggested that chiropractors’ philosophy and practice were “separate and
distinct” from any other profession. On this basis, the jury required only 23 minutes to
acquit Dr. Morikubo. “Philosophy” became a very significant term for chiropractors, and
soon thereafter the Palmer School began to award the “Philosopher of Chiropractic” (Ph.C.)
degree. Morris was named chief legal counsel for the UCA, a post he held until his death in
1928.

North Dakota’s first Board of Chiropractors, 1915. Standing l-r: George Anna M. Foy, DC, received
Newsalt, DC, of Fargo, Guy G. Wood, DC, of Minot and S.A. Danford, DC license #1 in Kansas and served
of Bismarck; seated l-r: A.O. Henderson, DC, of Mandan and S.A. Reed, for many years on the state’s
DC, of Valley City Board of Chirorpactic Examiners

Morris and his law partners were very busy in the next few years. Prosecutions of
chiropractors grew increasingly common, often instigated by state medical boards that were
determined to crush all challengers to their authority. Although Morris and his team won an
estimated 75% of the cases they handled (especially when the verdict was rendered by a jury
rather than by a magistrate), it was a harrowing ordeal for the chiropractors. Police officers

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Chiropractic History: a Primer

Table 4: Early chiropractic acts in the United States, based on Wardwell (1992, 110-111)

Dates of Enactment and Jurisdictions

1913 Kansas 1921 New Hampshire 1929 District of Columbia

1913 North Dakota 1921 Oklahoma 1929 Maryland
1915 Arkansas 1921 South Dakota 1929 Wyoming
1915 Ohio 1921 New Mexico 1932 South Carolina
1915 Oregon 1922 California 1933 Colorado
1916 Nebraska* 1923 Illinois 1933 Michigan*
1917 Connecticut 1923 Nevada 1937 Delaware
1917 North Carolina 1923 Rhode Island 1939 Alaska
1918 Montana 1923 Tennessee 1944 Virginia
1919 Florida 1923 Utah 1949 Texas*
1919 Idaho 1924 Maine 1951 Pennsylvania
1919 Minnesota 1925 Hawaii 1953 New Jersey*
1919 Vermont 1925 West Virginia 1959 Alabama
1919 Washington 1925 Wisconsin* 1963 New York
]1921 Arizona 1927 Indiana* 1966 Massachusetts
1921 Georgia 1927 Missouri 1973 Mississippi
1921 Iowa 1928 Kentucky 1974 Louisiana

*Addenda to Wardwell's list:

ILLINOIS: chiropractors were licensed in Illinois as "other practitioners" as early as 1905; a chiropractic statute may have
been passed in 1917 (American, 1927), the medical practice act was declared unconstitutional on grounds that the provi-
sions for licensing chiropractors were "unreasonable and discriminatory" (Graduate, 1921).
INDIANA: the 1927 amendment to the medical statute "grandfathered" a number of chiropractors (McIlroy, 1928), but
prevented licensure of additional chiropractors for decades (James Firth, D.C., quoted in Wardwell, 1992, p. 114).
MICHIGAN: Some form of chiropractic legislation may have been enacted in 1913 (American, 1927).
NEBRASKA: the first chiropractic statute and BCE were created in 1915 (New, 1915; Palmer, 1922, p. 7).
NEW JERSEY: a chiropractic statute providing for a Board of Chiropractic Examiners (BCE) was enacted in 1920, but
the law was repealed and the BCE abolished the following year (Dye, 1939, pp. 95-6; Reynolds, 1921; Vernon, 2003).
TEXAS: an earlier chiropractic statute, signed by Governor Coke Stevenson in 1943 (Advertisement, 1943; Watkins,
unpublished, p. 37), was ruled unconstitutional.
WISCONSIN: a 1915 Wisconsin law did not license chiropractors, but permitted them to practice if the DC hung a sign
indicating the absence of licensure (American, 1927). This was known in chiropractic circles as the "Wisconsin Idea."

were repeatedly sent in plainclothes to pose as patients and gather evidence for political
medicine. Patients rarely agreed to testify against chiropractors, and often had to be sub-
poenaed to testify in court as hostile witnesses for the prosecution. In some jurisdictions,
massive sweeps were made to round up chiropractors for trial, and DCs learned to dread the
unknown knock at the door.
These mounting pressures prompted strenuous, grass roots, political campaigns by
DCs to secure “separate and distinct” licensing laws and boards of chiropractic examiners
as a means of staying out of jail. Ironically, they often found that going to jail, instead of
paying a fine when convicted of unlicensed practice, was an excellent strategy for securing
chiropractic statutes. Doctors who chose jail instead of paying fines created a martyr image
for public consumption, and deprived state medical boards of money that could be used to
harass additional chiropractors. Palmer and attorney Morris initially opposed the introduc-
tion of separate licensing for chiropractors (Keating 1997a), but eventually acquiesced to the
overwhelming sentiment in the profession. The first state to pass a chiropractic statute was
Kansas, but the governor refused to appoint a board of chiropractic examiners, on the

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Chiropractic History: a Primer

Louisiana was the final American state to

pass a chiropractic statute; the signing cer-
emony in 1974 is pictured here.
Chiropractic Association of Louisiana
President John Flynn, DC, is second from
left; Harwell Morris, DC, is third from left;
Governor Edwin Edwards is at the micro-
phone; and Jimmy Parker, DC, is at far
right. Two chiropractors, E.J. Nosser and
B.D. Mooring, served time in jail even
after the law was passed when they violat-
ed a judge’s injunction not to practice fol-
lowing their arrest for practicing medicine
without a license.

grounds that all the DCs in the state had practiced illegally prior to the law’s passage, and
were therefore ineligible to serve. North Dakota awarded the first chiropractic licenses in
1915, and several other states soon followed suit (see Table 4). However, six more decades
were required to secure chiropractic statutes in all 50 states.
By 1924 more than two dozen jurisdictions had authorized the practice of chiro-
practic by statute. Alarmed at this encroachment on what had been a near monopoly, polit-
ical medicine devised new strategies to contain the
chiropractic profession in those states where they
had failed to block licensure. Basic science statutes
were first introduced in Connecticut and Wisconsin
in 1925, and eventually spread to 24 American
jurisdictions (Gevitz 1988). Basic science laws cre-
ated independent basic science boards of examin-
ers who were charged with testing applicants for
licensure in several disciplines (chiropractic, med-
icine, naturopathy, osteopathy) in such subjects as
anatomy, bacteriology, physiology, and public
health. These basic science examinations must be
passed before the applicant could sit for testing by
her/his respective licensing board.
Chiropractors cried foul, noting that the
explicit purpose of basic science boards was to
This 1936 cartoon from the NCA’s journal shows prevent non-MDs from securing licenses. As well,
chiropractic being held up by organized allopathic they argued, the tests administered by boards were
medicine with the aid of politics. The payoff is the
right to practice. often biased in favor of medical practitioners. The
boards were often comprised of medical school
faculty members, and though the basic science examiners were not supposed to know the
professional identities of those they tested, this confidential information was often available
to them, thereby introducing bias in the scoring of the tests. The basic science statutes had

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Chiropractic History: a Primer

their intended effect; in Nebraska, for example, no new chi-
ropractic licenses were issued during 1929-1950 because no
chiropractor succeeded in passing the state’s basic science
tests (Metz 1965).
Basic science statutes had other effects on the profes-
sion. Although detested by most DCs at first, they later came
to be seen by chiropractic reformers as a source of motiva-
tion for needed improvements in the training of chiroprac-
tors. As well, the introduction of basic science laws in 1925
probably stimulated the formation of the International
Congress of Chiropractic Examining Boards (ICCEB) the
following year. [The ICCEB was reorganized in 1934 as the
Council of State Chiropractic Examining Boards (COSCEB),
Emblem of the Federation of
which was renamed the Federation of Chiropractic
Chiropractic Licensing Boards Licensing Boards (FCLB) in 1972.] This council encour-
aged improvements in chiropractic education and federal
recognition for the chiropractic colleges, assisted in securing legislation in additional states,
and served as a relatively neutral forum for discussion of the profession’s problems over the
years. The National Board of Chiropractic Examiners (NBCE) was established by the FCLB
in 1962-63 as a means of eliminating basic science examinations for chiropractors.
Basic science laws were eventually repealed, largely at the insistence of the medical
profession, who found that its graduates were experiencing difficulty in passing the tests,
and because the basic science boards limited licensing reciprocity among states for MDs as
well as other practitioners (Gevitz 1988). The last states to strike these laws were Texas,
Utah and Washington in 1979. By this time, many states had accepted the test results of the
NBCE in lieu of basic science exams for chiropractors.
Owing partly to the conflicting viewpoints among chiropractors about scope of prac-
tice, as well as to the influence of political medicine, licensing laws vary from state to state,
sometimes rather greatly. Chiropractors in Washington, for example, have a fairly “straight”
statute which primarily permits subluxation-detection and correction by adjustment. Just
south in Oregon, on the other hand, the legal
scope of practice is broader, even permitting
minor surgery and obstetrics. These variations
in legal authority (Gatterman and Vear 1992;
Lamm and Pfannenschmidt 1999) can be a
source of confusion not only to patients, but
to chiropractors themselves. However, the
challenge of changing dozens of states’ laws
in order to simplify and standardize chiro-
practic licensing is a daunting task, and any
Gordon L. Holman, DC, Edward M. Saunders, effort to change statutes opens up the possi-
member of the COSCEB DC, member of the bility of tampering by political medicine.
and co-founder of the COSCEB and co-
founder of the NBCE
Chiropractors are likely to live with this legal
NBCE

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Chiropractic History: a Primer

diversity for some time to come.

EVOLUTION OF THEORY, TECHNIQUE AND INSTRUMENTATION

D.D. Palmer’s chiropractic theory and practice evolved from his work as a magnet-
ic healer. During his 17-year chiropractic career, his ideas about the nature of disease and
the mechanisms of his healing art underwent
metamorphosis (see Table 5). However, his
central concern was always the inflamma-
tion he detected in his patients, and which he
believed disrupted the healthy tone of cells
and tissues in the body. Palmer’s first theory
suggested that inflammation was a conse-
quence of displaced anatomy: arteries,
veins, nerves, muscles, bones, ligaments,
joints or any anatomic structure which was
out of its normal position. Palmer, who ini-
tially designated himself a “magnetic
D.D. Palmer adjusting Shegetaro Morikubo, 1906
manipulator,” used his hands to reposition
these parts, or as he would say, he manipu-
lated in order to adjust them to their proper position.
In 1903, while teaching and practicing in Santa Barbara, California, Palmer reduced
the focus of his theory from any displaced anatomical part to exclusively the joints of the
body, especially those of the backbone. He came to believe that when these joints became
misaligned (subluxated), they could pinch the nerve roots of the spine as the nerves exited
through the vertebral foramina (Keating 1995b). Slight pressure on nerves, it was hypothe-
sized, caused excessive neural impulse to reach end-organs, causing them to become

Table 5: D.D. Palmer’s concepts during three periods of publications (from Keating 1993)

The Chiropractor Adjusterc;

The Chiropractica The Chiropractorb The Chiropractor’s Adjuster
Concept: (1897-1902) (1904-1906) (1908-1910)

circulatory obstruction? Yes No No

Yes No
nerve pinching? Yes
? No
foraminal occlusion? Yes
? Yes
nerve vibration? ?
therapeusis? Yes No
No
method of intervention? manipulation adjustment
adjustment
innate/educated? absent nerves: Intelligence Intelligence
religious plank? absent absent optional?
machine metaphor? Yes Yes Yes & No
tone? (vital) absent Yes

aThe Chiropractic was the title of D.D. Palmer’s journal during the early years of his practice in Davenport, Iowa
bThe Chiropractor was published by D.D. and B.J. beginning in December 1904 from the Palmer School in Davenport
cThe Chiropractor Adjuster was D.D. Palmer’s journal published in Portland by the D.D. Palmer College of Chiropractic,
while The Chiropractor’s Adjuster was the title of his book.

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Chiropractic History: a Primer

inflamed. Greater pressure was thought to inter-
rupt the nerve messages. Old Dad Chiro (as D.D.
liked to refer to himself) may have had political
reasons for this change of theory, for he was by
then experiencing mounting criticisms from the
followers of Andrew T. Still for having “stolen
osteopathy” and re-packaged it as chiropractic.
Whatever the reasons for his theoretical develop-
ment, it was this second theory of chiropractic
that D.D. taught his son, and which B.J. Palmer
would accept as his father’s original chiropractic
concept. B.J. promoted this notion of subluxation
as the “foot-on-the-hose” theory.
The transition from first to second theory
of chiropractic also saw a change from the mech-
anistic model of disease to a vitalistic premise.
D.D. introduced the concept of Innate
Intelligence circa 1904. Innate, he believed, was
an intelligent entity which directed all the func-
tions of the body, and used the nervous system to
exert its influence. Old Dad Chiro eventually
came to see Innate Intelligence as an individual
manifestation of Universal Intelligence, or God Cover of D.D. Palmer’s school magazine, The
Chiropractor Adjuster, for March 1909
(Donahue 1986, 1987).
Although father and son parted company
in 1906, this was not the end to D.D.’s theoretical evolution. By 1908, when he opened the
D.D. Palmer College of Chiropractic in Portland, Oregon, Old Dad Chiro had rejected his
earlier notion that subluxations caused nerves to be pinched in the spinal foramina (Keating
1993). Instead, he argued, nerves were impinged when joints subluxated, causing them to
become too tense or too slack. Given D.D.’s belief that neural impulses were vibrational in
nature, this meant that excess vibration would cause inflammation in end organs. A slack-
ened nerve, on the other hand, would deliver too little nerve impulse to tissues, causing
“under functionating” and/or cold, hard tumors. Despite the book he authored while in
Portland (Palmer 1910), whose content was drawn from his college periodical, chiropractors
down through the ages have generally been unaware of Old Dad Chiro’s final theoretical for-
mulations.
The Palmers are both considered “segmentalists,” in that they held to a view which
suggested that individual joints of the spine subluxate independently of one another. Indeed,
D.D. insisted that he only adjusted a single joint in a patient at any given treatment session.
This segmental orientation is epitomized by the “Meric” charts that relate individual spinal
segments to specific organs of the body. Old Dad Chiro posited that there were three caus-
es of subluxations: toxins, physical trauma and auto-suggestion; most chiropractors have
carried forward these etiological ideas. B.J. Palmer later claimed that the NCM he market-
ed to the profession was the only valid means of identifying these subluxated spinal joints.

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Chiropractic History: a Primer

In the mid-1930s he further proposed that the only adjustment-worthy subluxations

occurred in the upper cervical spine, and heavily promoted his “Hole-In-One” (HIO)
method of upper cervical adjusting. At this point, although B.J. was still fundamentally a
segmentalist, the NCM and its derivative, the neurocalograph (an NCM with a kymographic
strip chart) were used to monitor patterns of subluxations before and after HIO interven-
tions.

B.J. Palmer, DC, c.1924 Mortimer Levine, DC, c.1957 Willard Carver, LLB, DC,
c.1943 (NCA photo collection)

Attorney-chiropractor Willard Carver offered an alternative view of spinal dysfunc-

tion in which the behavior of the backbone is seen as a coordinated system. Termed the
“structural approach” to chiropractic, Carver’s theories involved the idea of distortion pat-
terns involving multiple segments, compensatory (secondary) subluxations, and the relent-
less influence of gravity upon these structures (Cooperstein 1990; Levine 1964;
Montgomery and Nelson 1985; Rosenthal 1981). Carver’s ideas were perpetuated by his
many students (e.g., T.F. Ratledge, D.C.) and others theorists and technique developers, such
as Hugh B. Logan, D.C. (of the
Logan Basic Technique), Mortimer
Levine, D.C., and Carver’s brother
Fred, founder of the “Postural
Method” of chiropractic (Carver
1938).
Logan Basic Technique
involved the perspective that the
sacrum provided a platform upon
which the vertebral segments rested,
and was therefore a determiner (the
“centrum of the body” in Logan’s
terminology) of subluxation pat-
terns in the spine. The Logan tech-
Hugh B. Logan, DC Arlan W. Fuhr, DC
nique directed much attention to

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Chiropractic History: a Primer

adjustments that would establish a level
sacrum. These ideas were taken up by 1961
Logan College graduate Arlan W. Fuhr,
D.C., co-inventor of the Activator instru-
ment and developer of the Activator
Methods Chiropractic Technique (Fuhr et
al. 1997). This technique involves repeated
inspections of relative leg lengths to identi-
Schematic of mechanism of an early Activator instrument fy spinal and extra-spinal joints thought to
be adjustment-worthy; Fuhr proposes that
functional leg length inequalities depend
upon distortion patterns especially in the pelvic and sacral structures. The Activator instru-
ment has become one of the most common of devices employed by chiropractors.
Chiropractic instrumentation had its earliest known innovations in the work of
Thomas H. Storey, D.C., one of D.D.’s early (1901) graduates in Davenport. Storey is
remembered not only as one of the first instrument adjusters (he made use of a wooden chis-
el and mallet to tap spinous and transverse processes), but also as the inventor of the “bifid
table,” or nose hole in chiropractic
couches.
B.J. Palmer introduced
the profession to x-ray equipment
in 1910, and promoted the term
“spinography” to refer to his
unique application of these
devices: subluxation-detection.
Although many were reluctant to
invest in the new technology,
some even branding B.J. a
“Plexor and pleximeter employed for Joe Shelby Riley, DO, DC, “mixer” for deviating from the
eliciting the vertebral reflexes” (from graduate of Palmer-Gregory original meaning of chiropractic
Abrams 1910) College of Chiropractic, (“done by hand”), radiology
employed a spinal concussor
to adjust his patients (from became a standard assessment
Riley 1919) method for most DCs. Inspired by
Logan Basic Technique, Warren
L. Sausser, D.C. of New York
expanded the DC’s radiologic repertoire in
the early 1930s with his development of
14x36 inch, full-spine, weight-bearing x-
rays. Palmer’s emphasis on x-ray analysis
may have distracted chiropractors from

An early “Hy-Lo” adjusting table, which lowered the

patient from the vertical to horizontal position for
examination and treatment.

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Chiropractic History: a Primer

The McManis table was first patented in 1909 by osteopath-chiropractor J.V. McManis who served on the faculties of the
American School of Osteopathy in Kirksville, Missouri, and the National College of Chiropractic in Chicago. The
McManis table is a precursor to chiropractor James Cox’s contemporary flexion-distraction table.

James Franklin McGinnis, D.C., one of the earliest chiropractic radiologists, at work at the
Palmer School in 1912

their earlier focus on the nervous system. However, his introduction of the NCM in 1924
gave a renewed importance to neural function. Although Palmer initially threatened to sue
anyone infringing on his patents, the NCM spawned a variety of spinal heat-sensing
devices (see Table 6). Generally reliable as thermometers, these instruments have not been
validated for the purpose of subluxation detection.

Table 6: Several devices used for subluxation detection

Accolade III Dermathermoscribe Neurocalograph Neuropyrometer

Analagraph Electroencephaloneuromentimpograph Neurocalometer Synchrotherme
Analyte Ellis Mycrodynameter Neurometer Vasotonometer
Chirometer Nervometer Neurophonometer Visual Nerve Tracer
Dermathermograph Nervoscope (Temposcope) Neurothermometer

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Drs. Warren Sausser and Sol Goldschmidt with a Dr. C. O. Watkins of Sidney,
full-body radiograph; from the NCA’s Journal, Montana, demonstrates chiroprac-
February 1935 tic use of fluoroscopy, c. 1935

LACC president Charles Wood, DC, ND (right),

demonstrates his neuropyrometer, c. 1930

The Syncrotherme was developed and marketed by the

Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College in the late 1960s and
early 1970s

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Table 7: Some of the many brand name techniques of chiropractic

Activator Methods Directional Non-Force Technique Palmer Full Spine Diversified

Anatomical Adjustive Technique (D.N.F.T.) Parker System
Applied Chiropractic Distortion Endo-Nasal Technique Pettibon Technique
Analysis Gonstead Technique Pierce-Stillwagon Technique
Applied Kinesiology Gravel Integrated Chiropractic Method Postural Method of Adjusting
Applied Spinal Biomechanical Grostic Technique Ratledge Technique
Engineering Harrison Dynamic Visualization Receptor-Tonus Technique
Aquarian Age Healing Procedure (CBP) Reflex Techniques
Arnholtz Muscle Adjusting Howard System of Chiropractic Reflexology
Atlas Orthogonality Herring Cervical Technique RESULTS System
Atlas Specific Hole-In-One (H.I.O.) Sacro-Occipital Technique (SOT)
BioEnergetic Synchronization Inverse Myotatic Technique Soft Tissue Orthopedics (STO/SOT)
Technique (B.E.S.T.) Keck System Spinal Balance
Bloodless Surgery Life Upper Cervical Adjusting Technique Spinal Touch Technique
Buxton’s Painless Chiropractic Logan Basic Technique Spinology
Carver Body Drop Mears Technique Spondylotherapy
Chiropractic Biophysics (CBP) Meric System Stressology
Chiropractic Manipulative Reflex Micro-Manipulation Thompson Technique (drop-piece table)
Technique Motion Palpation Toftness Technique
Clinical Kinesiology Neural Organization Technique (N.O.T.) Total Body Modification (TBM)
Concept Therapy Neural-Vascular Dynamics (NVD) Touch for Health
Cox Flexion-Distraction Neuropathy Truscott Technique
Craniopathy/Cranial Therapy Orthodynamics Vector Point Cranial Therapy
Derefield Leg Analysis Painless Adjusting Technique Zone Therapy

Dr. Joseph Janse, presi- Dr. George Haynes, Dr. Rex Wright of Attorney-chiroprac-
dent of National administrative dean of the Kansas, president of the tor Orval Hidde of
College of Chiropractic LACC and chairman of Council of State Wisconsin, chairman
and member of the the NCA/ACA Council of Chiropractic Examining of the CCE’s
NCA/ACA Council on Education Boards and a strong sup- Commission on
Education porter of the CCE Accreditation, 1975

Chiropractors’ ingenuity in devising assessment and adjusting strategies has been

phenomenal, and today dozens of brand-name and “generic” techniques (see Table 7) are
taught at chiropractic schools (e.g., Gleberzon 2002) and practiced within the profession
(Bergman et al. 1993). Clear favorites are apparent (National 2000), but none has yet
received the scientific investigation that can justify claims for effectiveness or superiority.
However, a specific procedure, side-posture lumbar manipulation, has enjoyed considerable
success in clinical trials for patients with low back pain and is highly regarded by expert

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reviewers (Cooperstein et al., 2001;
Gatterman et al., 2001).
LEGITIMIZING CHIROPRACTIC EDUCATION AND
BEYOND
When veterans’ educational benefits
expired in the mid-1950s, chiropractic schools
once again saw dramatic declines in students
and tuition revenues. Nevertheless, the NCA
and its successor, today’s ACA, continued to
press for higher educational standards, includ-
ing one or two years of liberal arts college edu-
cation as an admission requirement for chiro-
practic training. By the mid-1960s, the ACA
Council on Education’s quest for federal
recognition of chiropractic education was in
full swing. Alarmed by this, several straight
College presidents who organized the Association of chiropractic college leaders organized the
Chiropractic Colleges were featured on the cover of the
Association of Chiropractic Colleges (ACC; no
Digest of Chiropractic Economics in May 1970.
Pictured are Drs. Carl Cleveland Jr., David D. Palmer, relation to today’s organization of the same
Ernest Napolitano, William Coggins, William Harper name), and competed with the NCA/ACA
and Carl Cleveland Sr.
Council on Education (which was independ-
ently chartered as the CCE/Council on
Chiropractic Education in 1971) for recognition by the U.S. Office of Education (USOE).
The ACC’s concerns about the activities of the CCE were several. The push for
higher admissions requirements threatened to diminish student enrollments, thereby dimin-
ishing the number of new members of the profession. As well, for the impoverished and
heavily tuition-dependent schools, a decrease in students meant even more difficult eco-
nomic struggles, and could threaten the survival
of some small schools. Moreover, most ACC
college leaders perceived that the CCE’s broad-
scope mandate would require graduates to fulfill
a role and scope of practice well beyond what
straight chiropractors thought were legitimate.
And at least one of ACC’s accredited institutions
was still a for-profit, private business, which
alone probably rendered it ineligible for recogni-
tion by a USOE-recognized accrediting agency.
Meanwhile, the USOE contended that it could
only recognize one accrediting agency for any
single profession; so long as chiropractors could
In 1975, CCE president Leonard Fay, DC (right),
congratulates LACC president George Hynes, DC,
not make a unified petition for educational
who headed the CCE committee which negotiated accreditation, the federal agency would ignore
with USOE for recogition as an accrediting body for applications from either ACC or CCE. The
chiropractic education

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Council of State Chiropractic Examining Boards (COSCEB); now renamed Federation of

Chiropractic Licensing Boards) sought to bring the two agencies together by creating a
General Committee of the Profession on Education (GCPE). This forum did produce some
agreement on curricular content, transfer of credits among schools, and reporting by col-
leges to boards of licensure. However, the GCPE became less important as the CCE and its
schools grew closer to meeting most of the
criteria for accreditation set forth by
USOE. The COSCEB, recognizing the
continuing gulf between ACC and CCE,
prevailed upon each to accept binding arbi-
tration of their differences, so as to make a
single petition to USOE. However, before
the arbitration was completed, the CCE’s
application for recognition as an accredit-
ing body for chiropractic education was
Dr. Thom Gelardi, c. Dr. Reggie Gold, founder approved by USOE on 26 August 1974
1980 of ADIO, in 1977
(Keating et al. 1998a).
The CCE’s success in garnering federal recognition for its Commission on
Accreditation brought about a revolution in licensure for chiropractors, as many boards of
chiropractic examiners henceforth required applicants to be graduates of schools accredit-
ed by the CCE or by a regional accrediting agency of higher educational institutions. All of
the schools that had formerly comprised the ACC sought and eventually received accredi-
tation from the CCE.
This might have been the end of the decades-long feud among institutions.

Table 8: Chronology of the formation and renaming of chiropractic colleges in North America, 1973-2002 (based on
Keating et al. 1998a; Musick 1979; Strauss 1994; Peterson and Wiese 1995)

1973 (Jan 11): Sherman College of Chiropractic 1980 (Sept 18): Northern California College of
chartered in South Carolina; later renamed Sherman Chiropractic renamed Palmer College of Chiropractic
College of Straight Chiropractic West
1973 (Jan 31): International College of Chiropractic 1981: Pacific States College of Chiropractic renamed Life
Neurovertebrology chartered in California (later Chiropractic College-West
renamed University of Pasadena, College of 1984: ADIO renamed Pennsylvania College of Straight
Chiropractic; Southern California College of Chiropractic
Chiropractic; Quantum University 1991 (May): Palmer West and Palmer combine as Palmer
1974 (Sep 12): Life Chiropractic College formed in Chiropractic University
Georgia; later renamed Life University 1991: University of Bridgeport College of Chiropractic
1976 (Nov 9): Pacific States Chiropractic College formed in Connecticut
chartered in California 1992: Chiropractic program announced at the University of
1977 (Jul):ADIO Institute of Straight Chiropractic Quebec, Trois Rivieres campus (UQTR)
chartered in Pennsylvania 1993: UQTR enrolls first class
1978 (Aug 3): Northern California College of 2001: Colorado College of Chiropractic opens and closes
Chiropractic chartered in California 2002 (Oct): Palmer College of Chiropractic Florida enrolls
1978 (Mar 8): Parker College of Chiropractic chartered first class
in Texas

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However, the mid-1970s saw the emergence of several new chiropractic schools (see Table
8), most importantly the Sherman College of Straight Chiropractic (SCSC), founded in
Spartanburg, South Carolina, by Palmer graduate Thom Gelardi, D.C. The SCSC offered
non-diagnostic, adjustment-only training in chiropractic; its application to CCE in 1974 was
rejected the following year (Keating et al. 1998a, pp. 165-9; Strauss 1994). During the next
20 years, SCSC was involved in a number of lawsuits challenging the CCE and various
boards of chiropractic examiners. As well, SCSC sparked the formation of the Straight
Chiropractic Academic Standards Association (SCASA), which briefly held status with
USOE as an accreditor of straight chiropractic educational institutions. Among SCASA’s
constituent schools was the Above-Down-Inside-Out (ADIO) Institute (later Pennsylvania
College of Straight Chiropractic) and the Pasadena College of Chiropractic. Sherman
College reapplied for CCE accreditation, which was granted in 1995; ADIO and Pasadena
College have been closed.
IN MORAL DEFIANCE
In 1963 New York became the 47th state to authorize the practice of chiropractic by
statute. Only in Massachusetts, Mississippi and Louisiana were chiropractors still strug-
gling for legal recognition; these last few hold-out states would see chiropractic legislative
victories in 1966, 1973 and 1974, respectively. Political medicine’s long campaign to pre-
vent the legalization of the chiropractic profession seemed to be coming to an end.
However, in November 1963 a new element was added to the fracas between chiropractors
and organized medicine when the American Medical Association’s (AMA’s) board of
trustees established its Committee on Quackery. The explicit purpose of the committee was
“first the containment of chiropractic and, ultimately, the elimination of chiropractic”
(Trever 1972). To this end, the AMA’s extensive resources were committed to an anti-chi-
ropractic campaign which enlisted state medical
societies and included:
Table 9: Original co-defendantsin the Wilk
et al. anti-trust lawsuit, 1976 (Wardwell 1992, …suppressing research favorable to chiro-
p.168) practic; undermining chiropractic colleges
and postgraduate education programs; using
new ethical rulings to prevent cooperation
American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons
between MDs and chiropractors in education,
American Academy of Physical Medicine and
research and practice; subverting a 1967
Rehabilitation
American College of Physicians United States government inquiry into the
American College of Radiology merits of chiropractic; and basing an exten-
American College of Surgeons sive misinformation campaign against chiro-
American Hospital Association practic on the calculating portrayal of chiro-
American Medical Association practors as “unscientific,” “cultist,” and hav-
American Osteopathic Association ing a philosophy incom-patible with western
Chicago Medical Society scientific medicine (Chapman-Smith 1989).
Illinois State Medical Society
Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals
Medical Society of Cook County Although chiropractors had achieved
H. Thomas Ballantine, M.D.
Joseph A. Sabatier, M.D.
legal recognition in all states by 1974, there were
James H. Sammon, M.D. several other arenas in which legitimacy and for-
H. Doyl Taylor mal status were pursued. The USOE’s delibera-

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Attorney George McAndrews, Dr. Chester A. Wilk, c. 1990 Walter Wardwell, Ph.D.,
c.1981 c.1995

Michael D. Pedigo, DC (left), president of the ICA Dr. Jerome McAndrews, future
and co-plaintiff in the Wilk case, confers with president of Palmer College of
Kenneth Luedtke, DC, president of the ACA, during Chiropractic, c.1972
a visit to Palmer College of Chiropractic West in
Sunnyvale, California, in 1986

tions over recognition of a chiropractic accrediting agency was one arena in which political
medicine sought to influence government (Accreditation 1973; Wardwell 1992, p. 163); a
similar exercising of political muscle took place in New York State when the National
College of Chiropractic sought regional accreditation through the state’s education depart-
ment (Beideman 1995). And when the Medicare program was introduced by Congress in
the 1960s, chiropractors were initially excluded.
Wilbur J. Cohen, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare
(DHEW), was directed by Congress in 1967 to prepare a report on the inclusion of chiro-
practic and other non-allopathic, independent health care providers in the Medicare health
care reimbursement program. Sociologist Walter Wardwell, Ph.D., was a participant in the
sham investigation conducted by the surgeon general of the U.S. Public Health Service
(USPHS), a division of DHEW. Early on, Dr. Wardwell recognized that the 22-member
committee of scholars, professionals and businessmen assembled by the federal agency
would have no actual voice in the final report, which had already been prepared by staff
members of the USPHS (Wardwell 1992, p. 165). Secretary Cohen’s 1968 report,
Independent Practitioners Under Medicare, dealt a serious blow to chiropractors, who were
excluded from the Medicare program until 1973.

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In the meanwhile, a revealing book was published that
offered a glimpse behind closed doors at AMA’s headquarters in
Chicago. William Trever’s (1972) In the Public Interest
reproduced scores of internal documents that had been surrep-
titiously photocopied from the trade association’s files, files
which detailed political medicine’s program to destroy the chi-
ropractic profession. Armed with this information, Chester
Wilk, D.C., of Illinois and five co-plaintiffs brought suit against
the AMA and several co-defendants (see Table 9, previous
page).
U.S. District Judge Susan Representing the chiropractors’ claim that AMA et al.
Getzendanner had violated the Sherman Anti-Trust laws was attorney George
McAndrews, brother of Jerry McAndrews, D.C., executive vice
president of the ICA (McAndrews 1979). Mr. McAndrews spent
the next 14 years pursuing this case, which involved two trials (one by jury and one by mag-
istrate) and innumerable appeals. And while McAndrews pressed in federal court on behalf
of plaintiff chiropractors, the attorney general for New York filed a similar suit in federal
court against 13 medical organizations on behalf of the citizens of the Empire State. Soon
additional cases were brought to judicial attention in other states (Wardwell 1992, p. 170).
Wilk et al. vs. AMA et al. was not the first time that the AMA had been tried for
federal anti-trust violations (e.g., Dintenfass 1938; Rogers 1943), but the trade association
had not learned its lesson. Before the case ended, many co-defendants had settled out of
court, and the AMA rescinded its “ethical” ban on professional collaboration between MDs
and doctors of chiropractic (Gevitz 1989; Wardwell 1992, p. 171). When federal Judge
Susan Getzendanner ruled in favor of the chiropractors in August 1987 at the conclusion of
the second trial, she noted that:

…Although the conspiracy ended in 1980, there are lingering effects of the ille-
gal boycott and conspiracy which require an injunction. Some medical physi-
cians’ individual decisions on whether or not to professionally associate with
chiropractors are still affected by the boycott. The injury to chiropractors’ repu-
tations which resulted from the boycott have not been repaired. Chiropractors
suffer current economic injury as a result of the boycott. The AMA has never
affirmatively acknowledged that there are and should be no collective impedi-
ments to professional association and cooperation between chiropractors and
medical physicians, except as provided by law. Instead, the AMA has consis-
tently argued that its conduct has not violated the antitrust laws…
An injunction is necessary to assure that the AMA does not interfere with the
right of a physician, hospital, or other institution to make an individual decision
on the question of professional association… (Getzendanner 1988).

Published in the pages of the AMA’s journal, the judge’s findings and injunctions
against the national medical trade association were forcefully brought to the medical pro-

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Chiropractic History: a Primer

fession’s attention. Although various appeals were filed, Getzendanner’s findings still stand.
THE RESEARCH ENTERPRISE (1975 TO PRESENT)
Although research in chiropractic legitimately claims its roots in the various theories
and clinical techniques propounded throughout the chiropractic century, little more than
sporadic efforts at meaningful data collection in the profession’s first 50 years are apparent
(Keating et al. 1995). Gitelman (1984) suggested that the modern era, involving sustained
scientific investigation of the chiropractic healing art, may be dated to the 1975 conference
on spinal manipulative therapy (SMT) hosted by the National Institute of Neurologic and
Communicative Diseases and Stroke (NINCDS) in Bethesda, Maryland, with funding pro-
vided by the U.S. Congress. The published proceedings of this meeting (Goldstein 1975),
which brought together chiropractors, osteopaths, manual medicine practitioners and
researchers, revealed the state of knowledge about SMT at that time. The consensus reached
was that the clinical value of SMT was unproved, but merited serious investigation.

Clarence W. Weiant, DC, PhD, Cover of the New England Journal of Drs. Andries M. Kleynhans and Joseph
was appointed director of Chiropractic for Spring 1975 fea- Janse, director of research and president,
research for the NCA in 1943 tured the NIH site of the first federal- respectively, of the National College of
and later served a similar role ly sponsored conference on the Chiropractic, 1975; they nurtured the infant
for the Chiropractic Research research status of spinal manipulative research enterprise.
Foundation, forerunner of therapy.
today’s FCER.

Although the first few randomized, controlled clinical trials (RCTs) of SMT were
just getting underway in this period, chiropractic contributions to this scholarly literature
were slow in coming. Not until 1978 did the National College of Chiropractic launch the
profession’s most scholarly and enduring periodical, the Journal of Manipulative and
Physiological Therapeutics (JMPT), and not until 1986 was the first RCT of chiropractic
adjusting published (Waagen et al. 1986). However, if the content of JMPT is any guide
(e.g., Keating et al. 1998b), there has been a slow but steady expansion of clinical and basic
research within the profession. By 1994, the volume of trials related to the benefits of SMT
for patients with low back pain, including studies by researchers and clinicians in several
disciplines, prompted the federal Agency for Health Care Policy and Research to issue clin-
ical practice guidelines which included manual therapies as one of a few recommended
means of helping low back pain patients in the acute stage of their disorder.
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The development of scientific inquiry in the profession has
proceeded on several fronts (see Table 10), and in the 1990s
investigators at several chiropractic colleges saw the first few
millions of federal dollars for chiropractic studies. Still a paltry
sum in comparison with the billions of dollars in government
grants received annually by medical schools in the United
States, this money has been a welcome addition to the more
modest funds available within the profession, most especially
from the Foundation for Chiropractic Education and Research
(FCER). The past decade has also seen the formation of the
Office of Alternative Medicine (OAM), a division of the
National Institutes of Health (NIH), which has funded a consor-
tial research center at the Palmer College of Chiropractic in
Davenport, Iowa. Collaboration with OAM and other NIH
Dr. Roy Hildebrandt, founding
editor in 1978 of JMPT agencies bodes well for continuing expansion of scholarship
within the profession. As well, the proliferation of state-univer-
sity-based chiropractic colleges in several nations (e.g.,

Table 10: Several categories of research and scholarship appearing in the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological
Therapeutics, 1989-1996 (adapted from Keating et al., 1998b)

Data Reports Data Reports Non-data Reports

controlled clinical trials normative, survery and actuarial reviews of the literature
measurement evaluations report technical reports
clinical analogue studies case reports editorials and commentaries
clinical series basic science studies letters to the editor
historical research

Researchers and college administrators gather at Logan College of Chiropractic in 1977 for a seminar jointly sponsored
by the Foundation for Chiropractic Education and Research and the Springwall Education and Research Trust
(Springwall 1977)

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Australia, Canada, Denmark, Great Britain, South Africa) suggests increased public fund-
ing for training and research. However, training in the philosophy of science and in the
methods of clinical research for chiropractors is still embryonic (Keating 1992).
Chiropractic research to date has helped to establish the benefit of SMT for a limit-
ed number of musculoskeletal (“Type M”) problems, most especially low back pain
(Bronfort 1999) and, to a lesser extent, headaches and neck disorders (Coulter et al. 1996).
However, the mechanism(s) of this benefit remain uncertain (Haldeman 2000), as do the eti-
ologies of these conditions. The scientific literature bearing on the possible benefit of
manipulation for a broader range of health problems (termed “Type O” for organic or vis-
ceral diseases) remains very limited, although not completely unexplored (Budgell 1999;
Masarsky and Todres-Masarsky 2001). The scientific data base has also facilitated efforts
to establish guidelines for clinical practice and for encouraging greater quality in the clini-
cal services rendered by chiropractors (Haldeman et al. 1993;
Henderson et al. 1994; Vear 1992).
A significant and continuing barrier to scientific progress
within chiropractic are the anti-scientific and pseudo-scientific
ideas (Keating 1997b) which have sustained the profession
throughout a century of intense struggle with political medicine.
Chiropractors’ tendency to assert the meaningfulness of various
theories and methods as a counterpoint to allopathic charges of
quackery has created a defensiveness which can make critical
examination of chiropractic concepts difficult (Keating and Mootz Button proclaims popular
1989). One example of this conundrum is the continuing contro- slogan among some chiro-
versy about the presumptive target of DCs' adjustive interventions: practors in 2003
subluxation (Gatterman 1995; Leach 1994). While some in the
profession question the meaningfulness of the traditional chiropractic lesion (e.g., Nelson
1997), others proclaim its significance routinely in marketing materials distributed to the
public (Grod et al. 2001).

Dr. Alan Breen of the Anglo- Drs. Silvano Mior (left) and Howard Vernon, Dr. John Triano, c. 1995
European College of researchers at CMCC, accept awards for
Chiropractic their distinguished service in 1993

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The nearly three decades since the NINCDS conference in Bethesda have seen
pockets of scientific expertise develop at several chiropractic institutions. Some chiroprac-
tic colleges in the United States, although microcosms of the ideological diversity within the
profession, have nonetheless garnered some of the skills, equipment and resources to push
a research agenda forward. They have been aided in this by a number of talented people
whose commitment and contributions to a genuine science of chiropractic has been unre-
lenting. In 1997, the Palmer Center for Chiropractic Research became the headquarters for
the federally funded Consortial Center for Chiropractic Research, a group of five chiro-
practic colleges and two state universities committed to advancing studies into chiropractic
health care.
The future of chiropractic research is
promising, and will probably involve
expanded efforts to elucidate the mecha-
nism(s) of benefit for SMT, expanded trials
to evaluate the breadth of problems for which
SMT may provide benefit, and the risks and
costs involved in manual and related modes
of intervention. If greater numbers of chiro-
practors can be enticed to devote their careers
to this enterprise, and if the financial
resources are developed to support their Dr. Scott Haldeman, c. Dr. William Meeker, 2002,
activities, a much brighter future for the pro- 1980; this third-genera- Vice President of Palmer
Chiropractic University
fession is possible. This metamorphosis will tion chiropractor has and head of the Consortial
been a consistent con-
also require the adoption of a more critical tributor to scientific Center for Chiropractic
attitude toward chiropractic phenomena development in the pro- Research
fession
throughout the profession.
THE STRAIGHT/MIXER CONTROVERSY
To Teach and to Practice.
D.D. Palmer’s earliest graduates received diplomas authorizing them to “go forth to
teach and practice chiropractic” (Gibbons 1981), and to the founder’s dismay, many com-
peting schools were established in the first decade of the 20th century. One of the earliest
rival schools of chiropractic was the American School of Chiropractic and Nature Cure
(circa 1902) and was founded by 1901 Palmer graduate Solon M. Langworthy, in Cedar
Rapids, Iowa (Zarbuck 1988c). Langworthy, who also earned a diploma from the American
College of Manual Therapeutics in Kansas City and who was at that time teaching “chiro-
practic and osteopathy,” met with B.J. Palmer, son of the profession’s founder, to propose
partnering in the school business, and to encourage an expansion of the Palmer curriculum
to include “nature cure” methods (Zarbuck 1988c). With Palmer’s refusal of Langworthy’s
offer of amalgamation and his rejection of such naturopathic procedures as “mixing,” the
classic feud within the profession between broad-scope and traditional, purist practitioners
was underway.
The founder’s opposition to the first chiropractic legislation in Minnesota in 1905
(Gibbons 1993) was based largely on Palmer’s objection to Langworthy’s lengthier and
broad-scope curriculum. Although the disagreements within the profession regarding the
appropriateness of adjunct procedures, the role of diagnosis, and the duration and depth of
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Chiropractic History: a Primer

the chiropractic curriculum continues today as complex and varied, many of these subse-
quent schisms among professional associations and the schools may be seen as a variation
on this first dispute over scope of practice and length of training.
Many of the early 20th century schools were not just new institutions, but new
“schools” in the broader sense, based on creative and alternate interpretations of what was
considered the most appropriate and efficient application of the ideas first expressed by D.D.
Palmer a few years earlier. Among the early competing educational enterprises was the
broad-scope National School of Chiropractic (later National College of Chiropractic and
now National University of Health Sciences), founded in 1906 by Palmer graduate J.F. Alan
Howard, and located just blocks from the Palmer School. The National School relocated to
Chicago in 1908.

First campus of the National School of By not later than 1918, the National School of Chiropractic offered a
Chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa, in 1906. degree in Chiropractic and Physiological Therapeutics
Located in the Ryan Building at 2nd and
Brady.

From this environment of creativity and controversy emerged various factions and
viewpoints within the chiropractic community that still exist today. The key elements of
division are the following:
*What should appropriately be included and applied in the scope of chiro-
practic practice;
*The likely effects of chiropractic care for the patient;
*The clinical value of subluxation correction;
*The appropriate language with which to describe chiropractic methods and
their effects; and
*How to interact with other health care practitioners and professions, espcial-
ly allopathic doctors.

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Scope and Application of Chiropractic Services.
Differences of opinion as to the range of services that should be provided by chiro-
practors led early in the profession’s history to the development of the terms “straight” and
“mixer.” Straights, or the traditional purists, sought to have chiropractors focus almost
exclusively on the core of chiropractic - the vertebral subluxation and its adjustment. In con-
trast, mixers sought to combine other clinical approaches with the adjustment of the spine.
Depending on state law and individual preference, such additional natural therapies have
included, but are not limited to, physiotherapy, dietary counseling and nutritional supple-
mentation, herbal and botanical treatments, acupuncture, massage, and colonic irrigation.
Further distinction between so-called “straight” and “mixer” chiropractors can be
made by examining their approaches to diagnosis, because the most traditional of “straight”
chiropractors limit their assessment focus to the vertebral subluxation. “Mixer” chiroprac-
tors, on the other hand, offer broader
services, including general health pro-
motion and disease prevention, which
may require additional examination
and diagnostic procedures. It is impor-
tant to note that all North American
chiropractors, regardless of their philo-
sophical allegiances, are qualified as
portal of entry providers who have the
responsibility to determine whether or
not a patient will benefit from chiro-
practic care, as well as whether or not
a patient should be referred for other
care from a non-chiropractic health
practitioner.
Value of the Adjustment, Range of its
Clinical Effects
The clinical value of chiro-
practic care was viewed by many
trained in the Palmer tradition to be a
panacea or near-panacea for all ills of
This cartoon suggests straight chiropractors’ view of mixer chiro-
the human body. The correction of the practic education in California: from the California Chiropractic
vertebral subluxation was understood Association Bulletin, November 1931
to be all that patients needed, and once
this was accomplished there was little
else to consider or to do, other than to ensure that no new subluxations developed. Others
viewed the adjustment as one among many natural approaches to bring aid and comfort to
patients.
The range of clinical value of the chiropractic adjustment/manipulation and the cor-
rection of subluxation or joint dysfunction continues to be debated today by chiropractors
as well as some outside the profession. To define the central question: is the chiropractic
adjustment the key to all the ills of humankind, or is it only helpful for certain muscu-

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Chiropractic History: a Primer

loskeletal complaints? While the vast majority of chiropractors hold positions in the broad
middle ground between these extremes, the question of how to resolve conflicts among sci-
entific evidence, belief, and tradition remains unanswered. An additional element of inquiry
relative to the chiropractic paradigm is the influence of routine and/or maintenance spinal
adjustive care and its effect on sustaining health and wellness. At this time, many issues can-
not be resolved based on firm evidence. Nevertheless, the way the profession ultimately
addresses the inevitable conflicts between newly emerging evidence and traditional beliefs
will undoubtedly shape its future.
Language for Describing Chiropractic
The words used to describe the principles and practices of chiropractic continue to
stir emotion and controversy even today. To some chiropractors, the issue is purely seman-
tic; to others, it is a matter of principle in which the choice of terminology is a strong indi-
cator of one’s stance on major issues confronting the profession. Should the chiropractor’s
primary manual intervention be called “adjustment” or “manipulation”? Is chiropractic care
a form of “treatment” or does this term indicate something strictly allopathic? Similarly, is
the chiropractic adjustment/manipulation a “therapy,” with “therapeutic effects,” or is it bet-
ter termed an “intervention” or “procedure”? Chiropractors have argued over these and
related matters for almost the entire history of the profession. The scope of this debate can-
not be resolved within this booklet, but the key issues can be framed in a non-adversarial
context, so that entry-level students and other readers can understand the major points of
view.
To a great extent, controversy regarding choice of language in chiropractic derives
from a concern on the part of traditionalist straight chiropractors that adopting the language
used by the medical and osteopathic professions (i.e., manipulation, treatment or therapy,
and lesion or somatic dysfunction rather than adjustment and subluxation) represents an
unacceptable compromise for the sake of acceptance within the mainstream health care sys-
tem. A parallel concern on the part of broad-scope, mixer chi-
ropractors is that failing to adopt the terminology in widespread
use throughout the health professions will contribute to the con-
tinued marginalization of chiropractic.
It must be acknowledged that B.J. Palmer’s early strat-
egy and use of terminology in defining chiropractic as the
antithesis of medicine carried important implications for the
fate of the profession at that time. The ruling by the
Massachusetts Supreme court in the Zimmerman case in 1915
(Wardwell 1978) reflected the basic legal interpretation of the
medical practice acts of the day. The practice of chiropractic
was legally interpreted as the practice of medicine, and not just
in the context of prescribing pharmaceuticals but to include the
therapeutic regimes of the diagnosis and treatment of disease.
The unlicensed chiropractor engaging in clinical practice was
therefore held to be practicing medicine without license and An image of a subluxated verte-
bra (courtesy of Cleveland
was in violation of state law. Chiropractic College)
As a survival strategy, the younger Palmer and his chief

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Chiropractic History: a Primer

attorney, Tom Morris, argued that chiropractic was “separate and distinct” from medicine
and should not be subject to medical statutes. To support his arguments, Palmer invented a
new vocabulary, which asserted that: chiropractors don’t “diagnose” but rather “analyze” the
patient’s spine; they study “symptomatology” rather than “pathology,” they “adjust”
subluxation rather than “treat” disease. B.J. Palmer insisted that the International
Chiropractors’ Association, which he dominated, follow political and legal policies which
would champion chiropractic’s position separate from medicine (Wardwell 1978).
Wardwell proposes that without B.J. Palmer, chiropractic would almost certainly not have
survived as a “separate and distinct” profession from osteopathy, naturopathy, and medi-
cine. In Palmer’s view, osteopathy was the practice of medicine, especially in that osteo-
pathic practitioners prescribed drugs. Such too was the case for naturopathy, because pre-
scribing herbs, botanicals and dietary supplements, even though considered “natural” sub-
stances, was quite different from removal of spinal subluxations. Palmer also considered the
use of physiotherapy modalities such as heat, cold, water and electricity to be the practice
of medicine. The profession of chiropractic became licensed as an
exception to the medical practice acts and as limited license practi-
tioners. Since 1974, the profession is licensed in all 50 states.

Interprofessional Relations.
Historically, relations among doctors of chiropractic and doc-
tors of medicine have been marked by acrimony and competition,
although this has begun to diminish in recent years. Having been
disparaged by most medical physicians since the profession’s incep-
tion, many chiropractors have understandably been cautious in
seeking alliances with medical physicians or integration into the
mainstream medical delivery system. While some chiropractors
have always wanted to ally and integrate with the medical profes-
sion, others have staunchly opposed such moves. Ironically, the
decision to integrate did not belong to the chiropractors; chiroprac-
Symbol of the ICA, 1950s tors remained outside of mainstream health care. Change is finally
occurring, but progress remains quite slow.
As a profession matures, its relations with other professions
must mature as well. Healthy interprofessional relations must be based on mutual respect
and understanding. A key question for chiropractic’s future is how can chiropractors be inte-
grated into the mainstream health care delivery system so that chiropractic services are read-
ily available to all who can benefit from them? And, of equal significance, how can such
integration be achieved without diluting the uniqueness of chiropractic to the point where it
is unrecognizable?
There is probably no single answer to these questions. The future shape of the pro-
fession will likely be worked out, step by step, in numerous pilot projects in a wide range
of settings - in private chiropractic and medical practices where interprofessional referral in
both directions becomes the norm; in interdisciplinary (including joint chiropractic-med-
ical) practices where practitioners work out the best ways to cooperate for the benefit of
their patients; and in larger-scale enterprises such as the health care systems serving veter-
ans and the active duty military, where chiropractic inclusion is now in its early stages. In

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Chiropractic History: a Primer

each of these situations, it is important not to mistake uncertain beginnings for failures.
Inevitably, as new relationships are developed and tested, there will be both successes and
difficulties. Creating positive, sustainable interprofessional relations depends on willingness
by all involved parties to build on their successes and learn from their mistakes.
Contemporary Expressions of the Chiropractic Paradigm
Various authors have summarized a core chiropractic paradigm that includes the fol-
lowing:
1. The body is a self-regulating and self-healing organism.
2. The nervous system is the master system that regulates and controls all other
organs and tissues and relates the individual to his/her environment.
3. Spinal biomechanical dysfunction in the form of vertebral subluxation complex
may adversely affect the nervous system’s ability to regulate function.
4. The central focus of the doctor of chiropractic is to correct, manage or minimize
vertebral subluxation through the chiropractic spinal adjustment.
For many chiropractors, these four points constitute the foundation of traditional
chiropractic, but also reflect elements compatible with broad-scope perspective that
expands beyond these concepts in terms of scope of practice and patient assessment.
Moreover, these elements convey this essence without metaphysical terminology.
Chiropractors comfortable with the term innate intelligence will recognize this in the first
component. Likewise, those chiropractors who prefer to think of self-regulation and heal-
ing in terms of homeostasis and normal physiological function are accommodated. Notably,
the relationship between structure and function as mediated by the nervous system is given
prominence here. This is the essence, the distinctive feature, of chiropractic thought and
practice.
A contemporary perspective demonstrating the end ranges of the broad-scope/mixer
and purist/straight controversy is reflected in the published documents of two diversely con-
trasted chiropractic educational institutions - the National University of Health Sciences’
college of chiropractic, and that of Sherman College of Straight Chiropractic (SCSC).

National University of Health Sciences (NUHS)

Excerpted from the “President’s Message”:
The practice of chiropractic medicine, as taught by our College of Professional Studies is “the
treatment of human ailments without the use of prescription drugs or operative surgery,”…
NUHS has always promoted a broad scope education and practice for its students and gradu-
ates… considering the patient as an integrated being-body, mind, and spirit.
In our doctor of chiropractic (D.C.) program, we teach our students to strongly emphasize the
diagnostic skills first through the use of our problem-based curriculum…capable of diagnosing
their patient’s concerns as would any family practitioner from the allopathic (M.D.) profession.
While spinal manipulation is the centerpiece of chiropractic therapeutics, it is… supported and
under-girded by …”natural” therapies such as the application of nutrition, diet, supplementation,
botanical remedies, physical therapy, therapeutic exercise, acupuncture, and others (National
2003).

Continuing under the heading “Profile of Chiropractic Medicine,” the NUHS para-

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Chiropractic History: a Primer

digm asserts that “Chiropractic practice embodies:… homeopathic remedies, emotional sup-
port, and stress management...”

Sherman College of Straight Chiropractic (SCSC)

SCSC Health Center, Terms of Acceptance
…Chiropractic has only one goal…
…Patients usually want to get rid of whatever ailments or conditions
that are bothering them. However, worthy such a goal may be, it is not
the goal of a chiropractor. Straight chiropractors do not engage in the
medical practice of diagnosing and treating disease.
…The chiropractor’s one goal is to periodically examine the patient’s
spine and should subluxation be detected, correct it by means of a chi-
ropractic adjustment…The single goal of the chiropractor is to correct
subluxation for the purposing of removing…interference to the prop-
er transmission of brain messages over nerve pathways…of the
body… The adjustment is not meant to be a panacea for all disease or
a specific treatment for any particular disease.
…The chiropractic examination and adjustment are not substitutes for James F. Winterstein, DC.,
other types of health care, just as other types of care do not take the DACBR, president of the
place of chiropractic. National University of Health
…In some cases where disease and symptoms have been present, the Sciences
removal of this form of interference renders the body sufficiently able
to bring about a restoration of health very quickly. In others, the process is slower and in some
cases it is only partial or not at all. Regardless of what the disease is called, the chiropractor does
not offer to diagnose, heal or treat it, nor does the chiropractor offer advice regarding the treat-
ment of disease. The only goal of the chiropractor is to correct subluxations, this very damaging
form of interference to the body’s natural function. The chiropractor promises no cure from, and
offers no treatment of disease (Sherman, n.d.).

INTEGRATION AND THE FUTURE OF THE PROFESSION

If the chiropractic profession could be distilled to its basics, three strengths emerge.
Each makes a unique and important contribution to health care delivery, public health, and
healing. The first, and most important strength is our concern to maximize the body’s inher-
ent healing and recovery mechanisms, a perspective known as a host-orientation. A second
strength of chiropractic involves conservative interventions before drugs and surgeries. A
third strength is an excellent working knowledge of the human spine, spinal column, and
nervous system (Menke 2003). As any medical physician will tell you, the spine is a mys-
terious system vital to human function, but difficult to fix when injured (Carragee 2001).
The chiropractic world-view is Hygeian, referring to the goddess of health: find and
treat the cause of disease. Causes may be dietary, environmental, psychological, spiritual,
family, or community. On the other hand, allopathic thought follows Aesculapius, the father
of medicine: treat disease directly by disrupting its progression. Too often, the Hygeian and
the Aesculapian perspectives have been at odds, though they are actually two sides of the
same coin, and quite complementary. Both perspectives have a contribution to make,
depending on disease type and progression. This is the foundation of Integrative Medicine
(Weil 2000).
The chiropractic profession has come to a crossroads (Meeker and Haldeman 2002).
Shortly after the profession became more broadly eligible for reimbursement by health

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Chiropractic History: a Primer

insurance in the 1970s, the health care environment again changed dramatically with the
arrival of managed care in the 1980s and 1990s. Managed care was designed to control costs
by forcing physicians to share financial risk. Though the concept may not survive the very
forces it set in motion, managed care has certainly changed the face of health care.
With the managed care revolution came a new cost consciousness. Chiropractors felt
the crunch of financial constraints and increased work. At the professional level, chiroprac-
tic was confronted with increasing demands to justify their expense with clinical outcomes
and economic sense, or face being cut out of the reimbursement plans they had fought so
hard to get into just two decades before. Fortunately, chiropractic research programs were
well underway when the managed care storm struck. Some clinical studies demonstrated the
efficacy and popularity of chiropractors’ services to patients. Unfortunately, the profession
had not demonstrated a cost advantage over standard medical care for any condition.
Chiropractors’ essential strengths (musculoskeletal treatment, high patient satisfaction, and
advocacy of the patient’s innate healing ability) had set it apart from other health care pro-
fessions, but for only 4% to12% of Americans (Rafferty et al., 2002; Burge and Albright,
2002; McFarland et al., 2002).
As chiropractic moves into the post-managed care era, it may split into two princi-
pal forms of delivery: one track as an “alternative medicine” practitioner, another track as a
fully integrated team member in conventional health care delivery. The former is “apart
from” the rest of health care, the latter is “a part of” health care. This will probably not
involve separate licensure for each type of chiropractor, since the legal maneuvers that
would be required for such division are staggering. In any case, the consensus needed for a
more unified profession, involving a shared vision of a more homogeneous role for the chi-
ropractor, is not on the horizon. Among the many natural fits for integrative chiropractors
are sports medicine, spine care, pain care, hospital emergency medicine, orthopedics, and
physical medicine. They may practice along with orthopedists, internal medicine specialists,
neurologists, acupuncturists and physical therapists.
In the foreseeable future, some chiropractors will take postgraduate rounds and res-
idencies in emergency medicine, integrated spine care, pain medicine, and primary care.
Others will graduate and set up solo and group practices and provide primary care to the
many underserved regions in the United States. Chiropractic education will evolve to pro-
duce doctors of chiropractic ready for the evidentiary health demands of the 21st century,
and less on the “alternative medicine” principles of chiropractic’s past. Even so, chiroprac-
tic’s fundamental perspective of respect for the body’s ability to heal itself will be preserved.
Chiropractic research will continue, and will emphasize clinical outcomes and relative cost
savings. The creation of this expanded knowledge base will aid in creating cultural author-
ity; chiropractic will be considered an essential form of health care.
Chiropractors have long abided by the principle of restoring health through restoring
life balance. In the US, 50% of all deaths are due to poor lifestyle choices. Health problems
due to poor lifestyle produce the most chronic, debilitating, and medically untreatable dis-
eases of our day. The 21st century chiropractor will be vigilant for the manifestations of a
stressful and often unhealthy lifestyle. The chiropractor of the future will address subluxa-
tions beyond the spine – to nutrition, sleep, stress, family, and community. Recognizing that
alcohol and drug abuse, depression, and suicide may be symptoms of deeper “diseases

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Chiropractic History: a Primer

of meaning,” chiropractors may play a greater role in community health, health education
and disease prevention. By encouraging healthy behaviors, the 21st century chiropractor
could play a role in decreasing over-reliance on expensive and risky technological medicine.
Just 20 years ago there was little scientific justification for chiropractic treatment.
Today, there are at least 100 clinical studies that relate directly or indirectly to chiropractic
and its role in back pain, neck pain, headaches, and a few other conditions. A watershed
event occurred in 1994 when the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research publication
(Bigos 1994) reviewed over 12,000 studies and a key chiropractic treatment, spinal manip-
ulation, was designated one of only three recommended treatments for back pain. Future
chiropractic research will focus more on cost savings and better outcomes. Chiropractic’s
potential will be more fully realized, and the profession will add its essential value to health
care.
To be accepted as a valued member of the health care team, interprofessional com-
munication skills will need to be learned. Patients want chiropractors to work together with
other doctors for their welfare (Teitelbaum 2000). Eventually, even insurers must take notice
if emergency room chiropractors save $10,000, $50,000 or perhaps $200,000 per month in
unnecessary procedures and risky medications. The rest of the world, including convention-
al medicine, has never been more receptive to chiropractic than they are today. They are lis-
tening for answers from chiropractors and how we can help address the expensive problems
of acute and chronic suffering in our technological health care crisis.

Cover of the clinical practice guide-

lines for low back pain issued by the
U.S. Agency for Health Care Policy
and Research, 1994

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Chiropractic History: a Primer

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