A text-book on hygiene and pediatrics from a chiropractic standpoint

by J. H. Craven

Adaptability of the Body

It is a known fact that there is a wide range of adaptability and a vast difference in the vital resistance of different individuals, and even in the same individual at different times. There must be some reason for this difference.

It is also a known fact that an individual may be apparently well one day and sick the next, although there may be no change in the subluxations existing in the spine of the individual. Environmental conditions are constantly arising which necessitate adaptative action on the part of Innate Intelligence. This action must be in addition to the normal action taking place under the normal and usual environments. In order to accomplish this increased functional activity the current must be increased to accomplish this, the carrying capacity of the nerve must be greater than the current necessary to maintain the ordinary metabolic process in the body.

Under the stress of environmental necessity it is possible for Innate Intelligence to increase the functional current of mental impulses up to the full carrying capacity of the nerve, and to augment the functional activity at the periphery to the full capability of the physical structure to express that current of mental impulses. Were it not for this possibility of increased functional activity there could be no adaptative processes in the body. In order that there may be an increase in the functional activity there must be an increase in the functional current of mental impulses. This necessitates that the current transmitted under normal conditions be less than the carrying capacity of the nerve.

Psychologists tell us there is a certain amount of reserve energy stored up in the body. Chiropractic maintains that it is not a matter of energy being stored up, but that this reserve energy is a question of increasing the functional current so as to increase the process of adaptation in the tissues. The degree of adaptation is represented by the difference in the current transmitted through a nerve under normal conditions, and that transmitted when the full carrying capacity of the nerve is taxed. In other words, the reserve energy is the difference between the current that is being transmitted and that which it is possible to have transmitted.

As the adaptative action is increased in response to the necessity there will be, in adverse ratio, a decrease in the reserve carrying capacity of the nerve. In other words, as the current is decreased the reserve carrying capacity of the nerve is increased. The degree, therefore, of vital resistance is represented by the reserve carrying capacity of the nerve and as this is decreased there will be a like decrease in the vital resistance of the body.

Some individuals are immune from certain so-called contagious dis-eases and we are told that this is because the vital resistance is greater in them than it is in others. This statement is true, but there should be some reason for this difference in resistance and Chiropractic gives us that reason. The possibility for adaptative action in the body is decreased by subluxations in the spine and its degree depends upon the combination of subluxations, the functions involved and the organs in which the functions are expressed abnormally.

The question, however, arises that if there are subluxations in the spine, why are there no incoördinations but merely the possibility of decreased adaptation. To this question there is a specific answer. It is contained in the principles involved in and underlying the philosophy of Chiropractic, therefore it is not possible here to go into details. It can be considered from a general viewpoint only.

There may be a combination of subluxations existing in the spine and yet not enough pressure to prevent Innate Intelligence getting a current through great enough to meet all the ordinary demands of the average environment. But when subluxations do exist and a condition arises necessitating increased functional activity, Innate, because of the decreased carrying capacity, is unable to increase the current of the periphery. Hence adaptation can not take place and there is incoördination which would not have obtained if the carrying capacity of the nerves had not been decreased by the subluxation. It must be remembered that even in the normal condition when there are no subluxations, health is a question of intellectual adaptation; that dis-ease is a question of the lack of intellectual adaptation. As the possibilities of intellectual adaptation are decreased, the possibilities of incoördination are increased.

An individual will be immune so long as the carrying capacity of the nerves remain normal or so long as the carrying capacity is not decreased. Germs ingested or taken into the body will be excreted as so much waste material and will not be permitted to remain in the body. This is not only true of germs and microörganisms, but of all poisons. The carrying capacity of the nerves is limited, but in the normal condition is 100%. If the poison introduced is stronger than the internal resistance then the meeting of the two forces will produce a concussion, and if this concussion is greater than the normal resistance of the spine a subluxation will be produced. In this way an individual may be immune from one poison and not another, or from one particular germ and not another, or he may be immune at one time and not at another time. For the philosophy of subluxations being produced by poison, the student is referred to Chiropractic Library, Vol. V, Palmer, under the heading of poisons.

The particular mechanism of immunity is not so vital so long as we understand that it is produced by the operation of Innate Intelligence, and know what is necessary to enable Innate to produce this condition.

Under the exhaustion theory of Pasteur it was maintained that when food upon which germs fed was exhausted they could no longer develop and the body in which there was no food for the germs would be immune from the germ dis-eases. Chiropractic maintains that the germ is a scavenger and feeds upon dead tissue, never upon live tissue; that there must be a proper culture media for the development of the germs and this can obtain only in tissue that is below the normal condition. Therefore, if the tissues are maintained in a state of normality by the normal transmission and expression of mental impulses, there will be no food for the germs and they will be excreted. On the other hand, if the tissues are below normal in their resistive powers, due to the interference with the transmission of mental impulses, the germs finding food and a culture media conducive to their development will remain and multiply and their excreta will act as a poison and necessitate a further process of adaptation, the character of the symptoms depending entirely upon the character of the poison produced.

It is not necessary to kill the germ that the patient may recover. All that is necessary is to adjust the subluxation or subluxations that are causing the interference with the transmission so the tissues may become normal and the germs will starve to death and be excreted as dead material.