Law Governing Location
So definite is the law governing the effect of force applied to a given portion of the body upon an associated vertebral segment that the skilled Chiropractor who has studied vertebrate segmentation thoroughly may determine, from the history of a fall or injury, the vertebra which would tend to be subluxated by that injury and the tissues controlled from that part. The rule is this:
Force applied to any body segment tends to subluxate the segmentally associated vertebra. This subluxation tends to produce disease throughout the area of distribution of the subjacent pair of spinal nerves.
The task of explaining this law seems hopeless unless the student is familiar with human embryology and the life history of the vertebrata, as well all the details of human anatomy. To such a student the law will be self-evident, so interwoven with the threads of higher organization as practically to form its pattern.
In simple terms we might offer this general statement. Any force applied to the body with sufficient violence will produce subluxation of the vertebra above the spinal nerves supplying the injured area. Thus, the brachial plexus controls the arm and shoulder and connects with the spine by way of the 5, 6, 7, 8, Cervical and 1 Dorsal nerves. Any force striking the arm or shoulder tends to produce subluxation of the sixth or seventh Cervical or first Dorsal vertebra so that all permanent disease conditions resulting will be found in the arm or shoulder or nearby tissues of the neck.
This theme presents a magnificent field for individual study and research but is, per se, beyond the limitations set for this work.