One Osteopathic journal claims to tell authentically how Still was led to the discovery of the “great truth.” It states that by accidentally curing a case of asthma by “fooling with the bones of the chest,” he was led to the belief that bones out of normal position cause disease.
Still himself tells a rather different story in a popular magazine posing of late years as a public educator in matters of therapeutics. In this magazine Still tells how he discovered the principles of Osteopathy by curing a terrible headache resting the back of his neck across a swing made of his father’s plowlines, and next by writhing on his back across a log to relieve the pain of dysentery. Accidentally the “lesion” was corrected, or the proper center “inhibited,” and his headache and flux immediately cured.
You can take your choice of these various versions of the wonderful discovery.
Ever since Osteopathy began to attract attention, and people began to inquire “What is it?” its leading promoters have vied with each other in trying to construct a good definition for their “great new science.”
Here are some of the definitions:
“Osteopathy is the science of drugless healing.” For a genuine “lesion” Osteopath that would not do at all. It is too broad and gives too much scope to the physicians who would do more than “pull bones.”
“Osteopathy is practical anatomy and physiology skillfully and scientifically applied as manual treatment of disease.” That definition suits better, because of the “manual treatment.” If you are a true Osteopath you must do it all with your hands. It will not do to use any mechanical appliances, for if you do you cannot keep up the impression that you are “handling the body with the skilled touch of a master who knows every part of his machine.”
“The human body is a machine run by the unseen force called life, and that it may run harmoniously it is necessary that there be liberty of blood, nerves, and arteries from the generating point to destination.” This definition may be impressive to the popular mind, but, upon analysis, we wonder if any other string of big words might not have had the same effect. “Liberty of blood” is a proposition even a stupid medical man must admit. Of course, there must be free circulation of blood, and massage, or hot and cold applications, or exercise, or anything that will stimulate circulation, is rational. But when “liberty of blood” is mentioned, what is meant by “liberty of arteries”?
“Osteopathy seeks to obtain perfect skeletal alignment and tonic ligamentous, muscular and facial relaxation.” Some Osteopaths and other therapeutic reformers (?) have contended that medical men purposely used “big words” and Latin names to confound the laity. What must we think of the one just given as a popular definition?
A good many Osteopaths are becoming disgusted with the big words, technical terms and “high-sounding nothings” used by so many Osteopathic writers. The limit of this was never reached, however, until an A.B., Ph.D., D.O. wrote an article to elucidate Osteopathy for the general public in an American encyclopedia. It takes scholarly wisdom to simplify great truths and bring them to the comprehension of ordinary minds. If writers for the medical profession want a lesson in the art of simplifying and popularizing therapeutic science, they should study this article on Osteopathy in the encyclopedia.