Joy Maxwell Loban

“ Chiropractic is new. Its principles are yet unknown to the general public. Also this is an age of keen competition and it is our duty to our profession and to the world that instead of hiding our light under a bushel we proclaim our mission to all who will hear. We must be intelligently and wisely aggressive. We must bring ourselves into contact with the public in every legitimate way, compelling it by force of logic and personality to see the reasonableness and greatness of our work. ”

“ Just as surely as we admit into our practice any method which attacks the disease itself, or which treats any other than the primary cause of the disease, or which seeks to stimulate or inhibit the functions of the body without freeing the natural channels through which the natural healing power of the body should be manifested, just so surely are we adopting the medical theory and making our profession a branch of medicine. ”

“ Just as too frequently the young Chiropractor overlooks the fundamental logic of Chiropractic which may be epitomized with the terse command, “Adjust the cause,” and considers his practice as requiring him to dabble in every suggested or discovered method of treating effects, so, too frequently, the young Chiropractor is prone to consider that his practice consists solely of the adjustment of vertebrae, that he practices a mechanic art rather than a profession; too frequently he overlooks the thousand details which lead to and surround the adjustment and are essential to its success. ”

“ Nature is the only real curative agent. Neither suggestion, manipulation, adjustment, nor any other known method applied by Man for the eradication of disease has in itself any power to heal. No man possesses power to do more than so arouse the vital energies of the patient that the body heals itself.
We contain within our own bodies the possibilities of perfect normality. Unless interfered with by powerful outside force we should continue normal from birth to death and death itself would only occur through the simultaneous wearing out of all the parts of the human mechanism. ”

“ Without honesty with oneself, one’s profession, and one’s patients, one forfeits public confidence—and justly. If we promise that which we cannot perform, if we deceive our patients by misleading explanations of untoward events, we deserve failure. It is not intended here to refer to the cheerful and optimistic manner and habit of speech which often aids in the sick room to keep the patient’s mind at rest. This may sometimes deceive the patient as to the gravity of his condition and such deceit may be justifiable ”

“ When the entire stock of vitality is lowered through excess the amount of energy passing through each nerve in the body is lessened, but the effect of such lessening is felt most where there is subluxation. At the high tide of vitality the subluxations are not sufficient, perhaps, to produce serious disease. At low ebb, every organ whose nerve is interfered with suffers keenly. Under such conditions the body is much more subject to adverse influences, to shocks and jars, to contagion or infection, to the action of cold or exposure. Thus bodily excess acts as a secondary cause of disease. ”

“ The dietist discovers that certain food combinations cannot be properly cared for by an individual and that if taken they tend to develop toxins deleterious to the system. Whereupon he undertakes to discover food combinations which the body can care for and believes that he has solved the question of etiology.
Now it is most important that we find the primary cause, the one which makes possible the operation of all the rest and without which all would be powerless to harm man. This we shall expect to find at the point of entrance of disease into the human organism. ”

“ I am not of the opinion that a pretension of unlimited knowledge is a valuable professional asset. It seems better frankly to seek authoritative information, even in the presence of the patient, than to allow an error to creep into your work, and your more intelligent patients will appreciate your care. Furthermore, this placing of your books is convenient when you are alone and considering the cases which have passed before you during the day. It tempts to study. ”

“ The lay patient and the ignorant public are inclined to give credit for results obtained to the best known method used upon them. Thus in spite of the fact that Chiropractic alone obtains a far greater percentage of results than any other combination of methods, the patient is prone to believe that the change of diet or the massage effected a cure and to overlook entirely the least pleasant part of his “treatment,” the adjustment. He does not understand and cannot understand with a mind divided for the consideration of several methods, the connection of the spine with his disease. ”

“ Disease is a process. It is a natural process. It follows certain well-defined laws and consists in the abnormal performance of function in some bodily organ or organs, or in the untimely performance of some function which would be normal in its proper chronological relation with other functions or at another period of the body’s development. The balance of function of the body is destroyed—some function intensified or diminished—that is all. Every disease, properly studied, reveals its functional base. ”

“ Capability in diagnosis renders us independent of the errors or false beliefs of others. Since it includes a knowledge of subluxations, not included in medical training but still vital to correct interpretation of morbid phenomena, it can be more accurate than any diagnosis which ignores these causal factors. A habit of diagnosing one’s own cases enables one, always resting on his own judgment, to correct and improve himself through all errors, for which he is then alone responsible. ”

“ Courage, not recklessness or carelessness but a fearless willingness to assume responsibility—the heavy responsibility of our profession—is indispensable. He who accepts the easy case or the chronic and slowly progressive one and refuses to face the appalling rush of a dangerous and acute malady; he who shrinks through fear for his reputation from a grave risk, has no right in Chiropractic. ”

“ The only real problem in Chiropractic is the problem of adjustment. All failures may be attributed either to lack of knowledge and proper application of Chiropractic or to the fact that the patient has not vitality enough to recover from the disease. Do not shift the responsibility for failure upon the system, since with one or two exceptions every known disease has been cured by some Chiropractor, thus proving its possibility. Realize that the work can be done and that its doing depends upon your own skill in diagnosis and technic. ”

“ No matter which step we select as our “ultimate cause” it truly is the cause, or one of the causes, of succeeding steps, which succeeding steps may well stand in our minds as the whole of the disease. Thus the physician, having found a germ, is quite content to look forward from the invasion of the germ and consider that as the primarily necessary requisite for disease production. In retrospect he follows disease back within the body to the time of entrance of the germ and then leaves the body to study the life habits of the germ and its favorite mode of conveyance. ”

“ A general knowledge of medical diagnosis, of pathology, bacteriology, etc., enables a Chiropractor to meet the physician on common ground; in fact, it gives the Chiropractor a distinct advantage, since he knows not only what his medical friend knows but also the all-important facts regarding the spine which are unknown to others. Such knowledge and the ability to discuss disease intelligently also furnishes common ground with every patient. ”

“ It is easy to reason from the fact that all persons are at some time exposed to contagious or infectious diseases while comparatively few contract them that some persons are vulnerable to certain diseases while others are not. It is plain that while a person may be susceptible to typhoid fever because he has a weakness in the intestines, he may be quite immune from pneumonia or tuberculosis or any other infectious or contagious disease. ”

“ It is manifestly impossible by vertebral adjustment to raise the body beyond normal power. Nothing is added to the body; no energy is utilized other than the energy of the body itself which is provided by Nature and released through restoration of the normal carrying capacity of nerves. The highest goal attainable is normality, and it is observed that no matter whether the impingement be in the nature of an excitation or an inhibition of nerve action the effect of a correct adjustment is always in that direction—toward normality. ”

“ If every practitioner adopts some such method of making his own diagnoses he will advance in ability much more rapidly than by accepting the diagnoses given his patients by physicians or others. We should remember, though without arrogance, that our special ability to discover subluxations and our knowledge of their significance as the primary causes of disease renders us better prepared for correct diagnosis than our medical friends, other education being equal. ”

“ Even more important than the contents of the waiting room is the equipment of your private office. It is in this room that your work is done. There your patients confide to you their weaknesses; there they determine finally whether to trust themselves to your knowledge and skill ”

“ Some subluxation which has never been sufficient to produce active disease may be so increased by the action of poisons as to be of serious effect even though the poison has long since been eradicated from the body—for the subluxation is permanent until affected by force outside itself. In considering the etiology of any disease the possibility of its being augmented by medicines, drug habits, or dietetic errors should be weighed with other evidence. ”

“ The correct use of the foregoing table depends entirely upon correct diagnosis. Knowledge of the vertebra to be adjusted for the correction of any disease is useless unless the disease be recognized when met. Diagnosis may be, and usually is, aided by Palpation and Nerve-Tracing, which may be considered as divisions of diagnosis since the subluxation and the tender nerve are evidences (symptoms) of disease. But these two divisions can never wholly take the place of a complete diagnosis which calls to the aid of the examiner every harmless method of ascertaining the patient’s condition. ”

“ If we wish merely to check the process or to modify it, as does medicine, the etiology of the disease is less important than the present state. It is then more important that we understand the changes which are taking place in the body at the time of our attempt, the condition of each organ at that time, and the general recuperative or resisting power of the individual. ”

“ Movement of a section of the spine composed of several vertebrae is not, in the true sense, an Adjustment. It is the single vertebra which must be moved.
The movement should be one calculated to bring the vertebra to its normal position in the most direct manner possible. Such a movement should be used as will reverse the direction of the forces which subluxated the vertebra. It should be applied to the transverse or spinous processes, or to the lamina, as is sometimes done in the case of the Atlas, according to the kind of subluxation. ”

“ He who would succeed in Chiropractic must have, in addition to a thorough education in his profession, a proper personality. This is the medium through which his education becomes effective, the channel through which he reaches the public, gaining their confidence and approval that he may utilize his knowledge to their good. Many skillful and well-educated practitioners have failed because they lacked the proper personal qualities for attracting patients. ”

“ Other concussions are so violent as to produce displacement of structure which tends to remain permanently. Under Spino-Organic Connection will be found an explanation of the manner in which force applied to various parts of the body tends to affect the spine.
Now the displacement of a bone cannot be corrected by the body without outside aid. No method is provided for such correction. Produced by outside force affecting the body, it can only be reduced by outside force. It is this failure of Nature to make man adaptable to every untoward circumstance which renders him susceptible to disease. ”

“ Immunity.—There is no doubt that adjustments often confer immunity from infection and contagion, but it is so difficult to strengthen every part of the body against every possible infection or contagion, and so uncertain that immunity really exists in a given case, that it is best always to assume the possibility of contagion and act accordingly. Adjustments following exposure to known contagion are always wise, but one may never know, if they succeed, that the patient might not have escaped without them. ”

“ Irritability is the property of being susceptible to excitement or stimulation. Stimulation is the process of increasing the functional activity of any organ. Inhibition is the act of checking, restraining, or holding back the functional activity of any organ. These definitions, taken from Gould, are here introduced as a necessary preface to an attempt to set forth, without unnecessary reference to, or discussion of, any other theory as to the etiology of disease, the Chiropractic explanation of its presence. ”

“ It seems almost symbolic and indicative of the purpose of creation that the body, which is less strong and vigorous230 in Man than in the lower animals, should tend more and more obliquely downward from its central axis, while the cranium, containing a highly specialized mass of cells and fibres, the organ of Mind, which marks Man’s supremacy in the animal kingdom and is his crowning glory, is reared above the body it dominates. ”