Chiropractor

“ 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. ”

“ The Osteopath denounces the Chiropractor as a brazen fraud who has stolen all that is good in Chiropractics (if there is anything good) from Osteopathy. But Chiropractics follows so closely what the “old liner” calls the true theory of Osteopathy that, between him and the drifter who gives an hour of crude massage, or uses the forbidden accessories, the true Osteopath has a hard time maintaining the dignity (?) of Osteopathy and keeping its practitioners from drifting. ”

“ There is great need of every faculty that is employed in the analyzing and adjusting, especially if the child is seriously ill. Usually the parents are more or less excited and worried and are likely to keep urging the chiropractor to do something and thus unduly influence him unless he is accustomed to such cases. If the child is in pain and crying it is likely to get on the nerve of every one present and this will tend to make the chiropractor nervous. He must be careful that these things do not influence him to act too hastily before he has had time to make a careful analysis. ”

“ The use of specific adjustment demands of the Chiropractor an accurate diagnosis and compels him to get his mind into direct contact with the exact condition of the patient in order to select the proper vertebrae. Sometimes the less prominent subluxation causes a more acute or dangerous disease than the more pronounced. Specific adjusting tends to develop more discriminating and accurate palpation.
Specific adjusting weakens and shocks the weak or nervous patient less than general adjusting. ”

“ So it is in perfect accord with chiropractic philosophy that a proper dwelling be provided wherein the condition is such that there may be perfect adaptation to all the needs of the body. This is as much a part of the chiropractor’s work as is any other part of his duties and obligations to the sick. He need not be able to do all these things, but he should know what conditions are conducive to the expression of life in the body and why others are not. ”

“ There is probably no incoördination of childhood that is quite so trying to a chiropractor as an acute attack of colic, due to the violent crying of the child and the eager desire on the part of the chiropractor and the attendants to relieve the pain. ”

“ Each patient is a specialist in the disease he believes himself to have and he expects from his doctor a greater knowledge than his own.
The recognition of contagious or infectious diseases as such is an absolute necessity in order to obey the laws and safeguard the public health. The exact condition and degree of vitality of the patient and the knowledge of the existence of abscess, gangrene, intestinal obstruction, etc.,301 often warns the Chiropractor that his adjustment would be dangerous to the patient. Much possible injury is avoided by accurate diagnosis. ”

“ While we acquire the knowledge of Chiropractic we acquire also a great responsibility for its320 use; we must utilize it wherever and whenever it is best for the patient, whenever our chances of effecting a cure are the best chances, without regard to ourselves or any personal risk.
By conviction is meant a firm and well-grounded belief in the greatness and efficiency of Chiropractic. Sincerity in one’s practice is a prime requisite for success. A belief grounded in knowledge girds the Chiropractor with an armor so strong that no adversity can pierce it. ”

“ The chiropractor who is careful in handling these incoördinations will find no class of cases that will give more satisfactory results. The analyzing must be done very carefully and the vertebrae must be moved from the very beginning because if results are not obtained quickly the inflammation will spread to the air vesicles very rapidly. ”

“ When a chiropractor is called to see a child that is having convulsions he should make a very careful inquiry into the history of the case and try to find the associated incoördination. This is done for the purpose of determining the combination to be used. The major for location will be atlas or axis, while the combination will depend upon the associated condition. ”

“ The body possesses only a certain limited capacity for combating disease or building weakened tissue. To scatter this force widely is to weaken its effect in any particular locality.
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The habit of specific adjustment and of selecting proper vertebrae enables the Chiropractor to explain definitely at any time just what he is doing and why he is doing it. We assert that in adjusting a vertebra we are removing the primary cause of disease. It is sometimes awkward to be asked if the patient has nine diseases or if it takes nine subluxations to cause one case of acute coryza. ”

“ We cannot emphasize too greatly the necessity for very careful [Pg 348] palpation, since in the child nerve tracing can very seldom be used. In severe cases it may be necessary to adjust as often as once every six hours. With careful conscientious work on the part of the chiropractor, there should be very little danger in losing a patient, even in the most severe cases, and if the adjustments are given in the early stages of the dis-ease, the more marked symptoms will not develop, results will be shown in a very few hours and the child will recover in a short time. ”

“ In any case it will play a part in all subsequent judgments which the patient may form concerning the Chiropractor and his work.
Many patients entering our offices have no previous knowledge of our profession; their minds are open and curious, alert for new impressions of some sort. We may impress them as we choose. Every good business or professional man realizes the value of the first impression and strives for a good one. Therefore, upon entering practice, choose for yourself every article which shall have a place in your office. ”

“ Laterality, superiority and inferiority are quite as essential, and the chiropractor should not be satisfied until he has convinced himself on the question of these directions. If there is no laterality, superiority or inferiority then the adjustment should be given straight toward the anterior. ”

“ The Chiropractor, insofar as his work succeeds in its purpose, assists the body by adjusting displaced structure and affording the body a free and unhindered opportunity for the exercise of its own self-healing powers. ”

“ These questions are hard to meet truthfully and convincingly, for the truth is that every Chiropractor fails sometimes and is unable to predict that failure in advance and that no one wise enough to predict the length of time which will be required for the cure of any given case has yet arisen. ”

“ Lack of cleanliness is entirely too prevalent among some classes of people and it will be found that children who have not had the proper care of the teeth will suffer more or less with dental caries. The common belief that many conditions and incoördinations are caused from the teeth has been proven erroneous by Chiropractic, but the chiropractor should recognize the necessity for the proper care of the teeth and when they are in need of attention the patient should be sent to a dentist. ”

“ It is not within the scope of Chiropractic to prescribe the kind of food that a bottle-fed baby needs, but the chiropractor must realize the importance of the right kind of food and the necessity for a proper innate adaptation to the kind of food given. Proper feeding is necessary for normal development, although it alone will not insure proper growth and development. The digestive organs must work normally and there must be proper coördinate action between the glands of the body. ”

“ From a chiropractic standpoint it would make little difference to the chiropractor whether the condition was called bronchitis or bronchopneumonia, for if adjustments are given at the beginning results will be obtained before a diagnostician would be able to make a positive diagnosis.
Children with pneumonia should not be permitted to lie in one position for any length of time. A constant change in the position is essential to prevent the accumulation of the exudate in a localized area. The child may be more easily cared for and made more comfortable by being held in the arms of an adult. ”

“ It is often quite hard to obtain a correct analysis in such cases because of the difficulty experienced in getting the child into a proper position for palpation. In making the palpation the chiropractor should take plenty of time and should never endeavor to force the child to be still, rather he should adapt himself to the constant moving about of the infant. ”

“ The chiropractor is concerned chiefly in the location of the incoördination and the family involved. In order to determine the family it is first necessary to know the functions that are abnormally involved. From the symptoms given we observe readily that all cases of pneumonia, of whatever type, will be in the fever family, but it is quite obvious that this is not the only family involved. From the symptoms manifest we recognize that there is hyperemia and exudate, that this exudate undergoes degeneration and thus becomes of a toxic nature. ”

“ The chief vertebra is nearly always the one at the angle or point of the curvature.
The sharp, angular curve of Potts’ Disease, involving two or three vertebrae, should warn against adjustment, usually, since in this disease the vertebrae are fragile and easily fractured. If a case has not progressed too far a cure may be effected, but great caution in taking such cases must be exercised. Every Chiropractor should be well informed on the diagnosis of Potts’ Disease, or spinal caries. ”

“ In palpating an infant it is usually best to place the child on the knees of an adult in the position for an adjustment. The child will be almost constantly on the move. It will therefore be necessary for the chiropractor to adapt himself to this constant moving. The child should be placed in as many different positions as possible to make the palpation. ”

“ The child should be placed on his back and every movement of the body observed. Such movements as the flexing of the thighs on the abdomen, as in abdominal pain, may lead the chiropractor to a conclusion on the zone involved. ”

“ It must be remembered that the child is unable to turn should he become cramped or should he become tired from lying in one position. The average mother knows how to take care of her child in a general way and nurses have had special training in this respect, but these simple necessities should not be beneath the notice of the chiropractor. Especially is this of importance in determining the cause of irritability in the infant. Attention must be given to skin irritation, especially resulting from carelessness in the changing of the diaper and in keeping the body of the child otherwise clean. ”

“ There are conditions in which an enlargement of the abdomen is typical, such as in various intestinal disorders and especially in rickets. In rickets the abdomen becomes gradually extended and is known as pot belly, but with this there will be other symptoms of the dis-ease. If the abdomen seems abnormally large the chiropractor should carefully analyze the child to determine whether this is the result of some incoördination or whether it is simply an idiosyncrasy of the child.
WALKING
The age at which children are able to sit alone, stand and walk, varies greatly. ”

“ Remember that you expect to spend many hours each day in the company of your furniture, and select such things as will contribute to a proper professional state of mind in yourself. A Chiropractor’s profession is in many ways like, yet in many ways unlike, any other. ”

“ If proper care be used in equipping an office and if such means as have been suggested for the rest room be employed, these in addition to the pleasing personality of the Chiropractor may make of the visit a pleasant thing, a part of the day to be anticipated with eagerness. ”

“ It is true that there are a few statements in the ensuing outlines for which we cannot as yet find the anatomical or physiological proof. But it must be remembered that anatomists and physiologists have never studied the body with a knowledge of the subluxation theory to aid them in gaining perspective and that Chiropractors, as a class, have not235 yet delved deeply enough into anatomy and physiology to extract all the available and illuminating information from them. Ofttimes the facts we value most are most obscure in the texts because to others they seem least important. ”

“ No effort should be made to force the child to be still. It is a good policy to hold the palpating fingers on the spine and let the child wiggle and squirm all he wants to, moving the spine beneath the palpating fingers of the chiropractor. ”

“ Chiropractors find with every contagious or infectious disease certain subluxations whose location with relation to the disease is constant and demonstrable. Thus all cases of pulmonary tuberculosis show a third Dorsal subluxation with only enough exceptions to prove the rule; tonsilitis is invariably accompanied by subluxation of the second, third or fourth Cervical. ”

“ Of those nerves mentioned as traceable, only such as are irritated and consequently swollen and tender, can be followed. If a nerve is very heavily impinged, especially if the impingement be chronic, it is partially or wholly paralyzed and not traceable. If the heavy impingement be acute, or if there be a light impingement serving as a mechanical irritant, nerve-tracing is a real aid to diagnosis.
Proportion of Cases with Traceable Nerves
About one-half of all the cases which visit Chiropractors for adjustment are susceptible of nerve-tracing. ”