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A Historical Review of Manipulative Therapy
By Franklin Schoenholtz, D.C.Faculty Member of The Los Angeles College of Chiropractic
More than thirty-two centuries ago, chiropractic was known to the Greeks and also the ancientEgyptians, Chinese and Hindus who, in their respective manuscripts and other documents, left concisebut clear descriptions of this art.The ancient Hindu, the Chinese or the man of Tibet, the Babylonian, the modern Kurd, the Egyptianand the Arabian fellah, the man of Iran, the aboriginal man of Ceylon or of the Brazilian Matto-Grosso,the highly specialized Incas an Aztecs, or other American Indians, and all the rest of mankind have insome way used their hands for curative purposes. There is, in fact, no person living or dead who has notat some time practiced manipulation and chiropractic of some form. However the systematic andintelligent teaching of chiropractic in ancient Greece was no doubt originally taught by the mythicalsemi-gods and heroes of Greece and particularly the Thesalians, Chiron, the Centaur, and Aesculapius.The were, so to say, the first instructors in the arts of Grecian classical medicine and through them andtheir descendants the different therapeutic methods have been transmitted to all civilized mankind.
 
 
The principles embodied in modern chiropractic long have been known to man, and particularly to theGreeks. Much authentic information indicative of the existence of applied spinal and body mechanicsin ancient writings has reached us today. Such knowledge, coming from indisputable masters teaches usthat in classical times of Greece, body mechanics spinal balancing and vertebral adjusting werethoroughly investigated, understood and applied long before the Hippocratean epoch.The relationship of the vertebral column to the nervous system and to the human frame, as well as tothe different diseases of the living organism, were adequately recognized and sufficiently investigatedan also demonstrated by them. Furthermore, they have, so to say, providentially included most of suchvaluable observations and conclusions in their many notable writings.From these works it becomes evident that every possible aspect in regard to spinal function andderangement has been well investigated, exploited and treated at great length by them.Deliberately or otherwise, the Greeks efficiently detected not only the various malformations anddisplacements, curvatures and other distortions of the human frame, particularly the spinal column; but,much to our amazement, they even discovered the slightest misalignments of the different vertebraewhich are often displaced or slightly luxated or rather subluxated. This fact, however, was for longtime disputed or ignored by the regular medical school.In recorded history there are many outstanding instances and occasions which clearly indicate thatsurgery, dentistry and their allied systems and sciences were tabooed and criticized by orthodoxmedicine which, under no circumstances, authorized their use. All of the aforementioned arts wereignored and excluded from ethical practice for many centuries.Not so long ago, these systems were considered unscientific and their followers and administratorswere persecuted and bluntly condemned and branded as quacks and charlatans of the most degradedsort. The time, however, came when these systems and sciences were finally accepted in medicine,being since advanced to new standards of efficiency and scientific development.The same has happened in other branches of medical sciences and arts. Among those of recentrecognition: opthalmology, midwifery, psychopathy, psychiatry and osteopathy. Their origin, however,is very old and can be traced to older epochs. The Chinese, the Hindus, the Egyptians and the Greekshad a clear conception of them. Their principles had been known and applied for many centuries.Veterinary surgery, too, endocrinology, and diet were long ago practiced. Now podiatry, optometry andchiropractic assert their rights, fast pushing their claims toward recognition.They would have been accepted long ago were it not for the reason that they were considered to beinnovations. Inadequate information and ignorance made them appear as cults, heresies in medicine, orforeign to ethical practice.The same can be said for dentistry. In olden times the filling of a decayed tooth was not only a habit of good hygiene, but even of good aesthetics. Gold and cement or porcelain fillings have been found inmany ancient mummies and skeletons.The objections which have been raised from time to time in regard to therapeutic systems or methods,often were met with in the past, and in some instances, were properly settled.
 
 
When Hippocrates reasoned with his contemporaries that in healing, the most famous and renownedpractitioners of their day did not treat disease with medication and drugs alone, he pronounced a greattruth which remains, even today.Again, when he says all reputedly successful physicians use diet and other effective means, which onecannot deny belong to healing, he simply voices a universally acknowledged fact. Obviously, he soughtto demonstrate to the medical practitioner, whom he wished to convince, that medicine, and particularlyhealing, cannot be restricted or limited within the narrow boundaries of the pharmacopoeia.The sick, in consulting the doctor, seldom know or care from which school system he graduates, butvisit him with the ultimate purpose of getting well; and anyone who treats them successfully and helpsdispel their troubles quickly becomes, in their estimation, a worthy doctor.Sir William Osler, in his introduction to the book 
The Life of Pasteur 
, makes the following admission:“Great advances have been made in the treatment of disease. We learned to trust nature more and drugsless; we got rid (in part) of treatment by theory and we ceased to have a drug for every symptom.”Hippocrates gives remarkable accounts of such diseases as puerperal convulsions, epilepsy, fevers, etc.He admonishes the physician to examine the patient carefully and especially in all acute diseases tonote the sick, make his comparison with those in health, and to observe the changes which take place incondition. Alarming symptoms are hollow eyes; collapsed temples; cold and contracted eyes, withlobes turned out; skin about the forehead rough or distended; color of the face dusky; whether the stoolwas loose or hard and not its color and odor; inspect the urine and observe color and sediments. No onetoday can deny the wisdom of these truths which have their place today as well as at all times.Hippocrates brought about careful examination of the legs, of the pelvic bones and more especiallycorrection of any existing deficiency in the legs. He urged recognition of abnormalities of the bonyframe of the pelvis, the base upon which the spinal column and the whole weight of the body rely.Hippocrates described the spinal column and mentioned its parts. He gave a present day scientific andcomplete anatomical and osteological description of it, calling the attention of the doctor to thepeculiarities and probable anomalies of the vertebrae and their spinal processes which to theuninstructed might appear as luxations.He evidently studied very closely the mechanism of the spinal column and understood thoroughly itsimportance and significance. He appears to have known well its relation and application to and effectsupon the nervous system, and also its influence upon the whole organism.He insisted that the practitioner should become well acquainted with all these facts and learn themechanical relation of the spinal column to the nervous system and of the latter to the organism, so asto be ever ready to make proper correction in case of such skeletal and spinal displacements andmalformations or similar derangements by means of reduction, extension, counter-extension, etc.We can almost still hear him teaching that, “one should practice most often and continuously trainhimself and his hands, endeavoring to do his work well, elegantly, quickly, without trouble, neatly andpromptly.”Aristotle explained his idea on blood circulation and motion in his book,
 De Animale
, clearly statingthat the blood in all animals palpitates within their veins.
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