Volume 1 – The Chiropractor’s Adjustor – Author = DD Palmer

-Life is the expression of tone

-inflammation = redness, heat, swelling, pain, loss of function
-Chiropractic is a science, not a building: it was created, not built. Its foundation is not that of principles.
It is founded on anatomy-osteology, neurology and functions. It is not built out of principles as a mason
would build a house out of brick. Chiropractic is a science—a knowledge of health and disease reduced
to law and embodied into a system.

Volume 3

*In preparing a subject for palpation let me first advise you to have him stripped to the waist, or at least
to wear a garment which leaves the entire spine exposed at one time without any connecting bands of
cloth across the spine at any point.

*Visual examination should precede the manual palpation and the general outline of the spine should
be carefully observed for the detection of curves, single subluxations or irregular groups prominent
enough to be observed with the eye. This survey should include also the color of the skin and its
moistness or dryness, the existence of spots or eruptions which indicate the existance of liver or kidney
trouble, and thus lead us unerringly to one or two of the principal subluxations in that spine.

*Talking about C1: It is essential that a palpater cultivate a light and delicate touch for this especially,
because heavy palpation always or nearly always is a source of keen pain to the patient. The really
skilled workman, the artist in palpation, is he whose hands glide lightly and smoothly over the spine,
feeling everything he touches distinctly and yet making no unpleasant impressions on his patient.

*Cervical palpation, below the atlas, may be considered under one head. The essentials are the gliding
motion of three fingers, keen touch, quick and accurate reasoning, and a knowledge of the changes
made in positions of vertebrae by changes in position of the head.

*The best method is to divide the dorsals into three groups of four vertebrae each, sometimes taking
five in each group and making the groups overlap; as the consideration of 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 as the first, 5,
6, 7, 8, 9 as the second, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 as the third. In each group three vertebrae may be listed.
Also in each there will be found one more prominent than the others which will serve as a key to that
group. For instance, in the first group you may find a very prominent posterior third dorsal of which the
adjustment is imperative, If you had worked downward, listing everything as it appeared, you might
have listed the second, which would have precluded the possibility of listing the third. But with this
method of considering vertebrae in groups you are able to determine relative degrees and choose the
worst subluxations without any waste time or revision of records.

First, let the fingers glide gently over the entire group of posterior aspect, and decide which is the most
posterior one. Then use that as the basis for your choice of others. as you run your fingers down, make
sure they are at right angles to the vertebra

Tenderness between the 5th and sacrum almost always accompanies a posterior subluxation of the
sacral base.

The life of the patient depends upon your adjustments and the adjustments rest upon your palpation.
There are five chief sources of error in palpation to which all of
us are likely to fall victims and with which we should all be
acquainted and on guard against. These are habit, wrong position
of the patient or failure to allow for same in making calculations,
inability to use both hands or to use one hand with proper skill and
facility, close decisions in which we fail to use enough care in
deciding, disregard of form-change in various sections of the spine,
and the bent spinous process.

The only way in which the position of any vertebra can be

determined is by comparison. This comparison can only be
attained to the best advantage by a quite rapid running movement
which fixes the impression on the mind as a line from which there
is a deviation at a certain point and in a certain direction.