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Show I l : I Osteopathy Proven Correct Scientific Research Proves Truth of Dr. A. T. Still's Original Theories. HIKE all great original thinkers, Dr. A. T. Still, founder 'of osteopathy, osteo-pathy, had theories for almost every disease and function of the body, and many of these theories were crude and incom- H potent, just because the then state of the sciences he dealt with was H still crude and incompetent. In fact, when Dr. Still worked out many H of his theories of disease, the real causes of these dis- H His Two eases were wholly unknown and seemingly incompre- H Great hensible. But of the various theories which, like sparks H TV from a grinding wheel, flew off from his original and H Discoveries, ever-active mind, at least two were of prime order and H Lesions and absolutely true and good. These were first, his theory Immunity. o the mechanical (anatomical) lesion, and secondly, his H theory of the chemical immunity of the body, both of H which he put forth as related to the cause and cure of disease, and both Hj of which have absolutely stood the test of time and subsequent scien- H tific criticism and experiment. H In justice to the original mind of this American genius, it should H be said that Dr. Still was the first man to perceive the truth that nature H has developed in the animal body its own defenses against diseases. H And with this thought in mind we can for the first time see the power H and real meaning in his well worn axiom, "Find it, fix it, and leave it H alone!" H The three last words contain the heart of the axiom leave it H alone; because by leaving it alone, Dr. Still most certainly did not H mean that the practitioner should never touch his patient again! H What he did mean was that after the lesion has been corrected (after H the body parts have been readjusted to their normal relationship) H nature itself will do all the necessary subsequent work that is, It is H not necessary (nay, it is hurtful) to thrust into the body the drugs H that, in his day, were believed by all doctors of all schools to have H some effect against the disease at work in the body. H It is only just to the genius of the man to give him the credit for Hj having been the first to conceive this theory of immunity to disease, H which, during the past twenty-five years, has grown with such rapidity H and strength as to fill the whole world with its noise and to change H radically all views of diseases and the possibility of their curse. H Dr. Still, in effect, urged the theory that all diseases could be sci- H entifically classified with smallpox, and similar immunizing diseases H and that hence all diseases in their cause and cure H The Blood could be referred back to the blood. His axiom now B Carries the follows- Remove the cause which stops or clogs the H d j blood flow, or which blocks the nerve which controls the m Body s blood flow, and the blood itself will work the cure. "The H Healing. rule of the artery is supreme." For in the blood are all H the elements needed by the cells for purposes of nutri- Hj tion in health and disease. In disease the body cells manufacture their H own medicines their own anti-toxins and if the body is physically H free to do this then no other outside agencies are required. No medl- Hj cine can assume to do what only the wonderful laboratories of the H body has authority to perform, and to dictate to Nature in this respect H is like telling the flowers how to paint their colors, or directing the H stars in the course of their orbits. H The problem of cure, then, resolves itself into this: How to give H the body physical freedom to express itself in its vital reactions to dis- H ease. It is the problem that is solved by osteopathy, for not only are H the mechanical maladjustments of the body that predisposed it to the H disease correctly by Osteopathic treatment, but the physical expression H of disease is normalized from time to time; recovery is made rapid H and easy, and pain and distress relieved. Only those who have been H ill and have experienced the refreshment and at times almost miracu- H lous relief resulting from this form of treatment can appreciate how H Osteopathy gives Nature this freedom to cure. H Now when Dr. Still began to treat diseases on this principle the H entire principle itself was not only amazing to the then current ideas of disease, but was also incomprehensible even to the best thought of his time. To bring virtually all diseases under one main principle was, to the science of that day, a complete absurdity. To say that smallpox, small-pox, tuberculosis, pneumonia, whooping cough, pim-His pim-His Immunity Pes on the face, leprosy, syphilis, typhoid fever, diar- ronoHaliMtinn rhoea, a "cold" in the head, and cancer where one generalization and &n referrable to tho Bame basIc law (the stato Kequired 0f the blood) and perhaps curable by the same Years to Be method, were the whole problem in all phases mas-Understood, mas-Understood, tered, was not only "revolutionary" but was a wildly impossible and clearly absurd theory of disease in its causes and its cure. But let us ask, in the light of the scientific progress pro-gress of the past quarter of a century just how absurd and impossible it really was. It is, indeed, a corollary of Darwin's law of natural selection, for it is clear that if all living organisms had not been preserved through their ancestral immunity to disease through this self-protecting mechanism me-chanism that saved them from disaster and death by disease they had never survived at all, the very fact of their survival being of itself indisputable in-disputable evidence of the presence in their bodies of a defensive and curative force the old vis medicatrix naturae (the healing force of nature) of the ancient doctors that was ever active and automatically self-adjusting under favprable conditions. To re-establish these favorable favor-able conditions, when accident had removed them, was the method proposed pro-posed by Still for the cure of disease; a method absolutely original with himself, and grounded on the most conspicuous fact of human consciousness the tendency of some forms of living matter to antagonize antag-onize and destroy certain other forms of living matter, and thus to survive in the struggle for life "disease" being mainly a struggle for life among living forms, as for example, destructive "germs" or tumor cells, on the one hand, and the normal cells of the body on the other. It is interesting to observe, however, that of all the old drastic methods of therapy which were in full swing in his own day, only one has retained Its vitality, and that is the principle of so-called "counter-irritants." "counter-irritants." Blisters and strong irritating plasters are potent in certain pains and other symptoms, although the reason why is perfectly ob- scure. And this principle of counter-irritants was perhaps the one prominent therapeutic method of the old time that Still did not aban- I don. He believed, in a limited way, in counter-irritants and used them, sometimes with excellent results, although the results were not al- , ways as sure as the cures he wrought when he stuck to his own discovery, dis-covery, osteopathy. His scientific errors and vagaries, Vagaries of however, were remarkably few when compared with Other Great ie numDer similar errors and vagaries of other s fi great scientific reformers of his own day. For ex- ocientinc ample, if Ave look into the life work of the great Reformers. Johannes Mueller, founder of modern physiology, and professor of anatomy and physiology in the University of Berlin (while Still was developing his earliest dissatisfactions with medical unwisdom) we will find that perhaps not one of Mueller's wonderful won-derful "discoveries" accepted in that day as true has stood the test of subsequent investigation. Mueller wrote whole text-books of physiology physio-logy (previously to 1850) which consisted wholly of experiments and theories all his own. And yet all that remains of the work of this great genius of science Ib the one theory of the "specific energy of nerves." But do we say therefore that Johannes Mueller is unworthy the monuments the world has raised to him and of the Dr. Still honor we do him proudly today? No, Indeed. For Muel- Annlied His lors scIentIfic errors and "vagaries" form the funda-.rp funda-.rp . mental rock and cornerstone of modern physiological Ineories to science, just as the most striking of Still's errors form Practical the fundament of modern drugless therapy, with this Healing. difference that Still's theory of immunity has been ab solutely demonstrated by every laboratory in Europe, and his practical application of that theory in osteopathy has given to f a suffering humanity a balm unparalleled and unapproached in the history of the human race. M Osteopathic Physicians of Salt Lake H DR. ALICE HOUGHTON, 518 Mclntyre Bldg. H ' . DR. GRACE STRATTON AIREY, 507 Scott Bldg. r M DR. MARY GAMBLE, 517 Templeton Bldg. M DR. JOSEPH S. AMUSSEN, 416 Felt Bldg. I I J :' |