Happy Birthday, Chiropractic!

The basic health principles that give chiropractors purpose and life have been known since ancient times. The famous Greek physician Hippocrates (d. 357 BC) wrote such notable sayings as "It is more important to know what sort of person has a disease than to know what sort of disease a person has" and "If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health" and "Get knowledge of the spine, for this is the requisite for many diseases."

Physicians and doctors throughout the ages have attempted to relieve conditions and ailments by spinal manipulations and exercises. But it was not until 1895 that a systematic philosophy and science was first generated. On September 18, 1895, an event occurred that changed the future of health care.

In the words of D. D. Palmer, a one-time grocer and magnetic healer who had maintained a strong interest in health care, "Harvey Lillard, a janitor in the Ryan Block, where I had my office, had been so deaf for 17 years that he could not hear the racket of a wagon on the street or the ticking of a watch. I made inquiry as to the cause of his deafness and was informed that when he was exerting himself in a cramped, stooping position, he felt something give in his back and immediately became deaf. An examination showed a vertebra racked from its normal position. I reasoned that if that vertebra was replaced, the man’s hearing should be restored. With this object in view, a half-hour’s talk persuaded Mr. Lillard to allow me to replace it. I racked it into position by using the spinous process as a lever and soon the man could hear as before. There was nothing “accidental” about this, as it was accomplished with an object in view, and the result expected was obtained. There was nothing crude about this adjustment; it was specific, so much so that no Chiropractor has equaled it."

Harvey Lillard testified to the benefits of that first modern chiropractic adjustment: "I was deaf 17 years and I expected to always remain so, for I had doctored a great deal without any benefit. I had long ago made up my mind to not take any more ear treatments, for it did me no good. Last January Dr. Palmer told me that my deafness came from an injury in my spine. This was new to me; but it is a fact that my back was injured at the time I went deaf. Dr. Palmer treated me on the spine; in two treatments I could hear quite well. That was eight months ago. My hearing remains good."

That first experimental chiropractic adjustment blossomed over the many years into the chiropractic profession that now exists: the third-largest doctoral level profession after medicine and dentistry, licensed chiropractors in every state and many countries around the world, and nearly 60,000 chiropractors in the United States alone. The tradition of Hippocrates and D. D. Palmer continue in the joy of every new patient who finds relief from pain through doctors of chiropractic. So, thanks to all the pioneers of chiropractic in the past and present...

Happy 117th Birthday, Chiropractic!

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