Part 10

Posterior--P. Heel contact. Posterior, superior--P. S. Edge contact. Posterior, inferior--P. I. Edge contact. Posterior, right--P. R. Recoil. Posterior, right, superior--P. R. S. Recoil. Posterior, right, inferior--P. R. I. Recoil. Posterior, left--P. L. Recoil. Posterior, left, superior--P. L. S. Recoil. Posterior, left, inferior--P. L. I. Recoil. Right--R. Recoil (Same if R. S. or R. I.) Left--L. Recoil (Same if L. S. or L. I.) Anterior--A. “Bohemian” anterior fifth Lumbar move. (Not always advisable.)

Sacrum

Posterior base--B. of S.--P. Heel contact on base. Posterior apex--A. of S.--P. Heel contact on apex. Entire Sacrum posterior Sac. P. Heel contact between sacroiliac articulations.

Coccyx

To be adjusted only when ankylosed in an abnormal position and then by leverage of finger through rectum.

A FINAL WORD

Some useful information pertaining to adjustment will be found in section entitled, “Practice,” q. v.

After a careful and painstaking study of the foregoing pages it will still be found that the student is not by any means equipped for the work. He must _practice_ these things to learn them. We learn to do by _doing_. The chief use of this section will be as a reference and guide during the practice of adjusting.

THE CAUSE OF DISEASE

Disease a Morbid Process

Disease has been variously regarded as an entity, a process, a condition. It has been mentioned in terms which would almost personalize it, such as, “attacked by pneumonia,” “seized with cramps,” “in the clutches of tuberculosis.” Men have endeavored constantly to discriminate between diseases and to learn the appearance and peculiarity of each, and have resolved each into its peculiar elements only to learn that the merging lines between two diseases or between cases of the same disease are imperceptible. It is no more possible to define any one disease within exact limits and to distinguish it from all others than to consider one function of the human body without studying its interdependence with others.

Disease is a _process_. It is a natural process. It follows certain well-defined laws and consists in the abnormal performance of function in some bodily organ or organs, or in the untimely performance of some function which would be normal in its proper chronological relation with other functions or at another period of the body’s development. The balance of function of the body is destroyed--some function intensified or diminished--that is all. Every disease, properly studied, reveals its functional base.

Disturbances of the functions of _growth_, _nutrition_, and _repair_ produce changes in structure, physical evidences of disease. It is probable that every disease has a certain amount of structural change connected with it; it is hard to conceive of functional derangement without structural change, in a universe in which Nature is eternally building, destroying, or modifying organic peculiarities to meet changing functional demands. But in many instances this structural change is so slight as to be undiscoverable; such diseases are called “functional” to distinguish them from those in which structural pathologic changes are directly discernible, called “organic.”

Beginning of the Process

Recognizing the fact that disease consists in a succession of steps or a series of events, each depending upon the next preceding one and making possible its successor, and desiring to arrest or check this process and correct the damage done, in other words, “to cure disease,” the question arises, “Where does this process begin?”

If we wish merely to check the process or to modify it, as does medicine, the etiology of the disease is less important than the present state. It is then more important that we understand the changes which are taking place in the body at the time of our attempt, the condition of each organ at that time, and the general recuperative or resisting power of the individual.

But if we would correct all the damage done instead of merely preventing further damage or building up internal resistance against a still active destructive process; if we would so eliminate the effects of the earlier steps as to make the resumption of the disease process most improbable, we must know each step from the beginning to the present, understand their sequence and relation, and go back to the beginning with our correction, _removing the cause_.

The Cause of Disease

Since each event in the morbid process depends upon the preceding one and makes possible those which follow, it is possible to stop at any point in the chain of events and declare, “Here lies the Cause of Disease.” This explains the various etiologies adhered to each by a school of intelligent and scientific men, yet each apparently disagreeing most flatly with the others. No matter which step we select as our “ultimate cause” it truly is the cause, or one of the causes, of succeeding steps, which succeeding steps may well stand in our minds as the whole of the disease. Thus the physician, having found a germ, is quite content to look forward from the invasion of the germ and consider that as the primarily necessary requisite for disease production. In retrospect he follows disease back within the body to the time of entrance of the germ and then leaves the body to study the life habits of the germ and its favorite mode of conveyance. He has unwittingly left the direct line of investigation and followed a spur-track.

So with the osteopath who discovers contractured muscles drawing a member, or a bone, from its normal position. He proceeds to a study of the effect of such contracture upon other tissues and strives to relieve it by treatment--of the muscle.

The dietist discovers that certain food combinations cannot be properly cared for by an individual and that if taken they tend to develop toxins deleterious to the system. Whereupon he undertakes to discover food combinations which the body _can_ care for and believes that he has solved the question of etiology.

Now it is _most_ important that we find the _primary_ cause, the one which makes possible the operation of all the rest and without which all would be powerless to harm man. This we shall expect to find at the point of entrance of disease into the human organism. The primary cause must be the first step _which concerns man_, the first change from normal to abnormal, on which all subsequent changes depend. It is useless to pass outside of the consideration of man and those forces which directly affect man, in our search for the cause of disease. We are powerless to affect outside forces or to control or amend the laws of nature through which disease exists.

Let us attempt then to resolve disease into its successive steps and to find the first which concerns man. Correcting that, we shall have corrected, fully and completely, the process which constitutes disease. By striking at the root we may destroy the entire growth.

Vital Energy

_Irritability_ is the property of being susceptible to excitement or stimulation. Stimulation is the process of increasing the functional activity of any organ. Inhibition is the act of checking, restraining, or holding back the functional activity of any organ. These definitions, taken from Gould, are here introduced as a necessary preface to an attempt to set forth, without unnecessary reference to, or discussion of, any other theory as to the etiology of disease, the Chiropractic explanation of its presence.

Chiropractic maintains that all the chemical and physical activities of the human organism are controlled, directly or indirectly, through a third form of energy transmitted through the Nerve System; that while all three forms of energy are interdependent and closely related in their ultimate expression, one of the three is the _primary_ and most essential form, and especially indicative of life. We may call this third form _Vital Energy_.

There are several good reasons for believing that this nerve force is the primary form in which energy is expressed in man and for believing that it controls and directs the others in greater degree than it is controlled and directed by them.

Of the four forms of tissue of which the body is composed--connective, epithelial, muscular, and nervous--the latter is the one damage to which is followed by the greatest and most permanent consequences.

It is a fact that there are several organs whose removal leads to certain death because of their importance in the general economy of the body, but it is also true that section of the nerves leading to these organs just as certainly causes death by the cessation of their functions. There is no organ in the body aside from the nerves themselves which does not immediately cease to act upon withdrawal of its nerve force and at once begin a process of degeneration or atrophy.

Pathologic changes in the Nerve System invariably are followed by pathologic changes in the organs controlled by the diseased segment but the converse is not true. Excitation or inhibition of nerve activity produces corresponding and responsive change in the activity of the organs innervated, but excitation of an organ does not necessarily produce similar changes in the Nerve System. That system possesses the power of inhibiting or permitting responsive action, in other words, the power of _choice_.

Research in Comparative Anatomy develops the fact that the differences in power of complex action possessed by different organisms are entirely measurable by differences in the structure and complexity of their nerve mechanisms.

Further, by studying the effects of removal or extirpation, or of pathologic changes in various parts of the nerve system it has been demonstrated that the Brain is the center for those higher forms of activity known as psychic, for the power of accelerating or inhibiting the responses of the lower centers of the nerve system to stimulation from without, and for the conveyance of authority to act to all the lower centers. The Nerve System is the morphologic, physiologic, and dynamic center of the organism and the Brain the center of the Nerve System. We may, then, logically expect to find in the Brain, or in the channels by which power is distributed from the Brain to lower centers or organs, the initial step in the disease process, which is our present quest.

One Nerve System

All nerve tissue in the body is organized and linked together in a complicated aggregation of individual units, communicating by _contact_, and forming one great Nerve System having its directing center in the Brain. It is said by some writers to consist of two distinct systems--cerebro-spinal and sympathetic--but would better be described as consisting of central organs--brain and spinal cord--and peripheral organs--cranial, spinal, and sympathetic peripheral axons connecting with cells in the central axis and linked together in a net-work improperly separable into separate or distinct divisions, the fibres of different parts being bound together in such a way as to establish an intricate intercommunication, closest on the one hand between the cranial and sympathetic and on the other between the spinal and sympathetic. The sympathetic system may be regarded as nothing more than a medium for proper distribution of impulses originating in the cerebro-spinal system, and a series of reflex centers deriving their power to act from the central axis. The proper action of sympathetic ganglia has been demonstrated to depend upon the integrity of the spinal nerve fibres, or rami communicantes, which pass to and terminate in the ganglia with their telodendria (terminal arborizations) in contact with the dendrites (cellulipetal processes) of the ganglion cells.

It will appear that interference with one division or part of the nerve system may be followed by effects partly manifested through a distant part; that excitation or inhibition of a spinal nerve may correspondingly excite or inhibit sympathetic fibres.

Chiropractic Hypothesis

Chiropractic has accepted, as a convenient working hypothesis amply justified by years of clinical experiment and anatomical and physiological research, the proposition that all disease in the human body is primarily made possible by injury to (stimulation or inhibition of) some part of the nervous mechanism.

Injury to other tissues, unless the injury also involves nerve tissue, is quickly repaired and the body goes on without disease. Or the injury is sufficient at once to render the body untenable and death ensues. Few pathological changes follow trauma unless nerve tissue be injured.

This theory to be logical must and does include the entire nerve system. Also, since it is noted that each nerve cell presides over the nutrition of its own processes and possesses its own power of repair, it follows that unless an injury be of fatal nature or of permanent duration, even injuries to nerves tend toward automatic cure. We must seek a permanently operating interference with nerve tissue.

The brain, enclosed within the comparatively solid cranium, is so well protected that nothing except fracture of the skull, violent concussion, or shutting off of its blood supply from without, will produce permanent change there. Also, unless there be pressure by foreign substance against the brain, an injury will be repaired in time and the body resume its normal functional activity. It has been demonstrated that comparatively few diseases occur in this way. Such as do are called traumatic; i. e., caused by wound or injury.

In the broadest sense all disease is caused by trauma, as we shall presently show.

The upper or cephalic peripheral nerves, called cranial, leave the skull by foramina in its base (except the auditory) and are so protected by the immobility of the bones of the skull as to be comparatively free from direct injury. Peripheral injuries occur to cranial nerves but are repairable; even section of the trigeminal for neuralgia is usually followed after an interval by a reunion of the severed parts. As will be shown later, the special end organs of the cranial nerves are not free from the effects of spinal subluxation and their nuclei (deep origins) often share in morbid changes in the brain tissue due to nutritional disturbances.

The sympathetic portion of the nervous system might be classed with the cranial as regards infrequency of permanent interference were it not for the proximity of the great gangliated cord to the transverse processes and bodies of the vertebrae. This proximity renders it liable to sustain permanent impingement in vertebral subluxation.

Trauma Affects Spinal Nerves

With the exception of the first pair of Cervical nerves and the Sacral and Coccygeal, all spinal nerves pass through foramina of exit which are composed each of two movable vertebrae. The Chiropractic hypothesis is based upon the discovery that in addition to the part these vertebrae may take in general movements of the spine it is possible that their relation to each other may be changed by the application of force from without, and that this change once produced tends to remain permanently. These permanent vertebral subluxations occur with great frequency, a fact clinically demonstrable by palpation and by the X-Ray.

The discovery of this fact led to the ascertaining of two more, namely,

_No disease is ever found without accompanying subluxation._

Since each organ or tissue is connected with some definite and special vertebra, subluxations accompanying disease bear a relation to disease which is controlled by a general law, operative alike on all human organisms.

The latter fact required one other for its complete demonstration; namely, that the removal of the subluxation is always followed by the complete disappearance of the disease. Given more perfect methods of correcting subluxations it would follow that proof of the Chiropractic theory would be so complete and overwhelming as to meet at once with general acceptance. The difficulty lies in the fact that with our present methods much time is often required for complete correction of the vertebral displacement and much skill is needed even for successful investigation of the results obtainable. The theory is too often judged by unskilled or imperfect applications of it.

Every school of Chiropractic accepts the presence of the subluxation and has spent much thought and time in the effort to deduce the law governing its connection with disease. Diverse conclusions have been reached owing to the difficulty experienced in completely eradicating the subluxation. When it _is_ accomplished the results are absolutely conclusive. When it is partially or relatively accomplished the results are so good in a great per cent of cases as to lead sometimes to the erroneous belief that the subluxation did not cause the disease since mere partial correction of the subluxation suffices to bring about the apparent total removal of the disease. In every case of thorough experiment the results warrant the recommendation of the subluxation theory as at least a proper working hypothesis.

Without attempting here to review all the various conclusions reached or the methods by which they have been attained, we would simply state our own conclusion, which we believe is the only one compatible with demonstrable facts. It is briefly this: Since every portion of the body is connected through the nervous system with the spinal nerves and since it has been proven that this connection is reasonably constant and anatomically demonstrable; since the removal or correction of a subluxation leads in all cases to the complete disappearance of disease from the organs or tissues innervated from the subluxated portion of the spinal column, we conclude that the subluxation is the _primary cause_ of disease.

The final test of the correctness of any theory is the result of its application. Since Chiropractic secures a larger percentage of results than any other known system of healing it is safe to assume, at least, that it has discovered the way to remove the primary cause of disease.

That the Chiropractic theory, or more properly the subluxation theory, does not include all of the etiology of disease is evidenced by the facts of contagion and infection, by the effect upon the organism of the introduction of poison, by the consequences of worry, anger, and other abnormal mental states and conditions. These facts do not in the least invalidate the theory. They merely require explanation which will make clear their relation to the subluxation. That such explanation is abundantly at hand strengthens the position of Chiropractic more than would negation of all other causes save the one we concentrate upon.

The Mentalist who holds that all diseases exist in and are but figments of the mind is as far afield as the Physicist who holds that special nerve energy is nonexistent. The Chiropractor views Man as a complex psycho-physical unit, self-operating and internally self-healing until environmental forces disturb the nice adjustment of the machinery.

Disease is produced by, and is, a series of events, chief and most permanent of which is the subluxation. We may consider its etiology according to the order in which the events take place thus:

Direct Chain

Concussion of Forces.

Subluxation of Vertebra.

Impingement of Nerve.

Excitation or Inhibition.

Disease--Abnormal Function.

Accessory Chains

Between the last two steps above, or following the last, are often introduced one or more of the following accessory chains which modify or increase the final effect and are themselves made possible by the first four steps in the direct chain.

Pathogenic germ.

Poisonous excretions from germs.

Tissue destruction by chemical action of such toxins.

Reflex muscular tension tending to increase subluxation and thus augment nerve impingement and its effects.

Or

Dietetic error.

Abnormal chemical action.

Tissue destruction or nerve irritation by chemical poisons.

Reflex motor disturbances which further limit digestive power.

Or

Abnormal mental condition.

Waste of nerve energy with production of toxins.

General metabolic disturbance.

Increased disease wherever disease previously existed.

These are offered merely as illustrations. There are many accessory chains which aid in the production or development of disease and act as _secondary causes_.

Concussion of Forces

Man was so created, so provided with means for repair, growth, etc., that the body tends to maintain its own functional balance--perfect harmony among all its parts--unless interfered with by some outside agency. There are certain natural laws such as the law of gravitation and the law of momentum and inertia which operate without regard for man or man’s welfare. If man, wittingly or unwittingly, allows himself to come into violent conflict with one of these laws by falling to the ground or in meeting sudden and unexpected opposing force or mass while in motion, that which may be termed a concussion is produced by the meeting of the outside force and the internal bodily resistance.

Many such concussions may occur without serious damage. Some produce wounds or injuries which it is possible for the body to heal without causing serious disturbance of function. Other concussions are so violent as to produce displacement of structure which tends to remain permanently. Under Spino-Organic Connection will be found an explanation of the manner in which force applied to various parts of the body tends to affect the spine.

Now the displacement of a bone cannot be corrected by the body without outside aid. No method is provided for such correction. Produced by outside force affecting the body, it can only be reduced by outside force. It is this failure of Nature to make man adaptable to _every untoward circumstance_ which renders him susceptible to disease.

Subluxation

As has been previously stated by no means all concussions of forces produce subluxation. (All subluxations, however, are produced by concussion of forces.) It may be added that not all subluxations impinge nerves and that when they do not so encroach upon nerve tissue they produce no noticeable effect after the first temporary soreness has disappeared.

Every subluxation, however, evidences a _tendency_ to disease. Once moved from its normal position and the poise and symmetry of the body disturbed, there are influences which tend more readily to affect the same vertebra. The subluxated vertebra is more easily disturbed by jars, strains, etc., than the normal one because such jars are less regularly distributed to all its parts. A reflex muscular tension due to other and more pronounced subluxations and their disease effects may in turn increase the slight deviations throughout the spine, rendering them in their turn capable of producing disease. When the spine or any part of it has lost its perfect regularity disease is made _possible_, if not a fact at once. The average number of subluxations in each individual is about nine and one-third. Of this number probably not more than one-third (though no accurate figures are available) are actually productive of conditions nameable as disease at any given time. Discrimination between those which do, and those which do not, produce discoverable symptoms in a given case is a matter which requires a nice technical skill and perfect judgment.

Impingement of Nerves