Part 13

Mental diseases--so-called--usually depend upon disturbance of the blood-supply to the brain, controlled by the Cervical sympathetic. Adjustments, relieving the pressure on the sympathetic ganglia or cord and perhaps the direct impingement from the vertebral arteries, restore a normal circulation to the brain. The time required by Nature to effect a cure depends upon the rapidity with which the impingement is removed and the amount and character of the damage to brain tissue which must be repaired. The cure often requires time for a change of materials in brain cells or fibre tracts, by which they are reconstructed and again become capable of expressing normal function.

Cure of Dietetic Disease

When the subluxation is corrected, or partially so, the appetite changes and the craving for food becomes more normal. Adjustments may lessen a voracious appetite, increase a too capricious one, or abolish a perverted. At the same time the stomach is enabled to digest its contents more properly, the intestines to take it up and continue it, and the tissues to assimilate that which is brought to them. The body eliminates its waste with less effort and in some extreme cases the first effect of the adjustment may be to cause vomiting and diarrhea and thus purge the alimentary tract of materials which have become unusable.

If injurious diet be persisted in the effects of the adjustments will be partly counteracted, the tendency of the poisons generated within the body being to increase subluxation while the tendency of the adjustments is to correct them.

Cure of Poisoning Cases

In acute poisoning by way of the alimentary canal and sometimes when poison has been injected hypodermically, the body rids itself of the menace to its integrity by means of vomiting, diarrhea, and increased secretion of urine. Chronic cases tend rather toward the gradual absorption and removal from the body of the poisons and their cure depends upon the cessation of the poisoning; i. e., it is useless to try to cure a morphine case while the patient is still using the drug.

In acute poisoning the muscular contraction often increases subluxation and counteracts the effect of the adjustments, so that it becomes necessary to give very frequent adjustments until relief is had.

Cure of Exposure Disease

After the acute irritation of nerves arising from the exposure and causing irritation has been removed, perhaps by the first adjustment, if the exposure is not repeated the body heals itself with great rapidity, repairing with comparative ease the damage done.

Cure of Bodily Excess Disease

This depends upon the nature of the excess. If it be overeating, perhaps a more moderate diet will of itself and without adjustments enable the body to rid itself of the bad effects and restore general equilibrium. Adjustments will aid and accelerate this process. Venereal excess is most often engendered by an improper state of mind, perhaps demanding attention as a mental disorder, or by an irritation of the genital organs which demands local adjustment for its relief. Normality of the reproductive tract leads to sane forgetfulness and libidinous habits always suggest sexual weakness or disease. Often where a cure would be possible with right habits, no cure can be effected without their correction. A little good sound advice which will arouse the will of the patient to co-operation may aid. Boys with the masturbation habit offer small chance for favorable results in enuresis or nervous disorders unless the secondary cause be understood and overcome.

ADJUNCTS

In this connection the author cannot forbear a reference to the use of other methods to relieve disease in combination with the Chiropractic adjustment. From the foregoing study of the laws governing the cause and cure of disease it will be seen that therapeutical methods have little direct bearing upon the removal of disease. The logical method of effecting the cure is the removal of the cause. The subluxation being always the primary cause, its correction is always the logical method of effecting a cure. Not sometimes but _always_.

We know that when the subluxation is corrected the body naturally heals itself. Can we accelerate and aid that healing with stimulant or narcotic? Logic says no; experience says no: the use of any method which strikes at the disease beyond its primary cause and operates upon some of the effects of that cause without touching the cause itself is inconsistent with belief in Chiropractic.

Administration of poisonous drugs to the well body is considered poisoning; their administration to the sick body is also poisoning, whose symptoms combine with the disease to produce different outward signs. Fasting is starvation. Massage is stimulation or inhibition. Spondylotherapy means exhaustion of the spinal nerve centers in riotous expenditure of their stored-up energy.

It would require a wisdom beyond the human to improve upon the natural healing processes with which the body has been provided. It should be our entire business to remove the obstructions which hinder the full exercise of that healing power--the subluxations--to remove them dexterously and decisively and to interfere in no other way.

Other methods may and do serve to scatter or modify disease but not to cure it--unless they affect subluxations, as they sometimes do without intent. This accidental adjustment factor is valueless in the presence of a scientific and intelligent adjustment.

Let Medicine, Osteopathy, Spondylotherapy, Christian Science, Massage, and Electricity have their field. It is not ours. Nor can any of these methods be rationally combined with Chiropractic. Their basic principles contradict ours; their application interferes with the results of adjustment. If you claim to remove the cause of disease, _do so_, and do not mar your work by treatment of effects.

SPINO-ORGANIC CONNECTION

It has been said in a previous section that when subluxation and disease are associated the subluxation always precedes the disease and that the former is the cause, the latter the effect. So clearly do we understand this law that we are able to say _what_ subluxation would cause a certain disease and err by only so many cases per centum as there are variations from the usual structure of the spinal column and the nervous system.

But merely to state that a second Dorsal subluxation causes heart disease is not enough. We must know why and how it causes heart disease and whether, perchance, some other subluxation may sometimes have a like effect. We must map out the sphere of malign influence of each possible subluxation so that when our fingers encounter it it at once and inevitably suggests its possible effects, from which, by diagnostic methods, we may choose the one toward which most symptoms point. And we must know the relation of every nerve in the body to peripheral organs and their functions so that when we encounter indubitable evidence of some functional or organic disease we may know exactly where, in the spinal column, to seek for its cause.

We have learned how to discover a subluxation, how to adjust it, and how that adjustment permits a natural cure of its abnormal effects. We must now learn exactly _where_ to apply adjustment for any given organ in the body or for any disease. It must be understood in interpreting this statement and all those which follow in this section that it is never proper to adjust a vertebra merely because it is stated to be the cause of a disease believed to exist in a patient. No vertebra should be moved unless palpation determines it to be subluxated. Rather let it be known that _as a rule_ the statements of spino-organic connection here made will prove to be verifiable by palpation. There is no rule in Chiropractic without some exceptions, and mere diagnosis of disease is too notoriously unreliable to serve as a guide to adjustment without the verification of the trained touch.

The Field of Study

We wish to know the relation existing between each part of the Nerve System and other parts and between each part and the other organs of the body. Especially we wish to understand the relation between each part of the Nerve System and the spinal column, by which permanent subluxations of the latter interfere with the former’s action and therefore with the peripheral organs.

This requires a general knowledge of anatomy, physiology, and pathology which we shall presuppose the reader to possesses so that we may present only facts to which his attention should be particularly called. Let us begin with the relation of nerve tissue to other tissues where this relation can be most clearly comprehended, namely, with the development of the human embryo.

Segmentation

The complete human organism represents the snarled fusion of a series of similar, yet specialized, somatic segments, each presenting most of the attributes of a simple animal, though the association and co-ordination of all are required for the production of higher animal phenomena.

The embryo is composed of such segments placed with their centers in the same axial line. Each segment contains in association which is morphologic, physiologic, and anatomical, a segment of nerve matter and a somatic (body) segment. The neural segments are arranged end to end so as to form the rudimentary beginning of the complete central nerve axis of the adult human body; the somatic segments blend together with somewhat indefinite lines of cleavage which are to become much more indefinite and obscure by changes in relative form due to differences in the growth rate of different parts or to involuntionary changes following functional inutility at various periods. Gray says, “The intrinsically segmental nature of the spinal cord is expressed by the association of each definite segment with the somatic segment supplied by its nerve.”

Within each segment there may be observed at an early period cell migrations from the walls of the primitive neural tube and amoeboid projection of axonic and dendritic processes from these cells, which serve to bring the other tissues of the segment under the control of the nerve elements; there is an assumption of command, as it were, by the nervous system, so that the epithelial, connective, and muscular tissues of each segment are linked in sensomotor and vegetative co-ordination by the contact association of the nerves which ramify them--sensomotor because the nerves are presently to carry the only force capable of inciting activity of any kind in other tissues, vegetative because the functions of growth, nutrition, and repair, in each somatic cell, depend upon the continuity of communication between it and the lowest nerve cell in the nerve pathway which connects it with the higher motor and sensor centers.

Development of the Nerve System

Already may be noted a hint and a prophecy of that future segmental organization by which it becomes possible for some spinal vertebra to become displaced and thus begin a morbid process which may diffuse itself throughout an entire body segment, involving neural and somatic elements together. Already the simple organization begins to become rapidly complex and difficult to trace.

Cell masses begin to migrate from the walls of the primitive neural tube to a position laterad to become the spinal ganglia; these send out long dendritic processes which marvellously thread their way to a predetermined peripheral connection which is to bring some cutaneous, or muscular, or joint tissue into sensor relation with the dorsal, or Sensor, portion of the cord and through it with the brain; at the same time they send their axonic processes inward to mingle with and communicate with the dendrites of other sensor cells remaining in the central axis to form the gray matter of the cord, and thus, migrating, keep up communication both with the central axis and the periphery. Other cell masses migrate ventrolaterad to form the sympathetic ganglia and they also send out afferent and efferent processes which make a connection on the one hand with the periphery and on the other with the source from which the cells developed, the situation to be occupied by the cord. From this view it is seen that the sympathetic system is merely an offshoot from the same source with all the rest of the peripheral nerve system, merely a mechanism for the proper distribution of nerve impulses from the central organs, and that it retains its connection in all its parts with those organs. Its ganglia, like those of the cord, are always and from the beginning under the domination of the upper or cephalic end of the neural tube.

This cephalic end rapidly expands. Its growth is faster than the rest of the neural tube and from its walls, by proliferation, develop the structures of the cerebrum, mid-brain, and hind-brain. It also gives off ganglionic masses from which grow sensor processes to form the afferent elements of the cranial nerves and contains, like the cord, motor nuclei, or nidi, from which motor axons grow toward the periphery to come into relation with definitely predetermined organs.

The Spinal Column and Cranium

Now appear the primitive cartilaginous and membranous elements from which a bony wall is to be built around the central nerve axis, primitive vertebrae, the upper known as cranial and numbering four, and the lower, or spinal, numbering usually thirty-three. These bone structures develop around the brain and spinal cord. Later the cephalic vertebrae fuse into a solid vault, the cranium, completely enclosed except for various foramina for the passage of spinal cord, nerves, and blood-vessels. The succeeding twenty-four vertebrae remain separate and movable upon each other and leave between them the openings for the emergence of the spinal nerves. The last nine segments fuse eventually into two immovable or false vertebrae called Sacrum and Coccyx. These latter also contain foramina from which nerves issue.

The Adult Nerve System

When this development and growth of new parts is completed the Nerve System appears as a set of complex organs made of a central axis, brain and spinal cord, and peripheral connections made up of forty-three pairs of directly attached nerves (12 cranial and 31 spinal) with two great gangliated cords and numerous other sympathetic ganglia and communicating cords situated outside the skeletal axis but communicating with it intimately by means of interchange of fibre bundles between the sympathetic and the cerebro-spinal nerves.

But we who have viewed the embryonic development even briefly and sketchily, understand that all these complex organs are merely an aggregation of neurons, each neuron made up of a cell body, one or more axons, and dendrites; that the nerve cells are the controlling elements and the axons the centrifugal carriers of nerve energy, while the dendrites are the centripetal processes through which each nerve cell receives communications.

The Body Axis

The skull and spinal column, taken together, constitute the bony axis of the body, the center of organization of the skeleton; to these parts are attached other skeletal structures, mandible, ribs and sternum, extremities, classified as the appendicular portion of the skeleton. Likewise are attached, directly or indirectly, the voluntary muscles which move the skeleton, and the vessels and viscera. Any given structure in the body can be traced to a supporting connection with this bony axis.

The bony axis contains the neural axis. Its strength and solidity are such as to preserve the integrity of the most vitally important tissue of the body from every form of injury if such protection be possible. Through openings in the bony axis--foramina--the central nerve organs give off or receive the nerve bundles which bring them into communication with every other structure of the body. And the body has been so arranged that every single part of it is partly or wholly under control of nerves emerging through these foramina. Even the brain and spinal cord themselves respond to changes in the blood-vessels which are controlled by nerve impulses which have emerged through the intervertebral or cranial foramina and returned by other routes to supply the muscular coats of the vessels.

Concussion of Forces Affects Spinal Column

Reverting for a moment to the primitive segmental arrangement which is none the less persistent and important because in the completed human the regularity of contour of the segments has been wholly lost and aberrant organs have moved from their original positions carrying their nerve supply with them, let us first state and then illustrate a general law.

Any violence applied to the body tends to affect the spinal column. Such violence does or does not produce permanent displacement of a spinal segment according as it does or does not succeed in overcoming the internal resistance. But whatever effect upon the spine is accomplished will occur most noticeably in the same body segment to which violence was applied. That is, force applied to any body segment tends to subluxate the vertebra which would impinge the nerves controlling that segment. Thus diseases are primarily segmental and later general just as the body is primarily segmental and later co-ordinated into complicated functional systems, all more or less interdependent.

If a man falls so that he strikes first on the point of his shoulder the force will be transmitted almost directly across the line of the spine, at right angles, and may subluxate the sixth or seventh Cervical or first Dorsal. If subluxation occurs it is because the law of gravity causes the remainder of the body to keep moving downward after the shoulder strikes and until it too comes to rest. The subluxation which results is a right one if the left shoulder be struck and vice versa. Now the brachial plexus is chiefly controlled by these three vertebrae and a right subluxation tends to impinge most the nerves on the left side, so that if any permanent effect of the fall follow it will be a permanent weakness or disease of the left shoulder or arm, with possible slight extensions along other branches of the same plexus, as to the latissimus dorsi. Also by the internal sympathetic communications from this same region the larynx, trachea, or large bronchi may be affected, occasionally the heart, all structures segmentally associated with the arm.

This law applies throughout the body and can be fully demonstrated by any one having a complete knowledge of nerve connections and body segmentation upon being furnished with a complete and accurate history of any injury to the body. It goes further than this. Toxins or other secondary causes operating within the body tend always to produce their motor reactions and consequent effect upon any subluxated vertebrae in the same body segment with the peripheral irritation, so that if the stomach contain a poison which affects the spine the sixth or seventh Dorsal vertebrae will be most affected and the stomach itself the organ to suffer most.

The spinal column is peculiarly adapted, with its strong ligaments, its cartilage cushions, its perfect flexibility and flexuousness, to withstand jars and shocks. Yet the spine is the door by which disease enters the organism. Concussion of forces, the energy from the environment encountering the bodily resistance, is of no serious effect upon the organism--of no permanent or irreparable effect--unless it affects the spine and brings about vertebral subluxation, disturbance of the normal alignment between vertebrae, and thereby interrupts the perfect healing and controlling influence exerted by the vital part of the segment, the central nerve portion.

When a concussion of forces _does_ produce subluxations, does disturb the perfect poise and balance of that center of structure of the body, its consequences affect an entire body segment, producing, or tending to produce, disturbances through the entire segment.

Disease is the indirect consequence of the contact of man with his environment and is _natural_ but not _normal_.

The spinal column is a _center_ or a series of centers for disease. In this column will be found the primary cause--the introductory element--by which disease first makes its appearance in a previously healthy body.

Comparative Anatomy

The study of Comparative Anatomy is necessary to a complete understanding of the human organism. We may trace in the simplest forms of animal life the beginnings and foreshadowings of the same plan of organization. We may follow it through the ascending scale and watch its complexity develop, and by viewing each step in the process we may come fully to realize that the original plan has been preserved throughout, though often in such form that by study of the single species we should fail to recognize it.

We lack space for complete consideration of this subject and shall merely suggest certain facts and phases. No clear analogy can be drawn until we reach the worm, with its rudimentary spinal column and nerves. Roughly speaking, dissection of one spinal segment with its nerves and their controlled area--if this were possible--would separate from the rest a fairly regular _layer_ similar to all the other layers. This is the primitive segmentation.

It is shown much more clearly in the fish but the segments have begun to curve with their periphery directed slightly caudad and some have already shown a preponderating growth over other segments and a change of shape from the original symmetry.

The reptiles and birds show still more complicated segmentation. It is notable that in these lower animals the purely reflex portion of the nervous system is highly developed while the volitional and sensory portions, the cerebral hemispheres, are yet rudimentary. In birds, particularly, the cerebellum is very highly developed because its function of co-ordination of muscles for the maintainence of equilibrium is required in a high degree for flying.

Those land animals which walk on all fours approach still closer but their arrangement is much more readily comprehensible than in man. As the animal stands on all fours with head extended, a gigantic cleaver slicing out each vertebra and pair of nerves and slicing straight toward the base of support might be said to divide the body _approximately_ according to the structural and functional arrangement in segments. Yet no segment so separated would exactly correspond to the nerve distribution; there would be enlargement of some organs with extension into the zone previously occupied by their neighbors; enlargement here and atrophy there; invagination of one organ by another and overlapping and intermingling of parts. Even the relation between the spinal cord segments and the vertebrae has departed much from the primitive so that the growth of the vertebrae has exceeded that of the cord and the cord terminates opposite the Lumbar region instead of at the end of the Sacral canal. It may here be remarked that in the human embryo the cord at first occupies the entire length of the neural canal formed within the vertebrae; that in the adult it terminates opposite the lower border of the body of the first Lumbar vertebra and that the nerves, still retaining their original foramina of exit and their relation to the somatic segments, pass downward within the canal to their respective openings and collectively form a brush like mass called “cauda equina.”

Causes of Segmental Changes