If we are to believe history every century produces one or more wonderful healers, or persons with the "Healing Touch." It is said that these mysterious persons have made the blind to see, the lame to walk, the deaf to hear, and even the dead to rise, by means of laying on of hands. Just how much of these records are facts or fiction no man may say, but we may reasonably assume that a fair amount of facts are mixed up with the fiction, even if we may not believe half of what we hear and read.

Dr. Andrew Taylor Still, of Kirksville, Mo., is the founder of Osteopathy, and in that place he has founded what he is pleased to call a college, which is highly successful. After reading his history, he will perhaps remind you somewhat of Mary Baker Eddy, Elbert Hubbard, Tolstoy, and Jesus of Nazareth, although it cannot be said that he bears much physical or mental resemblance to any of these. He dresses like a farmer or backwoodsman, and is Simplicity personified. His followers worship him very much as do those of Mrs. Eddy, and there is a vein of mystery, not to say of superstitious faith, connected with both their doctrines that seems to bind their followers together. While Dr. Still claims no divine inspiration, as did Mrs. Eddy, still he and his disciples are inclined to the mysterious and supernatural. For example, in one of the Osteopath books I find this, by his son Dr. Charles E. Still, D.O.: "When a boy, I was out with my father and an old physician one day, when he stopped at a house where there was a boy almost totally blind. My father stepped up to him and took hold of his neck; in a few minutes he bade him look at the sun, and behold, the blindness had disappeared." This reads very much like a Bible miracle. "Again, we met an old colored man who was badly crippled. My father asked him his trouble and had him stand up against a drygoods box. My father set down a flour sack of bones we were carrying; he then took hold of his leg and after apparently winding it around a few times, he told the man to walk, which he did without as much as a limp, much to the amazement of the bystanders. Time and again equally as wonderful cures were made by him in my presence." Dr. Still, Jr., then goes on to say that in an epidemic of diphtheria he treated about sixty-five cases and lost but one; that he was called on to treat practically all the ailments that flesh is heir to; that he treated epileptics by the score and successfully in most cases; that he set a neck that was broken, and set a case of dislocated astragalus and cured it in one day after a physician had assigned the patient to straps in bed for six weeks, thus saving five weeks and five days of the patient's time, patience and money. Other miraculous cures are reported by the Messrs. Still and by other learned Osteopaths, and there are many people around who are willing to give reliable testimony to the effect that they have been cured of serious ailments by Osteopaths when doctors have failed.

Osteopathy is really the old Swedish movement cure under a new name, but considerably enlarged and improved.

Some people imagine that Osteopathy is a sort of massage, but, according to Dr. Still, Sr., this is a mistake, for he says: "Osteopathy absolutely differs from massage. The definition of 'massage' is masso, to knead; shampooing of the body by special manipulation, such as kneading, tapping, stroking, etc. The masseur rubs and kneads the muscles to increase the circulation. The Osteopath never rubs. He takes off any pressure on blood vessels or nerves by the adjustment of any displacement of bone, cartilage, ligament, tendon or muscle." Thus, an Osteopath might be called a bone manipulator, and that is what the words implies, "osteon" meaning bone. As a matter of fact, Dr. Still and all Osteopaths to the contrary notwithstanding, Osteopathy is not "absolutely different from massage." Dr. Still says that Osteopaths adjust displaced muscles, does he not? And how do they do it? By manipulating the muscles. That is just what the masseur does. It is true that the masseur rubs, with a view to increasing the circulation, but it is also true that the Osteopath kneads, or presses, for the same purpose. A good masseur handles the muscles very much as do the Osteopaths. Circulation is the object in both cases: If you want to hurt an Osteopath's feelings, just tell him that he is a fine masseur. For, has he not spent three years at an Osteopathic College to learn his art, whereas the masseur may have learned his the previous week from some Turkish bath operator? Please remember that the Osteopath is a physician, and that he knows as much about anatomy and therapeutics as do other physicians. Please also remember that the Osteopath has had a thorough course in physiology, biology, embryology, histology, pathology, symptomatology, physical and laboratory diagnosis, obstetrics, gynecology, dietetics, hygiene, bacteriology, toxicology, urinalysis, surgery, pediatrics, dermatology, phchistry, and medical jurisprudence. The only physicianly subject with which he is not familiar is materia medica, and that is something that he thinks is unnecessary.

The Osteopath does not believe in drugs. On that point he will have many sympathizers, notably the Christian Scientists. In fact, many of our best physicians have abandoned that old fashioned faith in drugs which made people think that they could abuse Nature all they liked, and do as they pleased, and that a few drops of medicine would cure them of the ill-effects of their indiscretion. Dr. Osler, who was appointed Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford University a few years ago, gives a long list of diseases, in his book "Textbook on the Theory and Practice of Medicine," which cannot be cured by drugs, and he frequently states that drugs are notoriously uncertain in their effects in many cases. Any physician who is honest and wise will tell you that drugs are not being used so much nowadays as formerly, and that medicine is still more or less of an experiment in many cases, and often a dangerous and fatal experiment. But, in spite of all this, it is certainly unwise to denounce all drugs simply because we do not know the certain effects of some drugs. Drugs have been in use since the beginning of history, and we are still experimenting with them. While we do not yet know what they will do and not do, we know that they will do something. In other words, drugs have an effect on the body—that we know. We know that certain drugs will put us to sleep, or cause us to vomit, or give us a headache, or take away a headache, or benumb a pain, etc. Everybody knows the effects of castor oil, pepsin, strychnine, salts, sugar of lead, laudanum, paragoric, camphor, iodine, linament, calomel, and certain other drugs in certain cases. Now, some of these drugs are extremely useful and it would be a calamity if the human family were to be deprived of their use. While, as we all know, many people are extremely superstitious about medicines and are taking them all the time to cure imaginary ills, and while it is true that many sick persons are either killed or made worse every year by medicines administered by physicians, still the sum-total of good that comes from the proper use of drugs, and the immense possibilities of the future seem to reason that we must not entirely discontinue the use of drugs. Nature is the best doctor, and all that the physicians can do is to assist nature. Osteopathy may assist nature, and so may massage, and so may water, and exercise, and diet and drugs. Different cases require different remedies. Drugs are a part of nature. Nature made all herbs, vegetables and minerals. Some of our best medicines, even minerals, are found in the food that we eat and in the water that we drink. Perhaps nature put them there for a purpose. Perhaps she put in too much, perhaps she did not put in enough. We are all different, no two alike. Our bodies are made up of various chemicals, and many of our ailments are due to a scanty supply of these chemicals. Hence, if we cannot get a sufficiency of these chemicals from the foods, we may often require them from the drug store. For example, phosphorus is necessary to the nerves and brain. While it is found in various foods, it may be, as is often the case, that we have to take phosphorus in some other form in order to preserve our health or to restore our body to its normal state.

But the Osteopath does not reason this way. Dr. Still says: "God has placed the remedy for every disease within the material house in which the spirit of life dwells. I believe that the Maker of man has deposited in some part or throughout the whole system of the human body drugs in abundance to cure all infirmities; that all the remedies necessary to health are compounded within the human body. They can be administered by adjusting the body in such a manner that the remedies may naturally associate themselves together. And I have never failed to find all these remedies. Man should study and use only the drugs that are found in his own drugstore—that is, in his own body." If this means anything, it means that drugs are necessary, and that manipulating the bones of the body results in a proper distribution of these drugs. The statement that he has never failed to find these remedies, if it means anything, means that Dr. Still has cured every case that has come to him, but he has never said so in plain words; in fact, he admits elsewhere that he has not been successful with all cases. And if he was not successful in certain cases, the failure was due to not being able to adjust matters so as properly to associate the drugs of the body with their remedies! Farther on Dr. Still says that the still greater question to be solved is, "How and when to apply the touch which sets free the chemicals of life as Nature designs." Does Dr. Still here mean that Osteopaths have a certain magic touch which is so powerful and wonderful that it must be used with great caution? That this touch lets loose certain drugs or chemicals which the body needs to cure itself? It is possible that the Doctor is speaking in figures and that he does not mean what his words imply. It must be so. Otherwise, we must put him down as a charlatan. If he speaks figuratively, he is indiscreet, because he plainly leads people to think that the spinal column secrets certain drugs or chemicals which are necessary to health and that these can be made to flow to the necessary parts by means of certain manipulations.

Dr. Still would have us believe that Osteopathy is something of a cure-all, and that its adoption makes the use of drugs unnecessary, but all Osteopaths do not make this claim. Dr. George V. Webster, D.O., says: "Osteopathy is not a cure-all. There are disorders that are incurable." This is encouraging, because we now know that if a disease is incurable Osteopathy cannot cure it! Dr. Webster says that "there are diseases needing surgical attention," that in some cases an anesthetic is necessary, that a parasite requires an antiseptic, and that a poison requires an antidote. Thus he has found that drugs have some uses, at least. In one place Dr. Webster says that Osteopathy is not a cure-all, and in another we find him saying, "The application of osteopathic principles to meet the problems of bodily disorder has demonstrated their efficiency in practically all diseases"! Dr. Still himself says, "You may say there are some failures. Yes, who would not expect it? Perhaps the Osteopath is not able to apply the knowledge he should have gained before being granted a diploma from his osteopathic school."

And thus, all through the Osteopath literature there is an inference that bone manipulation cures everything, although it admits that it has not always done so. This is the weak, fatally weak, spot in Osteopathy. It is the old story of the over-enthusiastic specialist who thinks that the sun rises and sets on his pet theory. Show a child a watch, and all it sees and understands is that it is wound up and that the hands move around. If the watch gets out of order the child tries to wind it up again—that is all it knows. It does not know that inside the case are hundreds of delicately arranged parts that are adjusted to a nicety. It does not know that some of these parts may be worn out from over-use, or are missing, or broken, or that they need cleaning. Likewise, when the Osteopath sees a body suffering from some disorder, he usually sees only the blood vessels and nerves, and he decides at once that one or more of them is being squeezed by a misadjustment of some bone or muscle. He looks on the spinal column as the backbone of the human structure, which is of course true, and surmises that if anything is wrong it must have originated in the spinal cord, which is not necessarily true. If it is indigestion, or a disease of the kidney, or what not, he thinks that by turning one of the keys on the spinal cord it will unlock the necessary drug and let it flow to the disordered part. He wears a pair of glasses on which is written the word "Osteopathy," and when he looks he sees nothing but Osteopathy. Now, as a matter of fact, he is right in many cases. He will cure when all the doctors in the world might not even relieve. He has a great truth. He holds the key that unlocks the door to many a mystery, and it is a key that should be in common use, by all doctors. Where the regular physician would perhaps drug his patient to death, the Osteopath might cure him with a few simple treatments. Take, for example, a headache. Now, a headache is a symptom, not a disease. It is a sign that something is going wrong. It is a sign that there is either too much blood in the head, or not enough, usually the former. In either case, it is probable that there is some abnormal pressure on some blood-vessel or nerve, and that if that pressure could be released the headache would disappear. Just examine a model of the spinal cord sometime and see what a complicated structure it is, with all the little nerves, blood vessels and muscles so intricately interwoven between its many parts. We are all prone to get in certain habits. We learn to read in a certain posture, and to write, and to lie down, and to walk, and to sit, and in the course of years it would be strange if one or more of our thousands of parts did not get into an abnormal position so as to compress or squeeze some of the delicately arranged nerves or blood channels, thus preventing freedom of passage. Such a condition might set up congestion and inflammation, and it is likely to affect seriously some distant organ. By readjusting the bones of the neck, shoulder, back or spinal cord, we relieve that pressure and thereby cure the disorder. There can be no doubt of all this, and every regular physician ought to know it and to practice it, but they don't and won't. Furthermore, they won't refer the patient to an Osteopath. Professional jealousy!

It is really a shame that there cannot be some kind of a union of the various isms, ologies and athies. Certainly all Osteopaths should be regularly admitted physicians and surgeons. If they could be broad enough for that, they would soon put the old-school physicians out of business.

In conclusion, Osteopathy is much overestimated by some, and much underestimated by many. It will do good to most anybody, and harm to nobody. It will cure thousands of cases that the regular physicians cannot cure; but, on the other hand, there are thousands of cases that Osteopathy should not attempt to cure without the aid of the modern school of physicians and surgeons.