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

When a vertebra has lost its normal articular relations with its fellows and occupies an abnormal position as a consequence in regard to all surrounding or adjacent tissues it may impinge nerve tissue in two ways, by tension or by constriction. By the displacement of one vertebra of a pair the size and shape of the intervertebral foramen may be altered (occlusion) constricting the nerve which passes through the opening. That this change in the size and shape of the foramina does frequently occur is shown by the frequency with which alterations in the shape of vertebrae appear in dry spines, by post-mortems which have demonstrated the altered foramina in the cadaver and by permanent occlusion of the foramina in ankylosed spines so that the occlusion may be preserved. Adding cartilage changes in the intervertebral disks to alterations in bone shape and position, especially the latter, we find full and sufficient reason for all the pathological phenomena which follow the subluxation. Explain it as you will, these morbid results do follow subluxation and can be experimentally produced in animals. Moreover, the disease may be directed to a desired organ or region by selection of the particular vertebra to be displaced.

The suboccipital, sacral, and coccygeal nerves cannot be constricted as they pass through the foramina because they do not emerge through complete rings formed of separate and movable bones. But these nerves may be pressed upon or stretched by displaced bone, as may also the great gangliated cord of the sympathetic, especially the Cervical portion of it. Tension of the Cervical sympathetic cord by subluxation of vertebrae is a very common occurrence.

Whether the impingement be by constriction or by tension the effect is much the same depending upon the degree to which the molecular continuity of the nerve substance is impaired—interference with the function of the organ connected with the nerve and sometimes swelling and pain in the nerve itself followed by degeneration. The effects are chiefly noticeable in peripheral tissues. S. Weir Mitchell says (1872), “A continuous pressure upon a nerve results in the degeneration of the nerve and a disturbance of function of the parts innervated by that nerve.” No clearer statement can be made.

It must not be understood that all nerve impingement is due directly to subluxation of a vertebra. A dislocated shoulder would produce a similar effect of nerve tension. But dislocated shoulders are seldom met with as permanent conditions. Likewise there may be secondary impingement from new growths, themselves due to some primary subluxation. Aneurism of the thoracic aorta often produces hoarseness by impingement of the recurrent laryngeal.

Not all impingement is sufficient to produce noticeable disease. To a certain extent the power of adaptation inherent in the body can overcome its deleterious effects and suppress all signs of its existence until an overtax upon bodily energy lessens this adaptative power. Then disease appears and we say that the overtax caused it.

Excitation or Inhibition

A slight impingement serves as a mechanical irritant to increase the action of the nerve and the functions of the attached peripheral organs. Such stimulation beyond the normal is always followed by a reaction, or fall to subnormal action.

Heavy impingement, especially the impingement due to marked occlusion of foramina, partly or wholly paralyzes the affected nerves. Often the impingement produces only a latent weakness in some organ, a weakness which may be brought to light only through the introduction of some secondary cause which takes advantage of the susceptibility of the organ to produce some definite disease. As an instance of this we may mention typhoid fever. No typhoid case is found without subluxation in the region of the second Lumbar; yet the latent weakness produced by that subluxation may not have been observed until the typhoid germ found a fertile feeding and breeding ground in the weakened tissue and proceeded to multiply there and develop its toxins.

Effect Upon Single Cell

Each nerve cell is trophic to its processes and to the tissue cells to which these processes are distributed. The growth, nutrition and repair of each cell of the body is dependent upon the integrity of the axon which supplies it. The effect of nerve impingement upon the single cell is a weakening of cell structure and a disturbance, slight or great, of the special function possessed by that cell. Dunglisson says of diseases, “All ... are dependent upon modified cell-action.”

Effect Upon Organs

Each organ is but an aggregation of cells of some special type or kind. Nerve Impingement usually involves either a whole nerve trunk or many of its fibres and thus weakens either the entire organ or many of its cells and increases or diminishes its special function. Some organs are innervated by more than one nerve and may be injured only in part by a localized impingement.

Alteration of the action of one organ often tends to affect the entire body, as in subluxation of the fourth Dorsal interfering with the nerve supply to the liver the secretion of bile becomes altered in character or quantity and the entire system suffers, through deranged digestion, from this alteration in a necessary secretion. Every disease presents symptoms only indirectly referable to the organ which is primarily affected and the problem of the diagnostician is to so discriminate between direct and indirect symptoms as to be able to locate disease.

Simple Subluxation Disease

We have considered a chain of events by which disease is produced without the intervention of any secondary cause. Such a condition may be called, for convenience, a simple subluxation disease. Its existence depends directly upon the subluxation which is the first change manifest in the individual and upon which all the other changes depend.

The two facts that not all subluxations impinge nerves and not all nerve impingements cause demonstrable disease explain why we do not, in practice, find a disease to correspond with each subluxation discovered by palpation. It must be remembered that there may be latent weakness following a subluxation and of importance because it renders the patient susceptible to infection or to the action of other secondary causes.

SECONDARY CAUSES

Among the secondary causes of disease may be mentioned the pathogenic germ, poisons, dietetic errors, abnormal mental states, bodily excesses, exposure to sudden temperature changes, and inhalation of non-poisonous but irritating substances as the most common. Many others might be included but these will suffice for complete illustration of the principle. It will be our endeavor to show how each of these secondary causes operates by virtue of a previous susceptibility, or breaking down of the normal resisting power of the organism caused by subluxation, and how each in turn may bring about increase in subluxation and thus, both directly and indirectly, increase disease.

Bear in mind these two all-important facts. None of these secondary causes can operate without previous subluxation. A subluxation may produce disease without the aid of any secondary cause.

GERM DISEASES

These comprise a large portion of the febrile affections. Most germ diseases are characterized by fever and the presence of circulating toxins with resulting disturbance of the metabolic processes of the body.

It is generally agreed among pathologists that the greater number of varieties of micro-organisms found at times in man are not pathogenic. Some aid in the decomposition of food in the alimentary canal; others have various beneficial functions to perform. But some, under proper conditions, feed upon and destroy living tissue. These are the so-called pathogenic germs.

The pathogenic germs are many. They enter the body by various routes, in the air we breathe, the food we eat, the water we drink; sometimes they are communicated by direct contact with other persons or with objects infected with them. The term “contagious” is applied to those diseases whose germs may be carried through the air from one to another; “infectious” refers to those communicable only by contact.

In every healthy individual are found multitudes of germs of both the pathogenic and harmless varieties. We are constantly exposed to the influence of the former yet by no means all bodies into which pathogenic germs find entrance contract disease. This fact has caused much study and among pathologists and bacteriologists generally the conclusion has been reached that the development of colonies of micro-organisms sufficiently to produce disease depends upon what is known as “susceptibility” of the organism. There must be a latent weakness of which the micro-organisms take advantage.

This amounts to the admission that the body contains the inherent property of successfully resisting all germ action. Indeed, the fundamental proposition of Serum-Therapy is that under stress of the presence of dilute germ infusions the body does develop special chemicals which neutralize the germ poisons and kill the germs and which remain after the inoculation to guard against any further entrance of germs of the same kind and vulnerable to the same protective chemicals.

This theory is sufficiently correct to have served as an unassailable basis for a most illogical procedure. The truth is that the auto-protective power of the body must be lower than normal and the germs must find a weakened area for development and multiplication before they can develop sufficiently to produce disease. Once they gain a foothold they tend to multiply with great rapidity and to develop alarming symptoms often leading to death.

Only in a few instances does modern science believe that a pathogenic germ can successfully attack a healthy body, but is claimed that there are a few germs, such as the Klebs-Loeffler bacillus (diphtheria producer) and the bacillus of anthrax, which may find lodgment in any organism, healthy or unhealthy, to produce disease.

Now, the susceptibility of the body to germ invasion requires explanation. Merely to say that one is susceptible and another is not leaves too wide a field of possibility for error. It is easy to reason from the fact that all persons are at some time exposed to contagious or infectious diseases while comparatively few contract them that some persons are vulnerable to certain diseases while others are not. It is plain that while a person may be susceptible to typhoid fever because he has a weakness in the intestines, he may be quite immune from pneumonia or tuberculosis or any other infectious or contagious disease. But why this difference? Let us look at the problem from another angle.

Chiropractors find with every contagious or infectious disease certain subluxations whose location with relation to the disease is constant and demonstrable. Thus all cases of pulmonary tuberculosis show a third Dorsal subluxation with only enough exceptions to prove the rule; tonsilitis is invariably accompanied by subluxation of the second, third or fourth Cervical. Correction of the subluxation is, in all except the most fully and virulently developed cases, followed by a radical cure. Indeed, in many of the germ diseases it is possible to abort the fever with improvement of all symptoms in from five minutes to twelve hours. We are so accustomed to checking germ diseases at once that failure to do so leads us to immediate investigation of our palpation and adjustment to discover some technical error in the application of the principles of Chiropractic to the case in question.

It is manifestly impossible by vertebral adjustment to raise the body beyond normal power. Nothing is added to the body; no energy is utilized other than the energy of the body itself which is provided by Nature and released through restoration of the normal carrying capacity of nerves. The highest goal attainable is normality, and it is observed that no matter whether the impingement be in the nature of an excitation or an inhibition of nerve action the effect of a correct adjustment is always in that direction—toward normality. It may be as well to digress here long enough to remark that abnormal change is never the result of adjustment but always of maladjustment, and those who claim to be able to produce stimulation by moving a given vertebra one way and inhibition by moving it another are entirely wrong.

It is evident from the results of adjustment in germ disease that the normal body is entirely capable of throwing off the poisons and exterminating the germs, which conclusion quite agrees with science. The fact, not known by other branches of science, and asserted by Chiropractic is simply that the subluxation is the factor which determines susceptibility.

Upon ascertaining that a certain vertebra is in normal alignment we may say with absolute certainty that the organs innervated by the nerves passing through its foramina are not and cannot be the site of any pernicious germ activities. To go further, it has been demonstrated in a number of cases that the subluxation existed before the contagion or infection developed. A man has been known to have a second Lumbar subluxation for many years without effects other than a tendency to constipation and on the appearance of a typhoid epidemic to contract the disease. Correction of the subluxation afforded a cure. Such instances might be cited in great numbers. No person without the necessary subluxation ever contracts a germ disease and the necessary subluxation can be exactly located for the vast majority of such diseases. Unfortunately it is impossible to find a person who has not some subluxations and is not, therefore, subject to some form of contagion or infection.

So far Chiropractic agrees with general knowledge of germ disease and its etiology, simply adding the explanation of susceptibility which all other modes of investigation have failed to afford. In one particular we find apparent disagreement.

We have said that several bacilli are supposed to have power to cause disease in healthy bodies. Diphtheria is a disease caused by one of these. Yet Chiropractic adjustments have rapidly aborted diphtheria, apparently proving that the body has power to react strongly enough to conquer even this germ, providing the nerve channels be opened to allow of exertion of its full activity. It is probable that all diseases fall under the same law and that no germ can find lodgment in healthy tissue. Chiropractic affirms this as a truth and as yet no experience has tended to disprove it; the belief is strengthened by the years.

The experiments which are said to have proven that certain micro-organisms can attack healthy tissue are based upon the supposition that careful examination demonstrated the absence of disease in the animals experimented upon by inoculation. Since these experiments and these examinations were made without any knowledge of vertebral subluxations, and consequently without discovering whether or not there existed latent weaknesses of various organs, we doubt the validity of the experiments. Our own examination of human and animal spines has thus far failed to discover any perfectly normal specimens.

Our clinical experience with diphtheria at least absolutely disproves the conclusions of Pasteur and others in regard to its origin.

Increase of Subluxations

It has been observed that in many instances the subluxation which existed previous to infection or contagion is greater and more noticeable during the febrile and active stage of the disease than before, and this fact has led some careless or insufficiently skilled palpaters to assume that the disease caused the subluxation.

The development of germ life is accompanied by the excretion of toxins of greater or less virulence which circulate through the blood and affect the entire body. This poison, irritating sensor nerves, brings about motor reactions in the segments irritated and, since the normal operation of the laws of reflex action is interrupted somewhat by subluxation, and since the muscles immediately around a subluxated vertebra tend to pull upon it with unequal leverage, this motor reaction is likely to increase already existing malalignments, especially in the same body segment in which the poison is generated and in which the irritation is consequently greatest. Thus subluxation is most pronounced during the activity of the disease caused by it and reacting upon it and thus a disease which began as a localized destructive process may manifest systemic effects through its action upon other abnormal spinal segments.

DIET

The internal chemistry of the body varies so greatly under changing conditions, the operation of any two different organisms is so hard to compare accurately, that it is impossible to set down any rule for diet which will apply properly to all patients or to all with the same disease or habit of body. In fact, only experiment with an individual can determine the exactly proper diet for him.

Through lack of judgment or of observation of the effects of certain foods upon us we often eat that which our bodies cannot properly digest and assimilate. Sometimes through accident or negligence we partake of food which is proper in kind for us but improper in quality, perhaps partially decomposed. Improper food, when taken into the body, tends to exert a deleterious effect upon health. This fact should not lead us to confine ourselves to reasoning superficially that improper foods cause disease or that dietary measures will cure disease.

Some Chiropractors have held that the hunger of individuals for certain foods is a safe guide to a proper diet. This is manifestly untrue in some cases; the voracious appetite of the convalescent typhoid patient is an example. But it would probably be true if all men were normal. Close observation of a few exceptionally well-developed and normal individuals has disclosed an interesting fact. If a man has no subluxation in that portion of the spine which controls the stomach, the ingestion of decomposing food, even though the alteration be so slight as to escape notice on casual examination, induces immediate vomiting followed by no untoward consequences. Only occasionally does one find persons without subluxations in some way affecting the stomach; in such cases the body promptly rejects and expels injurious material.

This carries us to the rather surprising conclusion that the normal person is not susceptible to the influence of bad food. In the majority of individuals, some degree of abnormality existing, improper food has a decidedly bad effect. Passing through the alimentary canal it is improperly digested; toxins are developed; these chemically affect the entire body, perhaps leading only to a congestion and inflammation of some part of the lining of the alimentary tract, perhaps producing a general fever, malaise, diarrhea, and the other effects of a general poisoning.

It has been found that proper adjustment is followed by quick relief in such cases, the commonest effect being the rapid expulsion of the deleterious matter by vomiting and diarrhea with breaking of the fever and lessening of all symptoms.

It has also been observed that during the suffering from dietetic error the subluxation controlling the stomach or some part of the small intestines is often found increased in degree with tension of the adjacent muscles. With adjustment and relief of the other symptoms the muscular tension tends to disappear. This motor reaction from the irritation of food poison undoubtedly serves to increase subluxation already existing, thus intensifying effects. But for its primary effect food poison requires a previous subluxation lowering the natural protective power of the body. Food poisoning is often a secondary cause of disease.

When it is found in any specific case that certain foods exert a bad influence upon the progress of the case, that the symptoms are aggravated by the taking of these foods, they must be abandoned. Yet no rigid diet need be prescribed in any case. Every patient will require a different diet, nor is it possible to understand the intimate chemical relations within the body sufficiently to fix a proper diet except by experiment.

A word here about fasting. If improper food were a primary cause of disease, fasting would be an effective, though somewhat radical, removal of the cause of disease and a logical procedure. Since improper food is not a primary cause of disease and since nature requires food for the repair work made possible through adjustments, it would seem unwise for Chiropractors to prescribe fasting. Also it is well to remember that fasting and starvation are synonymous and their symptoms identical.

POISONS

Any substance taken into the body and not usable as food may be considered poison. Most drugs administered as medicine or used habitually are either directly poisonous and commonly so considered or are poisonous in the sense that they do not build but rather tend to injure the body. Injurious substances accidentally taken into the body; certain products included in the preparation of otherwise nutritious foods, alcohol, tobacco, etc., affect the body in varying degrees but in accordance with the same laws. Poisons may be internally generated through the action of pathogenic germs or through the failure of the body to digest food and to prevent injurious chemical changes in it. It has even been said by some that abnormal mental states so affect metabolism as to cause the formation of certain auto-toxins which injuriously affect the entire body.

However poison may make its appearance in the body its presence is associated with certain bad effects. Poison may be corrosive, destroying tissue wherever it touches; it may be stimulating, affecting the nerves so as to increase their activity, following which waste of energy there is a weakening reaction; it may be narcotic, lowering some physiologic process below normal.

If a man without subluxation—and therefore normal—have poison introduced into his body one of two effects will follow. Either the poison will be sufficient to produce death in a short time, and will do so, or the poison will be ejected from the body and the patient recover naturally and without treatment, and recover fully.

This is the statement of the ideal, not the real. The fact is that no person has yet been found without subluxation in some part of the spinal column. Occasional cases have been reported but always by Chiropractors whose statements are open to question on account of imperfect training in vertebral palpation or a known habit of unconsidered statement. And in the weakened body, whose natural protective power has been lowered, the effect is different.

The body fails to throw off all the poison normally and some of it remains in the circulation and tends to cause progressively increasing damage. In addition to the direct effect of the poison upon the tissues, the irritation of sensory nerves gives rise to a motor reaction which increases subluxation generally throughout the spine but especially in the segment in which the sensory irritation is greatest. If the poison be taken into the stomach the vertebrae affecting that organ are most affected in the resulting motor disturbances. When vaccine virus is introduced into the arm the greatest influence is upon the last two Cervicals and first Dorsal, causing increased weakening of the nerves to the arm. If the vaccination does not “take” it is because the body is so normal as to be able to take up and rapidly excrete the poison or to neutralize it with an internally generated antitoxin.

This tendency of poisons to increase subluxations already existing has caused many to conclude that new subluxations could be produced by the motor reactions from poison. The laws governing reflex action make this impossible. If a mild stimulus be applied in the segment occupied by a given, and normally aligned, vertebra, the resulting contraction will tend to appear on the same side as the irritation and would—if sufficient to subluxate the vertebra—draw it toward the irritated side. If a stronger stimulus were applied the resulting reaction would appear on both sides and with sufficient intensity on the opposite side to the irritation so that the difference between the contractions on the two sides would never be sufficient to overcome the fixity and inertia of the vertebra. If this bit of theorizing be doubted, let me add that if poisons could cause subluxation they would undoubtedly cause drawing of the vertebra toward the irritated side—which is not the way we find them in poisoning cases. Almost without variation, the subluxation is away from the affected side. Such a subluxation produces most impingement on the side of the irritation; the only kind which could follow poisons would produce its effects on the opposite side.

In acute poisoning cases which may possibly proceed to a rapidly fatal termination, while immediate adjustment may be sufficient to cause the expulsion of the poison and the recovery of the patient it is probably wisest to administer an antidote or to call a physician with a stomach pump. Just so, the pulmotor should be summoned for gas asphyxiation; but at least one case was recently encountered in which an adjustment started the heart and artificial respiration movements restored consciousness before the pulmotor could arrive. There are few, if any, acute poisoning cases in which an adjustment will not aid. Sometimes it should be assisted by other measures not strictly within the province of Chiropractic.

Chronic poisoning, such as lead poisoning from paint work, yields well to adjustments providing the secondary cause, the persistent inhalation of lead fumes, be discontinued.

Poisons may wound or injure the body whether or not it be normal; in such case they might properly be classed with trauma. But no poison causes disease except through the medium of vertebral subluxation previously produced. Some subluxation which has never been sufficient to produce active disease may be so increased by the action of poisons as to be of serious effect even though the poison has long since been eradicated from the body—for the subluxation is permanent until affected by force outside itself. In considering the etiology of any disease the possibility of its being augmented by medicines, drug habits, or dietetic errors should be weighed with other evidence.

EXPOSURE

By this term is especially meant exposure to sudden temperature changes. The body may sustain a very high or a very low outside temperature providing the change is gradual enough so that the heat-regulating mechanism may adapt itself properly to protect the body and maintain an even temperature within. A sudden change from a very warm room to a very cold atmosphere; a quick transportation from cold air to a superheated apartment; or a sudden draft of air whose temperature is sharply at variance with surrounding air and therefore with the condition of the body surface may have a very bad effect.

The skin and mucous membranes of the body have become accustomed to a certain temperature; the change irritates them. And the immediate result is a motor reaction increasing subluxation in the same body segment in which the irritation is greatest and probably producing first an irritation of the nerves at the spine and then an inflammation of the exposed surface. Thus a “cold” is produced. One who has no subluxation affecting the respiratory tract—a rare degree of normality—may escape coryza, bronchitis, or pneumonia, the most common effects, but may suffer a congestion of the stomach walls or of other parts of the body. It is said that the cold “settled on the stomach.” The fact is that the motor reaction takes advantage of the weak parts of the spine and affects them most, like the pernicious habit of spine-stretching which used to prevail among Chiropractors. This explains why “cold in the head” is so very frequent. The fourth Cervical vertebra is situated at the middle point of the neck and is very freely movable and easily subluxated and, in fact, more often displaced than other Cervicals.

Noxious or poisonous vapors may have an effect identical with that of sudden temperature change. Sleeping in an improperly ventilated room often appears to cause “cold.” Careful study of the part of the body exposed to draft, and of spino-organic connection, will show that in most instances the effect of such exposure is first felt in the same body segment.

It is a well-known fact that not all people are “subject to colds.” One may be “subject to lung colds,” another to “cold in the head.” The susceptibility is entirely governed by the condition of the spine, the person having no middle Cervical subluxation being immune from coryza even though subjected to the same exposure which will produce it in others. The pollen of plants produces hay fever in the susceptible in much the same manner that draft produces coryza, both acting as secondary causes.

BODILY EXCESSES

In this division of secondary causes may be mentioned overwork, continuous loss of sleep, overeating, venereal excesses, etc.

They act in this manner. Wasting and overusing the bodily resources they lower the general vitality. Now, though there be subluxations at various points in the spine there is still transmitted through each impinged nerve a certain amount of Vital Force which to a certain extent maintains the functions of the body and keeps it in a state of activity sufficient for ordinary demands. When the entire stock of vitality is lowered through excess the amount of energy passing through each nerve in the body is lessened, but the effect of such lessening is felt most where there is subluxation. At the high tide of vitality the subluxations are not sufficient, perhaps, to produce serious disease. At low ebb, every organ whose nerve is interfered with suffers keenly. Under such conditions the body is much more subject to adverse influences, to shocks and jars, to contagion or infection, to the action of cold or exposure. Thus bodily excess acts as a secondary cause of disease.

ABNORMAL MENTAL STATES

There are many who believe that fear, worry, hate, grief, etc., are in themselves sufficient to produce disease in a normal organism. Shock following the demise of a loved one or some deep disgrace is occasionally alleged as a cause of death or of a rapid decline in health which terminates fatally.

The failure of Suggestive Therapeutics to cure disease except when it is largely imaginary rather argues against this theory. It is also true that proper Chiropractic adjustments not only lead to the cure of disease apparently caused by abnormal mental states but also, restoring proper blood-supply and nutrition to the brain, induce a happier mental state in the patient. Even insanity has been cured in a number of cases by Chiropractic.

We hold that worry, fear, etc., are abnormal; that they arise from the improper expression of Mind through disordered brain-cells. “Diseases of the Mind,” in the strictest sense, cannot occur, but only diseases of the physical medium through which mind is expressed and translated to the physical plane of being—the brain.

A condition of abnormal mental expression or activity, especially worry, fear or anger, probably has a two-fold effect: it rapidly wastes the body energy and, like bodily excess, renders every subluxation more effective; it is possible that it may also really produce auto-toxins, generated by abnormal brain-action and affecting the body metabolism adversely. In this way disease appears through the action of abnormal mental states as secondary causes.

They themselves are the result of subluxation of the first or second, sometimes third, Cervical, impinging the nerves which control the blood-supply to the brain and hence its nutrition. Correction of the subluxation causes them to disappear.

INFLAMMATION

Inflammation is a morbid process characterized by the presence of increased temperature and one or more of the symptoms, pain, redness, and swelling. It is distinguished from fever by being confined locally, while fever is a general functional disturbance showing elevation of temperature, increased katabolism, decreased secretion, etc.

Our clinical experience with fevers leads us to accept Metchnikoff’s conclusion that the essential phenomenon of inflammation is hyperaemia. Upon the hyperaemia depend the swelling, pain, and local increase in heat-production. Hyperaemia in turn depends upon disturbance of the vasomotor nerves either as a direct result of some local subluxation or as an indirect consequence of local irritation.

A newly acquired subluxation produces an acute irritation of the pre-ganglionic axons which connect the spinal nerves with the sympathetic ganglia. If these ganglia send out post-ganglionic axons which are vaso-motor in function, an inflammation may be produced without the intervention of any secondary cause. On the other hand, there may be a subluxation producing weakness of some part; through injury to that part or the introduction of poisons or irritants such as germ infection, sensory end-organs are affected and the motor reaction which follows increases the subluxation; this slight increase produces acute irritation of the nerve and hyperaemia, with its resultant phenomena, follows. Stated briefly, irritants produce inflammation only by acting through the medium of the spine. If the spine be normal these irritants are insufficient to produce morbid process. Local inflammation tends to develop toxins, especially if it be of bacterial origin, which may in turn affect the entire organism—an effect which will be discussed presently. Exception must be made in those traumatic cases in which hyperaemia is essential to the reparatory process, and which are attended by what may be termed a normally increased heat-production. This beneficent and reparatory condition cannot be termed disease or morbid process.

The normal temperature of the body depends upon the balance maintained between heat-production and heat-expenditure. This balance is maintained through a complicated nerve mechanism consisting of various nidi in thalamus, medulla, spinal cord and sympathetic ganglia, and a network of communicating axons of both the cerebro-spinal and sympathetic systems, controlling the amount of blood passing through any given body area at a given time, the secretion of the perspiratory glands, the internal metabolic processes, etc. Most important are the vaso-motor nerves, directly, but not originally, derived from the sympathetic, and governing the size and caliber of all blood-vessels so as to control the amount of blood flowing to and through the surface capillaries on the one hand, or the deep-seated, heat-making organs on the other. More than seventy per cent of the body’s heat expenditure is through the skin by evaporation, radiation, and direct conduction. The major portion of the heat production is in the muscles and the parenchymatous viscera, such as liver, spleen, etc., where metabolism is active.

This mechanism is so delicately adjusted that when the outside temperature is lowered the amount of blood passing to the skin is reflexly lessened while internal heat production is increased and the bodily temperature retained at normal. Conversely, the body perspires freely and the surface is flushed with blood in a high temperature, so that heat production is lessened and its discharge accelerated, again tending to maintain an even and normal temperature.

The nervous mechanism is responsive to many and various forms of stimuli—thermic, emotional, mechanical, physiologic need, toxic. Poisons in circulation may affect the bulbar center and produce general fever. A number of centers in the spinal gray may be stimulated with like result. Or there may be purely local irritation which results in local hyperaemia and inflammation.

It will always be found that the primary cause of any permanent derangement of the mechanism lies in vertebral subluxation impinging some of the nerves and thus throwing the mechanism out of its natural balance and poise. Other forms of disturbance are transient and the very nature of the mechanism makes it normally capable of adjusting itself to thermic, mechanic, or emotional stimuli in a short time. Only the subluxation produces permanent elevation of temperature. When such elevation does occur there are many associated changes, increased katabolism, lessening of secretions, anorexia, sometimes mental changes, such as delirium or coma. Fevers vary according to the part of the nerve mechanism affected and the action of any secondary causes.

Fever due to vertebral subluxation alone without any secondary cause operating is very rare. Ordinarily fevers come about in this way. A subluxation occurs which weakens tissue and permits germ invasion; toxins enter the circulation from the germ action and motor reaction increases the original subluxation and causes local inflammation; germ activity is favored by the increasing degree of abnormality and toxins from rapid tissue destruction are added to those already present. The poison-loaded blood then affects the general centers for heat regulation, blood becomes internally engorged, and a chill (internal fever) followed by general increase of temperature occurs. At this juncture any subluxation previously existing is likely to be increased and to add its quota of harm to the rapidly developing picture.

Our problem is to find the original subluxation which controls the site of the original pathologic change and to correct that. In nearly all cases where this is done, even partially, the body is enabled to care for the remainder of the damage and to throw off the accumulated toxins. It is not uncommon that the temperature falls two degrees in five or ten minutes after a proper adjustment. We expect always to abort or check a fever in twenty-four hours or less.

There are cases in which the temperature drops after adjustment but presently rises again. This indicates the virulence of the autointoxication or that some other area of poison production is operating than the one our first adjustment would control. A correct diagnosis will enable one to give specific adjustment and check practically any fever except a chronic one with much tissue destruction already accomplished; even some of these yield.

The commonest cause of fever is at the fifth or sixth Dorsal vertebra, long known as Center Place, or Fever Center. Here emerge many pre-ganglionic fibres which distribute their impulses through lower neurons in the sympathetic system to the coeliac plexus and thence to the blood-vessels supplying the major portion of the abdominal viscera. Adjustment here causes a sudden contraction of these abdominal vessels and a forcing of the blood to the surface with rapid cooling.

Often, however, this adjustment is followed by a recrudescence which indicates that some other vertebra must be adjusted. Many fevers, such as typhoid, pneumonia, tonsilitis, etc., yield to specific local adjustment without any involvement of the so-called Center Place.

I have said that we expect to check or abort a fever with spinal adjustments. The facts that we do so and that the more rapidly we accomplish the result the more rapid the convalescence and the less likely are complications and sequelae argue loudly against the correctness of any theory which supposes fever to be a beneficial and cleansing process. According to such theory it would be totally wrong and dangerous to abort a fever but wiser to encourage it in taking its course. The exact opposite proves true under Chiropractic. The very fact that fevers do diminish and disappear under proper adjustments is a proof that they are abnormal, since adjustment does not in any case tend to lessen normal processes, but only to restore normality no matter in what way the functions of the body have departed from that condition.

All the clinical evidence gathered by Chiropractors in regard to inflammations and fevers tends to prove the correctness of the theories herein set down. Fever plays a part in so many diseases that it has been considered advisable to consider the subject under a special head.

IN CONCLUSION

The vertebral subluxation is the primary cause of all truly pathological conditions. Through its existence the action of a large number of secondary causes becomes possible. Upon no other hypothesis can we explain the remarkable percentage of cures of all known classes of disease through the specific vertebral adjustment.

Nature is the only real curative agent. Neither suggestion, manipulation, adjustment, nor any other known method applied by Man for the eradication of disease has in itself any power to heal. No man possesses power to do more than so arouse the vital energies of the patient that the body heals itself.

We contain within our own bodies the possibilities of perfect normality. Unless interfered with by powerful outside force we should continue normal from birth to death and death itself would only occur through the simultaneous wearing out of all the parts of the human mechanism. The Chiropractor, insofar as his work succeeds in its purpose, assists the body by adjusting displaced structure and affording the body a free and unhindered opportunity for the exercise of its own self-healing powers. It may be interesting and instructive to analyze the process of cure and to study the exact effects of vertebral adjustment as we have studied the exact effects of vertebral subluxation.

Cure of Simple Subluxation Disease

An acute subluxation—that is, one resulting entirely from concussion of forces within twenty-four or forty-eight hours prior to the moment of adjustment—rarely produces a condition which could be named as any particular disease. The symptoms are those of “wrenched back,” if any. A single adjustment usually suffices to correct such subluxation just as a single movement might correct a dislocated humerus within the same period, and any symptoms promptly disappear. This is probably the maximum benefit to be derived from adjustment and the best time for its administration, because it leaves the spinal column in an exactly normal condition and no more susceptible to further jars or shocks than before the injury. All disease which might have resulted from that subluxation has been fully prevented.

Older subluxations must be dealt with differently because they present a different condition. Adaptative changes have taken place in the shape of the vertebra itself and of every surrounding tissue as they prepare to make the best of their situation. But a vertebra once displaced has lost its poise and broken or modified the reflex arcs through its nerves so that it becomes more likely to respond to further forces applied, or to muscular contractions within the body, by further change of position. Such changes are always followed by further adaptation of the surrounding parts.

The degree of nerve impingement must change to keep pace with the developing malposition and thus, by gradually successive steps, disease develops in the area of peripheral distribution of the nerves. The nerve is under a thumbscrew gradually tightening.

To adjust such a vertebra many successive movements are required. An apparently full and free movement of a subluxation meets the elastic resistance of the solidly packed tissues and the pull of the modified intervertebral disk—strains at these tissues—and rebounds so as to settle almost, but not quite, in its old abnormal position. The amount gained in a single adjustment can rarely be appreciated by palpation. To the touch it would appear that no change had been made, except occasionally in the Cervical region. But with repeated adjustments the vertebra will be found to have approached its normal position. Sometimes in a few weeks, sometimes in a few months, the gain becomes palpable and then perhaps visible to the eye in thin subjects.

The relief of impingement then is not usually an instantaneous process, but proceeds by gradual steps. Each movement of the vertebra is accompanied by a shock to the nerve against some part of which the bone is pressing, which may produce some disturbance in the diseased organs and may even appear to have aggravated disease for a time. Some pain and soreness around the vertebra may accompany the necessary adaptative changes of shape which readapt the tissues to their proper shape and relation.

As the impingement of the nerve is gradually relieved the disease is gradually modified and finally disappears. As the course of adjustments nears its conclusion and the impingement has been reduced to a comparatively slight one there may appear a stage of irritation of the nerve which is a reduplication of the first steps which appeared in the development of the disease. As most subluxations appear not all at once but by a series of changes, so disease develops synchronously, passing from stage to stage with the changes in the impingement. Often it passes through first an acute and active stage due to irritation and then a chronic and comparatively passive stage due to heavier, inhibiting impingement.

Under adjustment these successive stages tend to reappear in reverse order, the most alarming sometimes appearing last and just before the cure is completed. It must be remembered that from the moment one practitioner administers medicine or other remedy and the other adjusts a vertebra, the clinical courses differ widely. No text-book on medical practice has as yet described the clinical course of the various diseases under Chiropractic adjustment.

In chronic diseases where the nerves are paralyzed there may be a period under adjustment during which no change is apparent. This is followed by a period of rapid gain leading to complete recovery. This may be accounted for by the fact that the nerves are degenerated and must be repaired all along their course before communication is reestablished between nerve centers and peripheral organs. When this repair is sufficiently completed to allow communication, the cure is really well advanced, although evidence of it then first appears. This has been noted especially in locomotor ataxia.

Cure of a Germ Disease

First, under adjustment, the acute or acutely increased impingement is relieved. The caliber of the blood-vessels is at once regulated and the destructive action of fever checked. At the same time the vitality of the local tissue in which the germs are active is suddenly increased and there ensues a struggle between the body, as represented by its phagocytes and auto-protective chemicals, and the germs, which if adjustments be continued results in the rapid destruction of the germ colony. Also the elimination of the toxins already in the body proceeds so rapidly that if the fever can be held in check it takes only a short time for the body completely to overcome and eradicate the germs.

Cure of Mental Disease

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.

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