Osteopathy

Research and Practice

Andrew Taylor Still

• Publisher: Left of Brain Books
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781396321511
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Alternative & Complementary Medicine

Learn about the science that revolutionized 20th century medicine from the founder himself!

Andrew Taylor Still liberated his practice from traditional, then futile, medicine. Having prescribed drugs for years and found them of more harm than benefit, he resorted to engineering principles and treated the human body as one magnificent machine, founding the science of osteopathy and the first school of osteopathic medicine in the world.

"Osteopathy is the natural way by which all the diseases can be relieved." Writes Still, explaining that restoring natural blood flow through manipulation of muscle tissue and bone is the only remedy the body needs. His theories are supported by evidence from his personal experience.

"I will give no undemonstrable theory."

Whether you're a medical student, practitioner, or nurse who wants to have unconventional tricks up their sleeve to relieve their patients, a history student studying the development of medical practice, or a curious reader who's passionate to know about 20th century pioneering methods in medicine, this book is all you need to understand the basics of osteopathy, and you don't need to be familiar with medical terminology.

"I have written as far as possible in the plainest language."

Contagious Diseases
and Fevers

Contagion.

Definition of Contact.—State of two bodies touching each other. In the theory of contagious diseases we distinguish immediate or direct contact, as when we touch a patient laboring under such disease; mediate or indirect contact, when we touch objects that have touched him.

—Dunglison.

Definition of Contagion.—Transmission of a disease from one person to another by direct or indirect contact. Also at one time applied to the supposed action of miasmata arising from dead animal or vegetable matter, bogs, fens, etc. Contagion and infection are generally esteemed synonymous. Frequently, however, the latter is applied to disease not produced by contact, as measles, etc., while contagion is used for those that require positive contact, as itch, syphilis, etc. Diseases which are produced only by contagion are said to have their origin in specific contagion or infection, as smallpox, cowpox, syphilis, etc.

—Dunglison.

It is not necessary for the osteopath to enter into the discussion of the unanswerable question of how a contagious disease gets possession of the person. A knowledge of this process has long since been pronounced by the medical world an impossibility. Seekers have labored to ascertain and know just how a contagion gets possession of or is communicated from one person to another and all agree that they have totally failed to obtain this knowledge. Thirty-four years ago I dropped all hope of ever being able to tell the how and why of the contagious properties of smallpox, chickenpox, mumps, measles and whooping-cough, and how they proceed to get possession of the body of a healthy person and begin their torture and go on to recovery or death. Hence I began at that time to search as an anatomical mechanic to find out just what it is that interferes with the venous, arterial and lymphatic vessels and the place or point where a stoppage of the normal flow of their fluids is produced. What is the cause of the greater arterial excitement? Why in all such diseases do the deep and superficial glandular systems of the neck, spine and fascia become filled up, and why do these glandular systems not unload or carry off these fluids in place of retaining them until stag nation, fermentation, inflammation and death do their work?

The engineer has to control the engine that produces smallpox, chickenpox, measles, mumps, whooping cough, diphtheria, laryngitis, pharyngitis, tonsillitis, tumors of the nose, diseases of the tongue, throat, mouth, eyes and all the organs of the face and head. As the discoverer of osteopathy I will say that in my practice and from my observation I have noticed that the portion of the nervous system most affected, is situated in the region between the diaphragm and the foramen magnum.

The osteopath should prepare himself and be governed accordingly if he wishes to be a critic in explorations for the cause or causes of such diseases as are named above, with the addition of those of the heart, pleurae and lungs. While these diseases are different in effects, appearances and names, yet they attack and execute their work by overcoming the harmony of nerve and blood action between the base of the skull and the diaphragm. With this introduction I shall proceed to deal with such diseases and give the reader the benefit of such discoveries as I have made as to cause, relief or cure.

Germs and Parasites.

Definition of Germ.—Rudiment of new being, not yet developed or still adherent to the mother. Spore or living particle which has been detached from already existing living matter. A microorganism.

Definition of Parasite.—(Parasiteo, to eat in the house of). Organism, animal or vegetable, living during the whole or part of its existence in or on the body of some other organism, the latter being called the host.

Human parasites are both animal and vegetable. The former include Entozoa (animals living in the interior of the human body) and Ectozoa (those which infest the exterior). Vegetable parasites are the Entophyta and Epiphyta, the former existing in the interior of the body, the latter on the exterior. The simplest arrangement of entozoa includes Coelelmintha (koilos, hollow, helmins, worm), hollow worms; Stereimintha (stereos, solid), solid worms; and accidental parasites.

—Dunglison.

We can analyze the blood or sputum and guess at what the patient ate three months ago. We find germs which are fat, lean, round, long, short and all shapes. I think we spend too much time in that kind of work. We have no controversy with scientists over the fact that germs are found in the system. This was proven many years ago. The germs must have suitable conditions or they fail to appear in dangerous numbers. First, they must have dead flesh to eat or they will die. It has been proven that germs of different kinds have been found in diseased lungs, diseased kidneys, and in other diseased organs and parts of the system. They appear in great numbers in parts of the system that have given way after a long continuation of fevers or in prostration that accompanies the disease in which they are found. A few germs have been reported to have been found in healthy persons. We are well satisfied that there was some failure of the blood, Nature’s reliable germicide, to reach and repair and hold healthy possession of that part of the body in which the germ has been found. We will stick to the belief that Nature’s chemistry can produce and apply the substance that will destroy any germ that appears in the various kinds of disease in which it is claimed they are found. Not only can Nature’s chemistry destroy the germs but it can disorganize and pass away unnatural accumulations of lime. In diseases of the liver, kidney, thyroid gland and many other organs, lime accumulates only when the activities of sensation, motion and nutrition are suspended by some obstruction between the heart and nervous system and the accumulated local excrescence. Thus we have unbounded faith that Nature’s chemistry is the doctor and the only one on whom we can depend for relief. Nature abounds with remedies necessary for her use in all conditions.

We will try to assist the reader to fully comprehend what we mean by germs. I believe they are universally the products of decomposition. When a tree dies in a forest it ceases to produce leaves, flowers and fruit. It begins to live a new life which is just as active as the life it lived when producing the tree. The second life or condition is ordinarily known as de composition. It goes on and on until complete disintegration of all atoms is accomplished. After the tree has been as we say dead twelve months we see that it is not dead but actively producing another form of being commonly known as frogstool. Under the microscope we see a perfect system in the preparation of Nature to produce this spongy growth. We see finely formed fibers and we see a difference in the different parts of this spongy growth. Some of it is as coarse as the fibers of red muscle in the animal, some has the appearance of liver, kidney, lung, secretion, excretion, arterial, venous and all of the systems in the animal life except locomotion. The philosopher will see at once that he has before him the system of a living, acting object, whose business it is to collect material and conduct a chemical manufacturing process which prepares the elements and conducts them to their proper position and adjusts them under the most exacting laws of construction.

But I want to draw the attention of the observer of this process to the fact that the dead condition of the tree or log had to be complete before the process of the new life could go on and on and start the work of forming those tumors. This I think should be very valuable to the osteopath who is taught to dread the germs which I think he should dread until he learns how to proceed and keep the tree in a healthy condition and keep it out of all chances of local and general death. If you wound a tree in the forest it goes on through all of the steps from the wound to gangrene and death. The osteopath must overcome similar wounds in the body by adjusting the parts in the locality of an organ injured. He is warned to keep the blood or sap in a condition to be delivered and appropriated. He must do this by first attaining a correct knowledge of form, force, supply and function and then by skill he can maintain a normal condition of the human body. Then he will have no tumors or unnatural deposits to be turned over to the surgeon’s knife.

Measles.

Definition.—A contagious eruptive fever with coryza and catarrhal symptoms. The period of incubation is about two weeks, and the disease begins with fever, chills, conjunctivitis, severe coryza, and frequently bronchitis, causing cough and frontal headache. The eruption appears on the fourth day on the forehead, cheeks, and back of the neck, spreading thence over the body. It consists of small dark-pink macules in crescentic groups, which frequently become confluent. After two or three days the eruption begins to fade, and is followed in one or two weeks by desquamation. The symptoms increase with the eruption and decrease with the disappearance of it, convalescence beginning in the second week. The disease is extremely contagious and affects chiefly the young, one attack usually conferring immunity. Measles is prone to lead to complications, the chief of which are pneumonia, bronchitis, phthisis, and otitis media.

—Dorland.

Symptoms.—This disease is very much like smallpox and chickenpox in its effect on the human system. We have such symptoms as headache, backache, fever and skin eruption. The kidneys cease to throw off. The skin ceases to discharge its excretions. The lungs thicken. The voice changes. The neck, face and eyes are congested. The eruption generally appears on head, face, limbs and body in succession until the entire body is covered and then lasts but a few days. The eruption is so well known by all persons that I do not think it necessary to take up your time with any of the theories which in and of themselves are useless.

Etiology.—Measles is a condition or effect produced by a poisonous, infectious and contagious gas, so far as we know. The question is not what is the cause, but what part of the body does this poisonous substance affect? It irritates the whole constrictor system of the human body and closes the excretory gates so tight that the foul gases cannot pass out from the body through the porous system. All infectious dis eases such as measles, mumps, smallpox, chickenpox and other rashes are simply an exhibit of the method that Nature uses to get rid of deadly poisons that should have passed through the excretory pipes or ducts. We conclude that when the fluids of the body are stopped in the fascia, organs and other parts of the system, stagnation, fermentation, heat and general confusion will follow until the system grows hot enough to produce a finer gas or cold enough to relax the skin and let those poisonous fluids pass out and off.

The osteopath sees at once that this irritating poison is the cause that produces inflammatory action which converts the fluids of the fascia into pus. The local gangrenous spots of the skin, when suppurated, make openings for the pus to leave the superficial fascia and pass out of the system. Nature has many methods of renovating the body from the deadly poisons resulting from stagnation, decomposition, etc., and this is one of them.

The medical doctor reasons that he has a chemical poison to contend with and hunts for a chemical antidote to antagonize the poison. He experiments with both internal and external applications. The mechanic stands by and beholds the unsuccessful combat and by the death of the patient he is convinced that medication is an absolute failure. Some patients with great vitality survive but dependence upon the administration of medicine by the most learned experimenters is not trustworthy.

The mechanic asks, “What is the irritating cause that produces such universal interference with the excretory system and allows the deadly decomposition to get in its work?” The mechanical philosopher must reason from effect to cause. Then he will raise the lever that holds the fluids in stagnation. When he does this he is like an engineer who opens the mud valve and lets all impurities pass from the boilers. In comparison he says, “This human engine must have the mud valve raised and give the boilers a chance to produce pure and healthy, steam or all will be wrecked.”

Examination.—We will begin our exploration for the cause of the thickening of the muscles and tissues of the neck at the base of the brain, and continue to the sternum and the intercostal ligaments and muscles covering the upper four ribs around to their union with the spine. I always find soreness and much contracture in this locality, stopping the fluids until inflammatory action gets in its work. Thus the importance of having the blood pass without obstruction from the heart, up the neck, into and out of the head and face. No inhibition by irritation, contraction or congestion should be allowed to hinder the perfect flow of blood. During all examinations of such patients I have found muscular contractions at the union of the neck with the head. I reason that the arterial blood is delivered to and retained in the face and head and all its organs. There is no difficulty so far, in blood or nerve action, but here are a congested face, eyes and head. The question is why are they presenting this congested condition? I reason that the blood that was driven into the cranium by arterial force is retained there because the venous system is unable to return the blood from this region back to the heart. Then why has the venous system failed? Your answer is, there is muscular contracture or pressure upon the venous system.

Thus we know that outside of the chemical action that the virus produces, pressure on the vessels that should drain the head and face is the cause of the in ability of the venous system to carry its blood back to the heart. I have given you my reason and experience and told you the things that I have observed for many years in my care of patients suffering with measles whom I have uniformly relieved by osteopathic treatment.

Treatment.—I carefully adjust the upper part of the neck, the atlas, axis and all points in the cervical and on down as low as the fourth dorsal. Then the ribs and collar bones. I lay my patient on his back or side, place my left hand at the occiput, my right on the forehead and carefully adjust the atlas and the axis and all the bones of the neck from any abnormal condition that may be found to exist. I also bring the clavicles forward at both ends in order to take off all pressure from the muscles, nerves and blood-vessels of the neck. I do this by spreading the arms apart while my patient is lying on his back, using a book or surgical pillow um der the scapulae to hold them in a stationary condition. I bring the outer end of the clavicle forward on the acromian process using considerable strength. Then I bring the upper ribs forward to their normal place.

Now I stand at the head of my patient and inhibit the occipital nerves after which I lay my hand flat alongside of the neck over the congested glands and muscles and follow down to the seventh cervical vertebra. Because of the constriction behind the jaw it is important to bring the inferior maxilla forward and the atlas and axis backward. In measles and all such diseases the same condition of contracture exists in the axilla. The arms must be raised and the axillary regions freed at once and kept so. While the patient is lying on the bed I generally sit down on the side of it and take the arm between the wrist and the elbow, straighten it out at right angles with the body and with my other hand under the scapula on the same side I catch on to the ribs gently but with fairly good force draw them upward towards the sternum. I do this in order that the pressure of the ribs can be taken off the inferior cervical ganglion also to let the axillary circulation have perfect freedom which I think is of great importance in measles.

Now go down to the kidneys and stop at the eleventh and twelfth ribs and pull them forward and up using gentle force in order to take all pressure off the renal nerves, veins and arteries. From there go to the region of the bladder and bring both hands together just above the symphysis making a gentle but firm pressure for a short time. Then move your hands up towards the kidneys. Do this in order to overcome any constriction that would interfere with the delivery of the urine from the kidneys through the ureters and down into the bladder. Turn the patient on the right side and gently draw the stomach and bowels toward the left in order to give freedom to the solar plexus, the aorta and all nerves from the solar plexus supplying the organs of the abdomen. The aorta furnishes the blood, the solar plexus the nerves, the venous and excretory systems carry away the impurities through the excretory ducts. Do this work as a mechanic of thought and skill and the results will be good and satisfactory to both the doctor and his patient.

For a few days keep the patient in a room reason ably dark and give the ordinary diet of plain, nutritious, easily digested foods. In my experience I have generally left this question with the mother. This has been my method of procedure for many years in the treatment of patients suffering with measles and without the loss of a single patient. This same result is the report of the graduates of my school. In small pox, chickenpox, measles, diphtheria and scarlet fever there is a great similarity of the conditions produced throughout the glandular system.

Whooping-Cough.

Definition.—Pertussis; an infectious disease characterized by catarrh of the respiratory tract and peculiar paroxysms of cough ending in a prolonged crowing or whooping respiration. After an incubation-period of about two weeks the catarrhal stage begins with slight fever, sneezing, running at the nose and a dry cough. In a week or two the paroxysmal stage begins with the characteristic paroxysmal cough. This consists of a deep inspiration followed by a series of quick short coughs, continuing until the air is expelled from the lungs. During the paroxysm the face becomes cyanosed, the eyes injected, and the veins distended. The cough frequently induces vomiting and in severe cases, epistaxis or other hemorrhage. The close of the paroxysm is marked by a long-drawn, shrill, whooping inspiration, due to spasmodic closure of the glottis. The number of paroxysms varies from ten or twelve to forty or fifty in twenty-four hours. This stage lasts from three to four weeks, and is followed by the stage of decline during which the paroxysms grow less frequent and less violent, and finally cease. The disease is most frequently met with in children, is much more prevalent in cold weather, and is very contagious, the virus being apparently associated with the sputum. The disease is apt to be complicated with catarrhal pneumonia, pulmonary collapse, emphysema, convulsions, and hemorrhages into the eye, ear, or brain, and severe cases are sometimes followed by chronic bronchitis, tuberculosis, or nephritis.

—Dorland.

Etiology.—I will leave the how and why of the contagious nature of whooping-cough just where the medical world has left them, an unsolved mystery. But for the benefit of the osteopath who wishes to relieve the suffering, I will make an effort to tell something of the effect which is produced and the results secured under osteopathic treatment.

Prognosis.—The medical prognosis is almost without hope of relief in whooping-cough, especially with complications. In my practice I have been well acquainted with whooping-cough and treated it for many years acc...