continued

"Harvey Lillard a janitor in the Ryan Block, where I had my office, had been so deaf for 17 years that he could not hear the racket of a wagon on the street or the ticking of a watch. I made inquiry as to the cause of his deafness and was informed that when he was exerting himself in a cramped, stooping position, he felt something give way in his back and immediately became deaf. An examination showed a vertebrae racked from its normal position. I reasoned that if the that vertebra was replaced, the man's hearing should be restored. With this object in view, a half-hour's talk persuaded Mr. Lillard to allow me to replace it. I racked it into position by using the spinous process as a lever and soon the man could hear as before. There was nothing "accidental" about this, as it was accomplished with an object in view, and the result expected was obtained. There was nothing "crude" about this adjustment; it was specific, so much so that no Chiropractor has equaled it."

Palmer felt that Lillard's hearing loss was due to a blockage of the spinal nerves which control the inner ear. This nerve blockage, in Palmer's estimation, was caused by a irritation of the spinal nerves by a misaligned vertebrae. When Palmer corrected the misalignment by pushing the vertebrae back into place, the nerve pathways were reopened and thus Lillard's hearing was restored. Today we know that the mechanism involved with spinal misalignments (The Vertebral Subluxation Complex) is much more complicated than originally postulated by Palmer. However, Palmer's basic concept of nervous system interference adversely effecting health has held true over the last 100 years.

The term "chiropractic" was first coined by D.D. Palmer's close friend, the Reverend Samuel H. Weed. The term chiropractic was taken form the two Greek words:

Cheir (Chiro), Meaning "Hand"

Praxis (Practic), Meaning "Practice"

Thus chiropractic means "Done by Hand"

In 1898 Palmer took on his first chiropractic student. That fist year there was one student, in 1899 there were three and four in 1902. The course was six months in duration and cost $500. Among those four students in 1902 was D.D.'s twenty year old son Bartlett Joshua Palmer (know as B.J.). It is also interesting to note that five of D.D.'s first fifteen students were either M.D.s or D.O.s.

Click here to learn more about B.J. Palmer, the developer of chiropractic.

"Old Dad Chiro"

Dr. Daniel David Palmer