CHAPTER IV Let me say to the younger men in connection with deriving (Part 4)

not even neces- sary to snap the joint of the thumb in order to make some people "hear a bone go into place" because certain credulous individuals who were expecting to hear such a sound would hear it when the word was given. This hallucination of hear- ing is, no doubt, similar to the hallucination of sight which occurs in people who are intent upon seeing apparitions. After a little practice I found it an easy matter to snap the second joint of my thumb in such a way as to make an individual "feel a bone go into place" and much amusement has followed I my demonstrating the trick for friends. When sending a I patient to an osteopath for special massage and movement I I have not always warned the patient about listening to the non- se about bones. It seemed better to allow the patient to ■ obtain a delusion which would facilitate the engaging of will l-oower by any means whatsoever. I have made no attempt 1 taming a patient from Christian Science treatment, cepting in cases in which measures for more certain relief TO-MORROW'S TOPICS 201 were clearly apparent. The chief danger lies in giving a sect legal right to make choice of patients who are to be subjected to treatment. The osteopath who captures a case by fraud- ulent or ignorant pretence, then proceeds to apply forms of manipulation, which may prove beneficial provided that they are applied in the right sort of a case. But right here is where trouble so often occurs and thousands of people are damaged. I have known of many cases in which permanent injury or death resulted from manipulation applied wrongly and ignor- antly. Tuberculosis of the bones or joints is often lighted up disastrously by manipulation treatment, malignant growths are started into activity, and such internal disorders as slumbering appendicitis or cholecystitis are frequently aroused into violent response to wrongly applied manipulation. The osteopaths have made claims both ignorant and fraudulent about the diseases which they claimed to cure. Schools of osteopathy sprang up in many states, and great efforts were made to secure privileges to practise, which were given in a number of states, thus placing the osteopaths practically upon a footing with members of the regular medical profession. Schools which required a course of study in osteopathy lasting only six weeks were freely advertised as placing their graduates in position to compete with experienced physicians whose education required many years of training, and this state- ment was boastfully made in impudent advertisements in magazines and the newspapers. Methods which are familiar to all of us were brought to bear upon legislatures, so that in many states the osteopaths were given recognition. The his- tory of osteopathy from now on will be similar to that of the history of homoeopathy. Fraud, pretence, and self-delusion will gradually give way before better education. The osteo- paths little by little will take up more and more of the text books of the regular profession, until finally their schools will 2Q2 TOMORROWS TOPICS require practically all of the text books of the regular profes- sion and peculiar manipulation will be merely added as a part of special therapeutics. Meanwhile, the regular profession will have learned much from osteopathy. The regular pro- fession has learned much from Hahnemann, from Mrs. Eddy, from I>owie, from Pleasanton, from Perkins, in fact from all of the founders of medical sects which have come and gone in the past. That is why we ask all new sectarians to learn what the regular profession has learned, and to pass examination showing that they know, before we allow them to trj- their treatment out on the public. The public has a wrong idea in this matter, and does not realize that the regular profession stands quite ready to allow any sect to practise what it pleases after learning what has become standard knowledge. The regular medical profession has learned perhaps more from homoeopathy than it will learn from osteopathy, which started from a more ignorant and fraudulent basis. Homoeopathy has always l^een upon an honest basis, with nothing more than metaphysical self-delusion to be charged against its former absurdities which are now recognized as such by its own edu- cated members. At the present time there are many adherents to this faith to whom I would entrust myself if ill. All of the different sects in medicine gradually approach and finally enter the regular medical profession in their chief practices. Their peculiar tenets are shed for the most part. When the more conscientious osteopaths began to awaken to the shame of enticing ill people into the hands of ignorant practitioners ihey raised the educational requirements for students. Flexner in his Carnegie T^oundation report upon medical ducation in the United States and Canada says of the osteo- Ithic schools that "they fairly reek with commercialism. — kt one of the chief schools an applicant will be accepted if he examinations in English, arithmetic, history and geog- TO-MORROW'S TOPICS 203 raphy, and if he fails to meet these requirements he may get in anyway." Flexner's report states that "in the fundamental matter of anatomy the osteopathic schools are fatally defective, and none of them have an equipment for teaching diagnosis." The rival school of chiropractors then arose. I record here verbatim an advertisement taken from the Cosmopolitan Magazine for November, 191 3. Similar advertisements offering to give anybody professional standing after six weeks of study were formerly published in the magazines by osteopaths. A grain of wheat, stripped of chaff, is finally given to the regular medical profession from most of the medical sects. The public meanwhile has to suffer fearful damage at the hands of sects that are being tried out. It is the public that bears the expense of all these experiments. Any new fad is taken up largely at first by the neurasthenics, who are extremely susceptible to suggestion and not always amenable to treatment by rational methods. It is a question if osteopathy, although at present fashionable, will ever secure the hold upon our neurasthenic class that was gained by homoeopathy because its methods are more violent. Homoeo- pathy gained strong position because of its polite and gentle drugging and agreeable detailed attention. Osteopathy really does accomplish much of good, if properly applied, in the right class of cases, even though it shows as much contempt for diagnosis as homoeopathy showed at one time. Not many years ago we often heard the homoeopathist say, "Give me the symptoms of a case and you may have the diagnosis." The osteopaths say, "Your disease is due to some bone being a little out." This contempt for real diagnosis brings out its own absurdities and hastens the movement of all medical sects toward the regular profession, which knows that diagnosis presents the most difficult feature in any case. The regular TO-MORROWS TOPICS The Grand Success of Doctors of Chiropractic An Unusual Opportunity Mmy people now rMliie tho uniuuml opportkuulics lor financial ami tocial bet- terment which have been opened up through CUropncttc, the DewdnJcIess heal- ing icienco ot |riiuJ (itjuument Murcnduiteaol the Nationiil School ot Cblropnetie, botb in tba fluBciil Tivwiiiriol, O lordapOHlbUiHes tujlr u „ ol an; pmlaaiaD or tnuini Dignified and Pratpcrou However the rich fir-~-"' — ~" ■TV not tho only incentive profeoiioii. In IheLr retf tl(e which would olhc. ... _. them. Thejr are looked up to and their opinioni an respected. They have tho coofldeaea ol wide clnJea of Irlendi and antuaintanccs. Their inf la unquestioned. ■n cnaiced in a work . —that of leUeving human auflarins and ' halii« tb« tick. And they ■nnnking Mn*-eurea,lninaar case* that hav- - ■Cubbonily nluwd to yield ~ ~ ' Thi* U YOUR OppoTtunitr you are fllt« CnlB liblh I ud vour iDCome as sn .j» wmM Uka tbemf Wrhyd<»)1r<». then, learn Chlro- inetk (nd become ■ penoniKo of greater •"liaequeoee. both Bnancially — ■'■"' All! Information Coupon ^^i£S?ES^^''"^ •1 Selwol of ChiropTactk, Dept .-■ially.lL __. ,. you the prooi that, throusb ■ ksowlcdOE ofChiro- - — ' '-^--- idcnli-i , Chiropractic Eftiiljr Learned At Home and in Clau By uiiliiing your spsTo and nvailing yourself of the our Exteosion Coiuie. yoi r^-B t, tboTouchiPnctical knowledge of dignified profeaaion. A Gonunon aehool education is aS yon needtabesiB. Thereafter our simplified •nd profusely Uluslrated lessoas make tl» study easy. The Eoune ia made la- tensely intenating, and rspiid progm* ' -laiured by fourteen big charts, includ. ing ■ life^iie repreaenUiioB of the ^-TMO body, drawn from life by X- y machine. All these charts and DrugleM Healing Increaiingly Popular twenty-three miiiion people in the United Slates who believe in drug- lu heatias. This number la coo- ■tantly fncreaainfr They are to ba found In every conunuoliy. Maay pio- doD are subitlCutlDg BalunI methods of Of all dnielesa healioE s)-slemi Chiro- practic is acknowledged lo be the nMt aataialand lienca the most simple, most advanced, and hy tar the eaileil lo bam. Uniika tlM otber psofessions and tlia fields ol comnarea, tfa pcofes^on ol CU- "- ■- ' — ' '-' Riowded. the grow- TO-MORROW'S TOPICS 205 profession knows that many years of study are required for simply acquiring methods showing the way toward diagnosis. It is an old saying that when a right diagnosis has been made, anybody can "treat" the case. Osteopathy is not for the poor, and it flourishes best where money is most abundant. It first gained foothold in states in which medical laws were lax, but retired from these sections as rapidly as it gained foothold where better fees could be obtained. For instance, osteopathy early extended into Vermont which at that time was a sort of dumping ground for all medical rubbish, to the discourage- ment of educated responsible physicians in that state. Ver- mont, however, while dearly loving fads, does not care much for the expensive ones, and osteopathy being an expensive fad was soon heard little of around the Green Motmtains, its practitioners having apparently moved nearer to good sup- plies, leaving an entire state cruelly to its fate. Along with the sagging colon in neurasthenic patients there is apt to be relaxation of the sacro-iliac ligaments, together with an abnormal curvature of the sacral and lumbar vertebrae. This condition has been overlooked for the most part by the general practitioner, who has so many other things to keep in mind. It was seized upon at once by the osteopath, who found that his exercise and massage developed the muscles, and exerted a marked influence toward arresting progress of the deformity. Incidentally a number of other neurasthenic fea- tures were relieved by the massage and movement. The same gain might have been made quite as well in some cases if the patient had gone into mountain climbing with good out-of- door life and abundant simple food. Neurasthenic patients, however, are precisely the ones who like to have their exercise done for them by somebody else. They are willing to pay from three to five dollars per exercise. This is not due to lack of good intention. Some neurasthenics of high courage 2o6 TO-MORROW'S TOPICS and character actually exhaust themselves the more through bringing will power to bear upon attempts at helping them- selves. Having captured the imagination of the patient by a description of disclocated bones, the osteopath secures a better result often than would have been gained by the plain advo- cate of Swedish movement or massage who honestly states the nature of the case. The reason for this is because human nature is comical in preferring suggestion to fact. Osteopathists and Christian Scientists and other sectarians make little provision for the poor as a rule, after their money is gone, although reduction of fees is made. The thousands of impeamious fall back upon the regular profession. In Christian Science if one fails to get well the fault is his. It is "up to" the patient. How happy we physicians might be if we could shift responsibility to the patient, and keep a clear conscience ourselves meanwhile. The shrewdness of Mrs. Eddy is demonstrated in this shifting of responsibility to the patient. In Christian Science there is a certain fundamental lack of sympathy. It often steps in cruelly at the place where sympathy and tenderness are needed, and makes faces at the sufferer who continues "in error." In one of the most responsible of the New York newspapers I find to-day among the editorials this note relative to mental healers: "and we cannot ourselves see the danger of giving hope, even though elusive, to the men or women burdened by a deep despair." Most laymen, I am sure, would take the point of view of this candid editor, and it introduces the chief obstacle when doctors request legislators to stand out against medical sects which are seeking for legal recognition. The tendency of legislators is to "g^ve these healers a chance if they think they have something good, and let the public find out for itself." The public eventually does find out about the damage TO-MORROW'S TOPICS 207 ivhich has been done, but can we not do a little better than that for folks to-morrow? When an advocate of the "oil treatment for appendicitis, without operation" reported a series of fifty patients cured by that method, I publicly offered a thousand dollars to any charity he would suggest if he would publish a statement that none of these patients had subsequently died from appendicitis or had not been operated upon for appendicitis after they were cured. He did not accept the offer, and this fact apparently set some people at thinking. It was not quite fair on my part to make such an offer, because other doctors told me of two of his cured patients who had died subsequently to their "cure without operation," and of other ones among his cases that had been operated upon for recurrent appendicitis by other consultants. In the regular medical societies the question of possible damage from a peculiar procedure is all gone over very care- fully before an innovator receives any recognition at all from his fellows. The very reason why we attack innovators in our own ranks is because so many fanciful and untried theories are constantly being foisted upon the profession by two classes of men. First, by the honest advocates of some new pro- cedure. They are earnestly trying to be useful, but have not presented satisfactory "briefs." On the other hand, there are dishonest men who directly seek to profit from the gullible suffering public. A new theory upsets established methods which mighty good doctors are employing in their every-day work for the purpose of helping people who trust them. These responsible doctors do not propose to have much experimenting done upon the kind of people who put trust in them until they have looked the new theory over pretty well, and in their own way. Their single-minded thought is to be of service to their patients. The promoter of any new theory hurts these really .H)8 TO-MORROW'S TOPICS jrooil moti when he calls into question their previous judgmol m^ ;nul ability. They are bound to attack him, and to m^to xW(v\k\ himself, and all of the while unselfishly in die interea of thoir patients. As a matter of practical history, many, and piMhaps int>st, of the innovators who are thus attadced aie irally tlofoatoil. This works out well for the benefit of the pab- \w \ >tK tors are eager enough to get hold of new ideas whkh \u\v tho ri^ht ring. I know of certain doctors who arc inno\att»rs hv habit, because they are naturally in-entive. Ihoy havo l>een the subject of persistent attack almost from \\v\ \\M entry inti> the profession. By the time when tbey h«uo oarrioil a now idea to permanent position at the front ^\w\ ^Iwtors who have appropriated it remember only that \w mnoNiUor at one time made himself disagreeable to the |u\»U'^^ion in sonu* way. They have forgotten just how it w**** \\v \\\Yw obtains the benefit. Any man who proposes to W \\ MM\i'o ihro\tgh new work in the medical profesaon uu^t U* rvsoutially altruistic. He must be prepared to take puuinhnu^ui like a fiH>tl>all player. He may suffer the loss of thounaiuU oi tlollars of income, and must patiently become 4U\\»»touuHl to haviuj; his private character attacked, because an iuiinual attitude of n\ind on the part of serious critics is lanu^l beyond Uuuuls by the muhinking who try to be intcr- 'M\^ \\ 'ondenuuaory conversation. H the innovator whines lu* \h ^\\ aiul weak. The s;uisfaction of knowing that he is I rally nuMiKlii\j; professional thought for the benefit of the pnblii', is his aunpensation. His ideals are ideals of usefulness, and he is willing to stand attack when realizing that attacks i\\ the part of colleagues may serve to eliminate error that he n\ost of all would wish to see eliminated. There is a Imsis of value in all of the systems of hygiene as well as in the systems of other parts of medicine, but this real value is apt to be depreciated when the subject is taken up TO-MORROW'S TOPICS 209 by fanatics, and when exaggerated value is ascribed to the positive testimony which comes under their observation. They lose that divine sense of proportion which is the most valuable perhaps of all human faculties, and they throw the whole system into more or less disrepute by disregarding facts which are opposed to their wishes. For instance, vegetarianism has a basis of value. While applicable in its full system to compara- tively few people and only in part to others, there are fanatics who would make the full system fit every individual, dis- regarding the fact that our dental formula indicates that by nature we are omnivorous. Under some conditions of life, as in the far north, one demands the calories of an almost ex-