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Saturday 5 April 2014

The Beginnings of Chiropractic

Chiropractic is a method of healing by removing nerve interference through manipulation of the spinal column. A Canadian-born grocer, Daniel Palmer (1845-1913), performed the first chiropractic adjustment in 1895 whilst in Davenport, Iowa. Largely self-taught, he was interested in alternative forms of medicines such as magnetic healing and osteopathy, and he developed a theory that disease was the result of misaligned skeletal structures. Three years later he established the Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, the first school to train chiropractors by his system.

Daniel David Palmer

The word “Chiropractic” from Greek words meaning, "hand-practice” was suggested to Palmer by an educated patient. His textbook, The Science, Art and Philosophy of Chiropractic, was published in 1910. A controversial book, it attacked all aspects of medicine apart from his own.

Palmer was sent to jail in Iowa in 1906 for practicing medicine without a license.

Palmer tragically died from injuries after being struck by a car while leading a parade and it was left to his son Bartlett to make chiropractic into an accepted alternative medicine. 

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