We all know this verse in the bible to be the beginning of all life; but what about the beginning of chiropractic? Where did it start? It only seems fitting for the first post on this blog to start at the beginning. September 18th, 1895...
D.D. Palmer was working in his office late at night, when a janitor by the name of Harvey Lillard, began working close by. A loud fire engine passed by outside, and Palmer was surprised to see that Lillard didn’t seem to notice. He went to the man and tried to strike up a conversation, but soon realized Lillard was deaf.
Patiently, Palmer was able to communicate with the man, and learned that he had his hearing for the majority of his life. However, he had bent over in a cramped, stooping position, and felt something "pop" in his back. When he stood up, he could no longer hear.
Palmer deduced that the two events (the "popping" in his back and the sudden deafness afterward) MUST have been connected.
He carefully ran his hand down Harvey’s spine and felt one of the vertebra was slightly out of its normal position. "I reasoned that if that vertebra was replaced, the man's hearing should be restored," he later wrote in his notes. "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."
Over the next several months, other patients came to Palmer with every conceivable problem, including flu, sciatica, migraine headaches, stomach complaints, epilepsy and heart trouble.
Given the modern perception that chiropractic is an effective treatment only for back or neck pain, it is significant that the first adjustment did not address pain of any kind. Chiropractic was founded as a health care system that has an impact on the entire body, and that foundation has allowed chiropractic to grow into the second largest health care system in this country that has over 50,000 practicing chiropractors adjusting over 5 million different people each year.
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