Technic and Practice of ChiropracticLoban, Joy Maxwell
Science
Technic and Practice of Chiropractic
Loban, Joy Maxwell
Chiropractic
He must make a correct diagnosis which serves to determine the nature
and location of the disease process. In this he may be greatly aided
by vertebral palpation and nerve-tracing, especially in differential
diagnosis. Any case which affords less than a quite positively correct
diagnosis should be excluded from the test list because any conclusion
based on a doubtful diagnosis must itself be doubtful and may be
seriously misleading.
He must then ascertain as far as possible the known anatomical nerve
connection between the spine and the diseased part. If several
connections are known he must decide according to nervous physiology,
by recognizing the morbid functions which constitute the disease and
learning which nerves control these functions and which must therefore
be deranged in order that the disease may exist. I may say right
here that to attempt to answer the problems of Chiropractic on the
assumption that standard anatomies are incorrect in their statement of
nerve connections is as hopeless as the wail of the schoolboy that the
answers in his arithmetic are wrong because his sums fail to come out
that way.
The investigator must next be accurate in Palpation, selecting the
subluxation which would, from his knowledge of the body segmentation,
seem most likely to influence the nerves involved, and positively
ascertaining the _number_ of the subluxated vertebra. No one who cannot
count vertebrae accurately can positively say which vertebra he has
adjusted. More than that, no one who _has not_ counted the vertebrae in
the special case in question can say which vertebra he has adjusted. No
mere regional localization will suffice for scientific investigation.
Correct and accurate adjustment must follow selection of the single
vertebra and the adjuster must know that he has used the one
special movement, or form of adjustment, which is mechanically right
for that kind of subluxation and has so moved the vertebra as to
release impingement. Mere movement of a vertebra is not necessarily
an adjustment or even a maladjustment; it may be movement without
permanent change of relation or release of impingement. (See
“Preferable Adjustments,” p. 155.)
There follows the observation of the progress of the case and this
must be so careful and accurate that the observer knows to a certainty
whether the disease is progressing unfavorably, or favorably, or
whether it has been entirely eradicated. He must know the value of
every changing symptom, the real meaning of each new development. Every
diagnostic method should be at his command for this work. Constant
vigilance and constant thought should mark each step of his work.
Finally he must be so cautious and careful in his statements that no
doubtful conclusion is allowed to escape from his own mind. We may
believe or suspect or hope for proof of our theories but we have no
right to state as a fact anything except that which has been proven
under the most rigidly guarded scientific test conditions.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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