Use only the _downward gliding movement_ of the three palpating fingers. Keep in mind the count as you have established it for that particular spine, recalling one or two very prominent and noticeable vertebrae whose numbers you have noted. Use a light touch. If necessary, change the patient’s position to make the vertebra more accessible instead of pressing with more force. When in doubt as to direction, change sides and use the other hand. If still in doubt, take a longer glide, covering six vertebrae instead of three or four. Keep your mind on your work, forgetful of everything else. And picture to yourself the entire vertebra and its surroundings; its body, pedicles, and laminae, its transverse processes and all articulations; above all, _mentally visualize the foramina and nerves_. Estimate from the position of each vertebra the pressure at each foramen. Decide whether the vertebra is rotated, tipped, laterally displaced, anterior or posterior, or whether the subluxation partakes of several of these directions. Decide in what direction movement of the vertebra would release most pressure and list accordingly. Never hesitate to change your opinion if you discover evidence that you have made a mistake. Keep at all times an open mind in palpation. Cervical Palpation The third Cervical, lying under the projecting spinous process of the larger second, may be hard to find, and therefore the full count is always required before listing any vertebra. By requiring the patient, who is in position A, to drop his head forward and rest its weight in the hand which is not palpating, the Cervicals may be more easily palpated. Remember that this posture widens the interspaces and also makes the spinous processes appear more posterior than they really are, this difference being most noticeable at the fourth. One bifurcation of a Cervical spinous process may be longer than the other and prove confusing unless care be taken always to palpate both bifurcations and note their form. This can almost always be successfully accomplished. Sometimes the posterior neck muscles and ligaments will be rigid so that they interfere with palpation and at the same time make it impossible for the patient to flex his head forward. Having found that this is due to real _contracture_ and is therefore not susceptible of voluntary relaxation by the patient, support the head in front and push aside the muscles with the fingers, gliding _underneath_ the muscle layers as much as possible and close to the spinous processes. Transverse palpation in the Cervicals is used to verify findings from the spinous processes or to differentiate between rotated and laterally displaced vertebrae and bent spinous processes when the spinous swerves to right or left. Dorsal Palpation