This section is intended to furnish the proper pre-conception and also to serve as a monitor to adjusters who, by reference to the precepts herein set down, may discover and remedy their own errors. It is not intended to furnish sufficient education to warrant practice without clinical instruction, which is unwarrantable, but rather to accelerate the education which practice alone can furnish. Object of Adjustment The vertebral subluxation being an abnormality of _relation_ between vertebrae, it is obvious that its correction must be a return of normal relation. This can only be accomplished by bringing about a change of _relative_ position. Movement of a section of the spine composed of several vertebrae is not, in the true sense, an Adjustment. It is the _single_ vertebra which must be moved. The movement should be one calculated to bring the vertebra to its normal position _in the most direct manner possible_. Such a movement should be used as will reverse the direction of the forces which subluxated the vertebra. It should be applied to the transverse or spinous processes, or to the lamina, as is sometimes done in the case of the Atlas, according to the _kind_ of subluxation. Different subluxations require different handling. Cases vary. Select the move _best suited to the case_. This can be determined most properly by correct palpation which fixes in the mind of the adjuster the position of every part of the vertebra, its relation to its fellows, the points of greatest nerve impingement, etc., all of which should suggest the best method for correction. The prime object of adjustment is the removal of impingement from nerves. Transmitted Shock vs. Thrust The movement used in adjusting has been variously described. Many writers and teachers have used the term “thrust” to describe the movement of the hands, and the term is correctly applied to the movement used by many Chiropractors. But a careful study of the methods of applying force in use among the most successful adjusters, those who have attained the greatest results with the slightest percentage of failures and a minimum of pain to the patient, discloses the fact that the chief element of their adjustment is _transmitted shock_. The hand is held in close contact with the vertebra to be adjusted and the arms and shoulders describe such movements as to deliver the required amount of force with the slightest possible change in the position of the hands. The vertebra bounds away from the contact hand. In the delivery of a _thrust_ the hand would follow the vertebra, forcing each portion of the movement. The real effect of a thrusting motion, since the hand cannot enter the body as a sharp instrument would, is that of _pushing_. Pushing neither subluxates nor adjusts vertebrae so readily as does a rapidly applied shock.