Happy 110th Birthday Chiropractic!!

On 18 September 1895, D.D. palmer, the founder of chiropractic, adjusted Harvey P. Lillard—a janitor who complained of being deaf for 17 years after exerting himself in a cramped, stooped position. After the adjustment, Harvey could suddenly hear the horse-drawn wagons in the streets of Davenport, Iowa. Soon thereafter, D.D. Palmer advertised that he had found the cure to deafness. Many deaf people came to see him, but his adjustments did not cure their deafness. Instead, he found that other ailments and conditions improved after he adjusted them. Thus began a profession that was later named chiropractic (from Greek, “the way of the hand”).

Dr. Benjamin Rush, signer of the Declaration of Independence, wrote (cited in Chiropractic: History and Evolution of a New Profession by Walter I. Wardwell (1992):

The constitution of this Republic should make specific provision for medical freedom as well as for religious freedom. To restrict the practice of the art of healing of one class of physicians and deny to others equal privileges constitutes the Bastilles of our science. All such laws are un-American and despotic. They are vestiges of monarchy and have no place in a republic.