Technic and Practice of Chiropractic

Part 1

Transcriber’s Note: Boldface text is enclosed in =equals signs=; italics text is enclosed in underscores.

TECHNIC AND PRACTICE OF CHIROPRACTIC

BY JOY M. LOBAN, D. C., PH. C.

Professor of Anatomy and of Theory and Practice of Chiropractic at the Universal Chiropractic College. Formerly Professor of Chiropractic Analysis at the Palmer School of Chiropractic

SECOND EDITION Revised and Enlarged

PUBLISHED BY UNIVERSAL CHIROPRACTIC COLLEGE DAVENPORT, IOWA 1915

COPYRIGHT 1915 BY JOY M. LOBAN

HAMMOND PRESS W. B. CONKEY COMPANY CHICAGO

THIS BOOK IS

=Dedicated=

TO THE GIRL WHO HAS BEEN MY STAFF AND LANTERN, AIDING AND LIGHTING ME ON MY WAY IN THIS NEW FIELD

=My Wife=

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE

=Preface to First Edition= 9

=Preface to Second Edition= 11

=Introduction= 13

=Vertebral Palpation= 15 Definition 15 General Propositions 15 Habits of Palpation 15 Facts Concerning the Spine 16 Preparation of Patient 22 Position of Patient 22 The Record 23 The Count 29 Atlas Palpation 35 The Group Method 37 The Individual Subluxation 40 Palpation in Position B 46 Palpation in Position C 48 Transverse Palpation 49 Curves and Curvatures 53 Difficulties in Palpation 59 Landmarks 61 Mental Attitude 63

=Nerve Tracing= 64 Organ Tracing 64 What Nerves are Traceable 64 Suggestion 67 Place in Diagnosis 67 Technic of Nerve Tracing 68

=Subluxations= 76 Definition--How Produced 76 Law Governing Location of 78 Varieties of Subluxations 80

=Technic of Adjusting= 89 General Principles of Adjusting 89 Special Technic (Thirty-two Moves) 99 Preferable Adjustments 155

=The Cause of Disease= 165 Simple Subluxation Disease 184 Secondary Causes 185 Germ Diseases 185 Diet 192 Poisons 194 Exposure 198 Bodily Excesses 201 Inflammation 202 The Process of Cure 208 Adjuncts 215

=Spino-Organic Connection= 217 General Discussion 217 Special Nerve Connections 235 Table of Diseases and Adjustments 257

=Practice= 276 Office Equipment 277 Schedule of Examination 292 Necessity for Correct Diagnosis 298 Frequency of Adjustments 302 Specific vs. General Adjusting 303 Talking Points 306 Promises to Patients 308 Retracing of Disease 309 Limitations of Chiropractic 312 The Use of Adjuncts 315 Personality 319

=Chiropractic Prognosis= 322 General Discussion 322 Practical Prognosis 323

Preface to First Edition

This little work is offered to the profession without apology for its brevity or its form. It has been prepared because of an immediate and pressing need for such a guide in our colleges, and is offered abroad under the impression that many practicing Chiropractors feel the same need.

It is intended for handy reference and clinical use and is arranged as systematically as possible, style being everywhere sacrificed to utility.

Part 2

The author lays no claim to the origination of any of the subject matter of this book nor to having invented any of the movements described under Technic of Adjusting. The arrangement and phraseology are in the main original. The intention has been merely to condense into practical and convenient form for students and practitioners certain knowledge now held and utilized in our profession.

The author feels himself indebted to the entire profession for the information embodied in this work, and to scientists of all time upon the results of whose infinite and painstaking research are based our present day advancement; to the many friends and co-workers whose valuable criticisms and suggestions have aided in this labor; and to his students, past and present, who have furnished the necessary encouragement and inspiration for the achievement of this, the author’s first text-book.

The chief merit of this effort--if merit there be--is its honesty. The author has endeavored to set forth fairly and simply the facts and hypotheses with which we have to deal. Its chief offense, in the eyes of many, will lie in its being just what it purports to be--a book on Chiropractic. Constructive criticism and suggestion are invited from all sources, for by our interchange of thoughts we grow.

J. M. L.

Preface to Second Edition

The republication of this book has been made possible by the sustained friendship of the profession for it, and the author’s thanks are due its many buyers and readers who, by their recommendation, have made it both possible and necessary that this book should live and grow.

The new edition has been somewhat enlarged by the introduction of additional matter into each section and by the addition of two entire new chapters on “Preferable Adjustments” and “Chiropractic Prognosis.” New plates have been added and old errors corrected. In every way an attempt has been made to express with conservatism the real advance made by Chiropractic since the first edition was put on the press.

J. M. L.

INTRODUCTION

No two students, approaching for the first time the study of Chiropractic, approach from the same angle. Their viewpoints differ. In order that all may gain as nearly as possible the same viewpoint from which to consider in turn the sections of this book, it will be well if each student reads the entire book before beginning to memorize its parts and convert them into practical working knowledge.

An effort should be made, abandoning all other, to acquire the Chiropractic viewpoint. This accomplished, the rest of the task requires time and patience alone, without waste labor. The section on Vertebral Palpation should be studied step by step, the study of each step being combined with practice in it. Likewise the section on Nerve-Tracing, theory preceding practice. The study of the Technic of Adjusting should occupy those months immediately preceding the commencement of actual adjusting practice and continue during such practice. The chapters on Practice are intended for the student about to enter the field. The table of Spino-Organic Connection can be best understood by those who have studied or are studying the anatomy and physiology of the nervous system.

Let every page be studied with a good medical dictionary open at the elbow of the reader. Pass no word without comprehension, no detail without mastery. He who would seek to modify the life processes of the human body must fortify himself against fatal error with every bit of knowledge he can acquire.

VERTEBRAL PALPATION

Definition

Vertebral Palpation consists in the use of the tactile sense to determine the position, relation, size, shape, and as far as possible the condition, of the segments of the spinal column, in order thus to discover the primary causes indicative of disease.

Or, Vertebral Palpation is the name given the manual examination of spinal vertebrae.

General Propositions

Every palpation should be made with the adjustment of the vertebrae in mind. The record of palpation should be a correct guide as to direction of adjustment. No subluxation impossible of adjustment should be recorded.

The two essentials of correct palpation are accurate perception and correct reasoning. To secure the first, a certain approved manner of using the hands is herein laid down and a considerable amount of tactile sense development by practice is required. Correct reasoning depends upon knowledge of all the important facts concerning the spine and of the rules governing palpation.

Absolute concentration is required and to this end many of the following rules are directed.

Habits of Palpation

Every palpater unconsciously forms habits of thought and action. These habits may be good or bad. We deliberately form a habit of holding the first three fingers closely together or the habit of using a downward glide, but we should avoid the habit of finding certain subluxations because they are usual and expected rather than because they are actually there. For instance, one may easily form a habit of listing every other vertebra in the spine, his whole record thus depending upon his first choice.

Because of this perfectly natural tendency to establish a routine of thought and action and to follow it precisely, it is best not to attempt palpation without the aid of an experienced teacher until after correct habits have been formed. Once formed, a palpation habit, right or wrong, is very hard to break. Many a teacher has expended himself uselessly in the effort to undo some technical fault acquired by the student in a blundering undirected trial.

Facts Concerning the Spine

The spinal column is composed of twenty-six segments called vertebrae, twenty-four movable and two fixed. The movable vertebrae are divided for convenience in study into three sections. There are seven Cervical vertebrae, twelve Dorsal, and five Lumbar in the normal individual. The number of Dorsals or Lumbars may vary by one in a rare case. These variations occur in about one spinal column in each five hundred and are usually in the Lumbar region, which may contain four or six vertebrae. A prominent first sacral spinous process may be mistaken for an extra Lumbar.

Five vertebrae have special names. The first Cervical is called Atlas; the second Cervical, Axis; the seventh Cervical is commonly known as Vertebra Prominens on account of its long and large spinous process, although this long process belongs to the sixth Cervical or first Dorsal instead in 35% of all cases; the large, irregularly fusiform vertebra just below the Lumbars and between the ilia is called the Sacrum; and the smaller one below it, the Coccyx. The latter is occasionally missing.

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