Part 21

Having found the subluxation make contact as follows.

Contact

Reach across patient’s neck with right hand for a right subluxation or left hand for a left, and find spinous process. Then draw the middle finger straight around until the palmar surface of the middle finger just below the second joint fits snugly behind the transverse process. Place the other hand under the head and with both hands working together turn the head toward you, chin upraised, and draw the neck into a greater flexion until it is felt that contact is firm and close.

Movement

The movement is a quick drawing toward the adjuster of the second, or contact, finger, which has been, as it were, hooked over the transverse. The transverse is thus drawn sharply forward and the vertebra rotates around its vertical axis so that the spinous follows, or tends to follow, the transverse in the same arc of movement.

ROTARY No. 3

Position

Patient sitting erect, both feet evenly on floor and hands not braced. Stand in front of the patient but to one side or the other as for Rotary No. 2. Use right hand for adjusting right subluxations and left hand for lefts.

Contact

As for No. 2, contact is with palmar surface of second finger but may be shifted to third finger for the lower vertebrae if desired. The thumb is usually placed on the mandible and aids the opposite hand, placed on the other side of the head, in turning and otherwise controlling the head.

Movement

Turn the head away from the adjusting hand until the neck muscles feel taut as a result of position and not of contraction. The movement then is given as a sharp jerk of the contact hand forward.

ANCHOR MOVE No. 1

Theory

It is held that a vertebra often loses its proper relation with the vertebra below, and consequently with all the vertebrae, or the entire column of the spine below, without being disturbed in its relation to the one, or ones, above; that, in other words, the column may be divided into two sections by subluxation, the upper section set askew upon the lower. With this reasoning it would clearly be desirable to so adjust the spine as to move a given vertebra, and with it all vertebra above, so to speak, upon the vertebra below. To do this all vertebrae above the one to which force is applied must needs be firmly anchored to prevent strain between them.

Such a move has been devised by Bunn for Cervical use and is here described from the author’s few observations only. Further study may modify the technic somewhat.

Position

Patient is placed as for Dorsal and Lumbar adjustments in position B. Move is applied to rotated, postero-rotary, and antero-rotary subluxations and face turned toward side from which move is to be made. Adjuster, after palpation which discovers the vertebra to be moved and the direction of movement, stands at the head of table facing patient’s feet.

Contact

With the palms of both hands resting against the side of the neck and thumbs extended at right angles to hands, make contact with both thumbs on one vertebra as follows:

If vertebra is to be rotated toward patient’s left, place right thumb against spinous process on its left side and left thumb upon right transverse process from behind it. Press firmly with the palm and fingers of each hand against the vertebrae above, gripping around neck and base of skull so as to hold all parts together.

Movement

The move is delivered simultaneously with the two hands, forcing spinous process toward the right and transverse in an anterior direction. The head must be raised from the bench and wholly supported by the hands and the head turns with the vertebra.

Uses

A powerful comparatively easy move which has the advantage of wide applicability and of avoiding the change of posture of the patient which mars many Cervical moves.

ANCHOR MOVE No. 2

Position

Same as for No. 1.