Part 53

Having admitted that the forms of “mixing” indicated as beneficial to the patient may be sometimes justifiable on the score of immediate good to the patient, let us consider another side of the question.

Just as surely as we admit into our practice any method which attacks the disease itself, or which treats any other than the primary cause of the disease, or which seeks to stimulate or inhibit the functions of the body without freeing the natural channels through which the natural healing power of the body should be manifested, just so surely are we adopting the medical theory and making our profession a branch of medicine. Medicine uses many remedies for the cure of disease. Medicine is now broader than the mere administration of drugs. And no matter how we vary the remedy, or what treatment we select, we are denying the truth of the Chiropractic theory and admitting the truth of the medical principle when we use adjuncts in our practice.

Nor are these adjuncts necessary. It has been demonstrated by repeated observations that the Chiropractors who use only the vertebral adjustment secure just as high a percentage of results as those who combine one or more other methods with it. This is due to various reasons: the greater perfection attained in Chiropractic by those who apply themselves with concentration to the task of settling every problem by that means; the fact that adjuncts often detract from the effect of adjustment as much as they add results of their own; the tendency of the patient to prefer and to insist upon the easier and less painful methods rather than the adjustment.

The lay patient and the ignorant public are inclined to give credit for results obtained to the best known method used upon them. Thus in spite of the fact that Chiropractic alone obtains a far greater percentage of results than any other combination of methods, the patient is prone to believe that the change of diet or the massage effected a cure and to overlook entirely the least pleasant part of his “treatment,” the adjustment. He does not understand and cannot understand with a mind divided for the consideration of several methods, the connection of the spine with his disease. Often he fails to understand if Chiropractic is used alone but he is forced to conclude that the spine has such connection because adjustment of the spine cured him.

The use of adjuncts has done more to hold back the advance of the profession in the public mind than any other single factor except ignorance within the profession. Furthermore, the Chiropractor who knows that he can rely upon various other methods if his adjustment fails does not feel impelled to study his Chiropractic as he should. He weakens in practice, relying more and more upon adjuncts.

It has been repeatedly proven that the Chiropractor who uses only Chiropractic becomes the better practitioner by necessity. It has also proven that the man who is expert in Chiropractic needs nothing else, providing only that he refuses those cases to which Chiropractic cannot apply at all.

The only real problem in Chiropractic is the problem of adjustment. All failures may be attributed either to lack of knowledge and proper application of Chiropractic or to the fact that the patient has not vitality enough to recover from the disease. Do not shift the responsibility for failure upon the system, since with one or two exceptions every known disease has been cured by some Chiropractor, thus proving its possibility. Realize that the work can be done and that its doing depends upon your own skill in diagnosis and technic.

It is inevitable that at some future time Chiropractic will be used in connection with other beneficial methods which will enable us to get results sooner, though not more surely. It is also inevitable that Chiropractic will fail to receive its proper place among healing methods unless we force the world to believe in it as we believe; to know it as we know it. If we develop our system in its purity until it obtains general recognition at its true valuation we shall have accomplished an infinite good for humanity for all time.

We should endeavor to accomplish the greatest good for the greatest number, laboring rather for the ultimate recognition of the subluxation theory and its application at its real value than for immediate slight good or personal gain.

Personality

He who would succeed in Chiropractic must have, in addition to a thorough education in his profession, a proper personality. This is the medium through which his education becomes effective, the channel through which he reaches the public, gaining their confidence and approval that he may utilize his knowledge to their good. Many skillful and well-educated practitioners have failed because they lacked the proper personal qualities for attracting patients.

Elements of Personality

The most essential elements of a proper personality are Courage, Conviction, Confidence, Honesty, Sympathy, and Aggressiveness.

Courage, not recklessness or carelessness but a fearless willingness to assume responsibility--the heavy responsibility of our profession--is indispensable. He who accepts the easy case or the chronic and slowly progressive one and refuses to face the appalling rush of a dangerous and acute malady; he who shrinks through fear for his reputation from a grave risk, has no right in Chiropractic. He has mistaken his calling. While we acquire the knowledge of Chiropractic we acquire also a great responsibility for its use; we must utilize it wherever and whenever it is best for the patient, whenever our chances of effecting a cure are the best chances, without regard to ourselves or any personal risk.

By conviction is meant a firm and well-grounded belief in the greatness and efficiency of Chiropractic. Sincerity in one’s practice is a prime requisite for success. A belief grounded in knowledge girds the Chiropractor with an armor so strong that no adversity can pierce it. He who practices Chiropractic without believing in it is in his own mind a cheat and a fraud and cannot expect ultimate prosperity.

Confidence in one’s own ability and knowledge, in one’s power and skill to contest with disease, begets confidence in others. Not conceit, not exaggerated egotism, but a healthy and sane assurance and faith in oneself, engender that steadiness of mind and of hand which make for accuracy and excellence.

Without honesty with oneself, one’s profession, and one’s patients, one forfeits public confidence--and justly. If we promise that which we cannot perform, if we deceive our patients by misleading explanations of untoward events, we deserve failure. It is not intended here to refer to the cheerful and optimistic manner and habit of speech which often aids in the sick room to keep the patient’s mind at rest. This may sometimes deceive the patient as to the gravity of his condition and such deceit may be justifiable; but it should never be extended to the family or to those who have a right to know the real condition and cannot be harmed by such knowledge. Strict honesty, whenever harmless to others, should be the fixed policy of all practitioners.

The weak, strained minds of the very ill require and demand sympathy; not the sort which expresses itself in fixed words or phrases of condolence with the unfortunate and at once forgets their needs and sorrows, but the deeper, unspoken feeling of desire to aid, which springs from the heart and finds its best expression in active assistance. If you do not care whether your patient is or is not benefited, if you have no other feeling for him than a business interest in holding a case, you lack the strongest impulse to hard work and study, the desire to aid.

Chiropractic is new. Its principles are yet unknown to the general public. Also this is an age of keen competition and it is our duty to our profession and to the world that instead of hiding our light under a bushel we proclaim our mission to all who will hear. We must be intelligently and wisely aggressive. We must bring ourselves into contact with the public in every legitimate way, compelling it by force of logic and personality to see the reasonableness and greatness of our work.

Question yourself in regard to these things. Examine your own characteristics to discover whether any of these essential elements of personality are lacking. If one be found wanting cultivate it assiduously. Having chosen Chiropractic as a life vocation, work at it not alone for the acquisition of ever-increasing knowledge but for the unfoldment of a powerful and winning personality.

CHIROPRACTIC PROGNOSIS

=Prognosis= is the determining, in advance of the fact, of the probable course, duration, or outcome of a disease. A Chiropractic prognosis is a prediction as to the changes which will take place in a case during and after Chiropractic adjustments.

=General Prognosis= is an opinion expressed of a disease without reference to any particular case. It is based upon the experience of the profession and the average result obtained with the disease. It furnishes only a basis for consideration of the =special prognosis= of an individual case. This latter must be based upon the general prognosis of the disease and upon study of every modifying factor present in the case, as general vitality, living habits, facility of adjustment, apparent response to early adjustments, and especially an estimate of the amount and kind of damage done to tissue and the probability of its repair.

Only general prognosis can be set down as a guide to others. To state even this with certainty and safety many precautions must be observed. All cases included as a basis of conclusions must be handled under standard test conditions (see index) as far as may be; in accepting the observations of others one must be sure that they are sufficiently trained and sufficiently careful and veracious to render their statements reliable.

In order to introduce the subject to the literature of the profession and to invite comment and discussion looking toward the ultimate development of a complete Chiropractic prognosis we shall set down, without further preliminary, the general prognosis of those commonly described diseases concerning which we feel qualified to speak. No statement is made without the gathering of reliable evidence.

GENERAL PROGNOSIS

=Abscesses.=--Those abscesses which would tend to discharge externally may be adjusted for with success and will rapidly develop, point, and discharge, with quick recovery. Those which might break internally absolutely forbid adjustment because of the almost certain occurrence of peritonitis, pyaemia, or other grave condition.

=Acne.=--Good, but usually slow.