The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1904-08-17
A STRONG ARGUMENT
FAy0RING osTEoPATHY.
Manual Treatment Far in Advance of 9th
er Methods, Says Eminent Phiiadel-
phia Physician.

er meIn00S. says tmlneGI Fnlia0ea-
phia Physician.
At the meeting Of the American
Medical Association of New Orleans,
DR., John Madison Taylor read paper
from which the following extracts are
taken:
Zone of the most ancient, reliable,
! practical and really demonstratiye of
all therapeutic measures is manual
treatment.
ssThe half forgotten, and often an
recorded lore of many lands, furn-
ishes enough and more than enough,
to show that by skill in applying, to
even simple laws Of anatomy and ply
siology, traditional measures of read
| justments, etc., there can be accom-
plished great relief and often cures
where medical skill has as yet signally
failed.''
"Osteopathy has so far come large
ly as a surprise and bewilderment
to the medical mind and it is the pur-
pose Of this article to say Few
words on the subject. The writer
has been especially interested in
mechanical or manual therapeutics for
quarter of a century he has taught
| the principles Of remedial movements
and massage in the first and most inn
| portant school of the subject in Phila-
| delphia for sixteen years, and has
done his best to learn what there,is to.
know of the subject. When the Osteo-
patbic doctors appeared he was nat
urally eager to ascertain what myster-
| les, with what control over Natures
processes, they were especially endow-
ed. Their literature was eagerly search
ed, the professors were sought out and
the subject approached with an open
mind. The Osteopathio doctor lays
| down, as a broad principle, that all,
or practically all, bodily arrangements
are results of disturbances in the ad
iustments of bones, whereby nerve
and blood vessels are pressed upon or
altered in their relationship, and that
thereby innervation and circulation
and consequently sensory and nutri-
tive conditions are altered. He claims
thorough knowledge of anatony and
physiology and sufficient familiarity
! with symptomatology and dignosis.
ne dVSIS tuoU uO So0 0iSOo'oA VIZ
cause Of disease oy locating the fault
in disturbed bony relationship and
that upon correcting these the disorder
| will cease His methods involve mani
| pu]ations directed primarily to that.
end, and secondarily to the fountains
of innervations. chiefly in the spinal
areas and other centres, especially of
the sympathetic system. He is fully
aware Of * = the significance
of mechanical stimulation OF vasomotor
centres and consequent alteration IN
the vasotonus, not only in the larger
| circulation, but in the lymphatics." !"
"The field of manual theraphy IS
practically boundless, and is the pre-
rogative and duty of the educated ply
sician. Most certainly not in the re-
stricted sense that medical men now
undersand this, but through a knowl-
edge of the sympathetic nervous sys-
tenn and the possibilities Of infuenc-
| ing this, especially the vasomotor
machanisms, as is done
by the Ostoepath. Effects can be
wrought by these means, and cures
accomplished beyond the scope or COM
| prehension of most men. x x IL
the medical profession would take the
trouble to read carefully half a score
| of small books (after revising their
knowledge OF the nervous mechanisms1
and themselves make practical use OF
the light thus gained, they would feel
little hesitation in going forward
thoroughly to acquire skill in so prac-
tical and valuable branch of thera-
peutics x It is most promis-
ing field for research for the expert
| mental physiologist,l and especially
for the neurologist. The writer has
been able, by these means, to accom-
plish cures x which if he were
| to publish them in the present attitude
of The medical profession would pro-
badly cause him to be branded as q
liar''
"In so brief an article it is possible
only to refer to certain generaliza-
tions, calling attention to the fact
that literature of mechanical thera-
peutics is of most respectable size and
by authors, in the main, of large
scientific attainments and always Of
wide practical experience, and even if
based on pure empiracism, is worthy
of special attention; but there is a
broad basis of physiological fact, of
which only the most elementary parts
are now formulated. So soon as medi-
cal colleges as assuredly will occur
soon), is directed to this subject. the
profession will gain wide realm OF
added usefulness to the means of con-
trolling disease. Again, it must not
be assumed that mechanical or man
ual therapy is mere massage and exer-
else as conceived by the average ply
sician; the scope is by no means con-
fined to passive movements and
muscle kneadings = 4 or loosen
ing of the joints contracted by disuse,
etc.
The sphere of manual tberapy lies
in the ability of medical practitioners
to influence centers of organic activity
by mechanical stimulation through
the vasomotor nerves, whereby less Or
more blood can be sent to parts, ac-
cording to their need. Not only can
this he accomplished, in varying
utility with the physiological and
other knowledge OF the practitioner,