The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1912-11-09
lBy ELsERT HUBBARD. /,

Doctor Still was a workingman. He
made his living with his hands. He
could garden, farm, and care for ami
mails. He loved the great out-of-doors
the trees, the flowers. the plants. He
was what could be called an all-around
developed man; man of tremendous
physical strength, lean, sinewy, strong
an athlete in every way.
Poverty, hardship, work out of doors,
Nature had educated him. His hands
were the hands Of Esau. Also. they
were the hands of a mechanic, an ar
fist and lapidary.
He sought for the seat of pain with
his hands. He could locate, quickly
and accurately, degrees of temperature
which the average man could not de-
tect with his fingers. Manipulation
came to him as habit. Right adjust
ment followed and quickly. The blood
flowed properly. elimination took place.
Inflammation subsidized. The patient
became calm, then hopeful--and was
we'll.
Clutches and canes were piled in the
front yard of the good old doctor.
Drugs became things TO forget, and all
the Latin Doctor Still ever knew was
RELOCATED to the rag-bag of Time.
Fifteen years passed, and in order to
care for the patients that came to him
he had to call on the help of others.
Several young men acted as his as
sistants.
An addition was put on the old farm
house, and Doctor Still daily instruct
ed the patients that came. And thus
naturally, without violence of direc-
ton, merely as matter of course, the
Science of Osteopathy was born.
What Is osteopathy7
Osteopthy simply means the science
of adjustment of the human machine.
1t Is based upon the idea that If there
is right adjustment of structure,
other things being equal, the man will
be well. Mans business is to adjust
himself to his environment, and then
so to live and act that every tissue
will be adjusted one to another.
Under the conditions, theoretically,
waste should equal repair and the man
should live forever.
Thu noNa d.
should all live five times the length of
time that it takes us to reach our
maturity. That is to say, we should
all live to be hundred years old; and |
we should be well, happy and useful
all the time.
Senility and softening of the brain
would never occur if the brain were
intelligently used and properly fed.
The great central trunk-line of
nerves that pay through a mans body
is centered in the spinal column. And
here is where the trouble usually first
Occurs. These bonds that make up
the vertebrae get slightly displaced,
pressure occurs on nerves, this affects
the arteries and veins, blood-supply is
cut off from some particular point, and
disease follows.
Osteopathy aims to do away with
the necessity of surgical operations.
Carried out properly and taken in
time, there is no doubt that it would,
and does.
Giving Nature a Chance.
l believe that Doctor Still was about
the first physician to cease using the
word cure"
An Osteopath does not claim to cure
disease, All he does is to give Nature
a chance.
The healing principle is in Nature.
We are part of Nature.
Nature is on our side and she is
dong her best all of the time to keep
us we'll.
Pain is the result of a remedial en-
deavor on the part of Nature to bring
about change for the better. Also,
pain Is beneficent warning.
The old-time method of silencing
pain by sedatives and lotions was
based on wrong principle.
For instance. doctors used to give
to stop pain. The effect of
is to deaden sensibility, not
only in the afflicted part of the body,
but also throughout the entire system.
have seen morphine given in cases
Of sciatica and lumbago. and there is
no doubt that 1t stopped the pain. 1t
also stopped the act on in the entire
alimentary tract And always and
forever where morphine is given 1t has
to be followed with another drug In
order to prevent killing the patient
through malnutrition.
So one drug always calls for another,
and thus the natient not onIv has m /