IMPOSTORS AND IMITATORS
... Quite a different problem, however, was presented by those individuals practicing what appeared to many to be osteopathy under a different name. The most numerous of these were the exponents of chiropractic, founded by Daniel David Palmer (1845–1913). According to Palmer the principles of this system were fashioned by him in 1895, while he was making a living as a magnetic healer in Davenport, Iowa... In 1906 he was convicted of practicing medicine without a license and was sentenced to spend six months in jail. During his incarceration, his school was taken over by his son, Bartlett Joshua Palmer (1881–1961). The two were better known as BJ and DD. When DD was released, BJ squeezed him out of the college, whereupon DD tried without success to operate schools elsewhere. Returning to private practice, the elder Palmer wrote a massive textbook, a significant portion of which was devoted to a diatribe against his son. Bitter feelings between the two remained strong. At a founder’s day parade held in Davenport in August of 1913, the uninvited DD, marching on foot, was struck from behind by an auto driven by BJ. DD died a few months later, with some of his followers convinced that his death was a consequence of his injuries. Under the younger Palmer the school continued to grow, securing many matriculants by sensational advertising—a practice BJ encouraged his followers to emulate. By 1916 there reportedly were some fourteen hundred students in attendance, taking one year’s training leading to a doctorate in chiropractic, or DC, degree. For those who could not appear in person, a correspondence course was instituted.
Many early chiropractors were arrested on the charge of practicing osteopathy without a license. Unlike those with fake DO diplomas, however, chiropractors claimed that they were not pretending to be osteopaths and were therefore innocent of any offense. In court they cited a number of differences between the two systems. The DOs, they pointed out, commonly adjusted several vertebrae to treat a given disorder; they invariably adjusted but one. The technique also varied. Osteopathic manipulations were based on the lever principle, namely, the application of pressure on one part of the body to overcome resistance in motion elsewhere. This meant twisting the patient’s torso in certain directions while maintaining a steady hold upon the point to be influenced. The most common chiropractic procedure of the era had the client lying prone with little, if any support below the spine. The operator would then place both hands directly over a vertebral segment that was believed to be “subluxated” and administered a quick thrust downward with all possible force. In court, when DO witnesses were called to the stand, they would often testify that this method was crude and dangerous and would not be employed in osteopathic practice. Such statements, however, unintentionally worked to the chiropractors’ advantage, since they indicated to juries that there were indeed divergences in approach. With respect to the element of danger, the defendants were only too glad to present patients who had been so treated, attesting to the safety of such maneuvers. To further cement their position, some chiropractors cleverly managed to obtain and circulate signed letters by officials of recognized DO-granting schools stating that a course of chiropractic was not the same as one in osteopathy. As a result of these tactics, they generally won acquittal.
Since the courts were beginning to establish the chiropractors’ right to engage in their livelihood outside the jurisdiction of either the medical or osteopathic licensure acts, several legislatures realized that unless they passed laws recognizing the group, their states would be inundated with diploma mill graduates. In 1913, despite vigorous lobbying of MDs and DOs alike, Kansas and Arkansas became the first to enact chiropractic bills. Each required for licensure an eighteen-month course of personal instruction at a duly chartered college. By 1922 twenty other states had similar statutes. At this time the number of DCs legally and illegally in practice probably exceeded the number of osteopaths in the country...
