The Claims Of Osteopathy

Strictly construing the claims of osteopathic doctors, it is an

anti-medicine system of practice for the cure of every disease to which

the human body is liable.



Dr. Andrew T. Still, who claims to have made the discoveries that led to

the establishment of the school of Osteopathy, asserts that all diseases

and lesions are the result of the luxation, dislocation, or breakage of

some bone or bones; this, ho ever, is not now maintained to any great

extent by his followers. Osteopathists, though, do generally claim that

all diseases arise from some maladjustment of the bones of the human

body, and that treatment, therefore, must be to secure the normal

adjustment of the bones and ligaments that form the skeleton. They claim

that a dislocation is not always necessarily the result of external

violence; it may be caused by the ulceration of bones, the elongation of

ligaments, or excessive muscular action.



The constriction of an important artery or vein, which may be caused by

a very slightly displaced bone, an indurated muscle, or other organ, may

produce an excess of blood in one part of the body, thereby causing a

deficiency in some other part. A dislocated member will generally show

alteration in the form of the joint and axis of the limb; loss of power

and proper motion; increased length or shortening of the limb;

prominence at one point and depression at another; greatly impaired

circulation, and pain due to the obstruction of nerve force in the parts

involved.



The osteopathist claims that pain and disease arise mainly from some

mal-adjustment in some part of the body, and that a return to good

health involves treatment for the normal adjustment of the skeleton; he

asserts, though any luxation may be only partial, it may cause pressure

at some point upon a blood vessel, or a nerve of which the patient may

be unconscious, and thus be a barrier to the restoration of good health.





Osteopathy asserts that trying to heal the body of an ailment caused by

a dislocated member, be it a bone, ligament, or nerve, by which abnormal

pressure is maintained upon a blood vessel or a nerve, would be like

trying to operate a machine with an important cog out of gear. To cure

it involves the reduction of a dislocation; the breaking up of

adhesions, and the arousing of the enervated organ or organs partially

or wholly failing in the performance of function.