Introduction
Chiropractic was founded in 1895 in Davenport, Iowa by D D Palmer. The first chiropractic patient did not have a backache nor a painful neck; he was a deaf janitor by the name of Harvey Lillard.
Lillard was explaining in shouts to Palmer that about 17 years earlier, while working in a cramped, stooped position, something had "popped" in his back. Since that time, his hearing had become progressively worse.
Dr Palmer examined Lillard's back and found a bump. It was a protruding bone at the exact spot where something had "popped" 17 years earlier. He suspected a connection between the misaligned vertebra and Lillard's impaired hearing, and reasoned that if something had gone wrong in his back and caused deafness, the correction of the misaligned vertebrae should restore the hearing.
Using his hands, Palmer repositioned the vertebra with a gentle thrust. Lillard's hearing improved immediately. At first, Palmer thought he had found the cure to deafness, but soon realized that he had discovered the link between the function of our nervous system and expression of health.
The nervous system controls and coordinates all functions of the human body. If it is not working properly, the human body will not function as it should.
Hippocrates, the great father of medicine, stated "get knowledge of the spine, for this is the requisite for many diseases." He believed that only nature could heal and that it was the physician's duty to remove any obstruction that would prevent the body from healing.