Cosmic Chiropractor

Half-century ago, a lush-bearded storekeeper in What Cheer, Iowa developed a passion for collecting goldfish bones. From fishbones, Daniel David Palmer turned to human vertebrae and founded the spine-tickling business of chiropractic. Today chiropractic is a $70,000,000-a-year industry, with 20,000 practitioners in 44 States legally manipulating everything from colds to high blood pressure. Instead of the old-fashioned manhandling of "Fish" Palmer, modern chiropractors use a glittering variety of labor-saving devices called by such impressive names as "Neurocalcograph," "Electroencephalomentimpograph," "Neurotempometer."*

Last week, for the 95th anniversary of the Old Master's birth, the National Chiropractic Journal printed a rib-tickling paean, showing that Founder Palmer was no mere kneader of vertebrae, but a true philosopher, "servant of the cosmic mind." Said Chiropractor C. Sterling Cooley of Tulsa, Okla.: "When he gave an adjustment, his manner was much like that of a composer playing one of his own compositions.

"[His axiom was]: 'Find it, adjust it AND LEAVE IT ALONE. . . .' He did not believe human intelligence could hasten or improve upon the miraculous work of the Universal mind. ... I give you this paragraph from the Old Master's great Bible of Chiropractic: " 'The real primary cause of disease is tension; the cause of tension is pressure; the cause of pressure in 95% of diseased conditions is luxated [dislocated] vertebrae. The cause of the remaining 5% is the luxation of other bones than those of the vertebral column.' "

*Greatest show of chiropractic instruments is in the Palmer Clinic at Davenport, Iowa, run by Palmer's filially bearded son Bartholomew Josiah ("B. J.").

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