Description
Preface
It is rare that a historian falls into a field that has been relatively untouched by academia. The history of osteopathy in America is virtually unknown. Osteopathy’s place in the history of American medicine is epic and full of drama. Engaged in a great struggle, the DO’s were fighting powerful forces and the fact that the profession survived at all is incredible. This story would never be known if not for the existence of a repository for Dr. Still’s manuscripts, osteopathic papers, memoirs, and relics. That repository was first housed in the Still National Osteopathic Museum and the ever-growing collection is presently housed in the Museum of Osteopathic Medicine in Kirksville, Missouri.
Dr. A. T. Still’s writings are steeped in big ideas – ideas of the nineteenth century that are today presented with an air of discovery. The osteopathic historian is led into many complex and surprisingly interrelated fields. There is an overabundance of material that must be sifted through, correlated, and most importantly, selected for essential relevance. Along the way there are many fascinating side-stories, and here the historian can take a welcome breather from the deeper philosophical and scientific origins of osteopathy to focus on how the profession confronted political and internal issues. Issues and problems remain, but there is a reason why osteopathy has survived. Indeed the osteopathic story is not over.
My thanks to Gail Roots, CEO of the John Wernham College of Classical Osteopathy, who made possible the re-publication of these articles.
My thanks also to Jason Haxton, Director of the Museum of Osteopathic Medicine, and his staff for their professional and enthusiastic assistance.
Carol Trowbridge
January 2014
Content
- Mark Twain and Osteopathy
- Flexner
- The Flexner Report
- The Inspections
- The Electronic Reactions of Abrams
- Spondylotherapy
- Re-inventing the Wheel
- Confusion and Helplessness
- Spondylotherapy
- Obviously Not Osteopathy
- One Born Every Minute
- The Magic Box
- Spirit of the Age
- Timed Discovery
- Cancer Index: 50 Ohms
- Tenth Wonder of the World
- McManis Physico-Clinical Laboratory
- Aura of Legitimacy
- ERA – Science or Fraud?
- Fraud of the Century
- ERA – Coming to Terms
- Smokescreen?
- Anyone – Except Dr. Laughlin
- Jockeying for Position
- A Man Possessed
- New Hope for ERA
- Diagnostic Bloodhound
- Biggest Month Yet
- Electromyography
- Bigger and Better than Ever
- Fixated on the Stomach Reflex
- Spondylotherapy
- An Abrams Connection
- The Mystery Workshop of Dr. J. Clawson Burnett
- The Baruch Grant for Physical Medicine – 1943
- Bernard Baruch
- “Show Biz” Support
- Father of Hydropathy
- A Natural for Osteopathy
- Squeeze Play
- Boy Scouts, Not DOs
- “I Believe In It”
- Sister Kenny
- The Plan
- Stiff Competition
- Golden Opportunities
- The Switch
- Systems and Acceptance
- Bernard Baruch
