Chiropractic
a drugless method of healing founded on the principle that interference with vital energy in its passage through the nerves is the cause of disease and that relief of such interference restores health to abnormal organs. Chiropractic was originated by D. D.
Palmer in Iowa in 1895. The chiropractor claims that, in the body, every tissue, every function, is dependent upon vital energy, called "mental impulses," supplied through the nervous system from its center, which is the brain. The only place where interference can take place in this transmission is where the nerve trunks emerge from the spinal column through the tiny openings between adjacent vertebræ. If these vertebræ are displaced, the size of the openings is decreased and the nerve fibers are impinged on. Health is to be restored by locating the spinal abnormality and, by manipulation, relieving the pressure on the nerve fibers. The Palmer School of Chiropractic, Davenport, Iowa, the parent institution, is headed by Dr. B. J. Palmer, son of D. D.
Palmer. By 1922 there were about 15,- 000 chiropractors in the United States.