March 2007

Lessons from the California practice rights litigation

by David Prescott, MA, JD, DC

Part 8 -- Early schools of chiropractic: Physiological therapeutics

As emphasized in prior articles, section 16 of the 1922 California Chiropractic Act requires the act to be interpreted so as to not "discriminate against any particular school of chiropractic, or any other treatment." We will now embark upon a consideration of the various schools of thought and treatment extant within the chiropractic profession prior to 1922. I will first focus on Dr. John Howard, who, in 1906, founded National Chiropractic College (NCC).

Howard & clinical theory

Dr. Howard was a Mormon missionary to Europe in the 1890s and studied with Father Kniepp who many consider to be the founder of what became known in this country as naturopathy. Dr. Howard's "... attention was drawn to Chiropractic in the Spring of 1905 while (he) was in charge of the Treatment Department of the Salt Lake Sanitarium..." where he was utilizing the treatment perspective developed by Father Kniepp. (Beideman, R. In the Making of a Profession, NCC, 1995, 21)

Although Howard attended Palmer, he was induced to study chiropractic by a catalog he received from Dr. A.P. Davis who was an early (1898) graduate of Palmer School of Chiropractic (PSC). Dr. Davis was an MD, DO and DC, and he founded the American School of Chiropractic (ASC) of Cedar Rapids, Iowa shortly after his graduation from PSC. Davis was also associated with the development of natural medicine and chiropractic in California prior to 1922. (Keating & Phillips, A History of L.A.C.C., SCUHS, 2001, p.3)

ASC later became the (Oakley) Smith College of Naprapathy. Oakley Smith, DC, was in a group of three chiropractors (with Minora Paxson, DC, and Solon Langworthy, DC) first licensed as chiropractors anywhere in the world ‑‑ on the same day in Illinois. The initial premise of naprapathy was, in effect, that "scarring and shortening of the soft connective tissue" (ligatates) caused interference with the neurovascular system resulting in pathophysiology. (Beideman, p.119)

Howard, in describing his entry into the chiropractic profession, cited the following quotation from the ASC catalog as the factor that induced him to study chiropractic (even though he chose PSC rather than the ASC ‑‑ Beidemann, p.21):

"There are two fundamental laws on which the science (of chiropractic) is based, and these have long be familiar to the physiologists and investigators of all leading schools of healing. First that the circulation of the blood is the great determining factor in both health and disease, and that the nervous system is the controlling power in all the physiological activities of the animal organism. The second of these laws is the characterizing feature of this (chiropractic) science. That physiological activities, when astray, can best be regulated thru the nervous system by the properly directed application of Drugless agencies, beginning as it does with the very basis of life, its results are permanent."

The historical record confirms that the "fundamental law(s)" of the neurovascular regulation of body function had in fact been "long familiar to the physiologists." Indeed, it was first espoused by Claude Bernard in 1860 in a series of 21 lectures at the "College de France." These lectures were translated into English and published in the 1861 editions of The Medical Times and Gazette, A Journal of Medical Science, Literature, Criticism, and News, published by John Churchill of London. This journal was widely distributed in the United States and is still available for review in the archives at UCLA. An actual copy of the last lecture in the series (CLAUDE BERNARD ‑‑ 1861 LECTURE) may be viewed at: http://www.prescott‑law.com/site_map.htm

Bernard is generally recognized as the leading medical physiologist of the 19th century and he proposed a holistic paradigm in which "morbid conditions" were said to arise as a result of dysfunction within the "milieu interieur" ‑‑ internal environment. Bernard described the key regulatory components of the internal environment as the neurovascular system.

Davis' description of the basic chiropractic principle was obviously derived from his relationship with D.D. Palmer and does in fact reflect D.D.'s early position. This is further substantiated by Professor Keating who has demonstrated that D.D. Palmer followed a neurovascular (regulatory) theory of disease until reducing it to "nerves only" in 1903 after his arrest in Pasadena, California in 1902 for practicing medicine without a license. (See, Keating, B.J. of Davenport, The Early Years of Chiropractic, Assoc. for the History of Chiropractic, 1997, p.13 and cf. Beidemann, p.3.)

This neurovascular (regulatory) paradigm has been ignored by allopathic medicine but it was central not only to chiropractic but also early osteopathy and other schools of medical thought prior to the virtual monopoly in favor of the allopathic paradigm. It is time to challenge the allopathic monopoly on an on‑going basis and until parity is obtained. It is also time to assert the legal right to advance the chiropractic "big idea" as identified above.

Some/all chiropractors must be authorized to expand this "big idea" and the basic scientific advances I now submit demonstrate that the body's inherent capacity to regulate itself involves the entire "living (connective tissue) matrix" which is constantly engaged in a process of dynamic interaction with itself, every cell (including apparently immune cells) and organ of the body and the external environment. (See, e.g. http://www.prescott‑law.com/site_map.htm ‑‑ Chiropractic Journal List, Third Series: A Wellness Paradigm.)

Physiological therapeutics

NCC in its initial years, and prior to 1922, issued degrees in 'CHIROPRACTIC and PHYSIOLOGICAL THERAPEUTICS.' Given Howard's European experience it was to be expected that he would also explore all natural methods of healing in addition to those directed specifically at the neurological and/or vascular systems. Howard described his concept of physiological therapeutics, in part, as follows:

"We do not claim that it (physiological adjustment) is a panacea for all ills nor that it is potent in all cases to the entire exclusion or depreciation of other agencies. Our system is as broad as Nature itself, and therefore embraces all natural methods which possess virtue in assisting normal function of the body. The term Physiological Adjustment speaks for itself: Correction of body function by physiological methods. Chiropractic Adjustment is but one phase of Nature's corrective agencies; hydrotherapy is another; Swedish movements is another; massage another; and suggestion yet another, and we might enumerate all the various agencies which tend to assist nature in re‑establishing normal function" (emphasis added, Beidemann, p.39).

Howard also recognized the need to "aid nature ... (in) a natural and congenial manner ... eliminate accumulated waste ... stop autotoxemia ... balance the diet ... relieve constipation ..." (Beideman, p.31)

The California BCE is mandated by the non‑discrimination provision of section 16 of the 1922 Chiropractic Act to recognize and authorize the full development of this physiological therapeutic (functional medicine) school of thought. In Part Nine, we will look further into these issues with special emphasis on the early history of LACC and the chiropractic‑naturopathic materia medica connections in California. Thereafter, we will look at the non‑discrimination mandated with respect to the early reflex, straight and musculoskeletal schools of chiropractic thought.

(David Prescott is a former prosecutor, law school dean, professor of constitutional law, and a trial attorney with more than 30 years experience. He is also a 1989 Cum Laude graduate of Cleveland Chiropractic College. Contact him by calling The Prescott Group, 888‑989‑0855 or find more information at www.prescott‑law.com)