The practice of osteopathy : designed for the use of practitioners ad students of osteopathy / by Carl Philip McConnell.

  • McConnell, Carl Philip.
Date:
[1899], ©1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The practice of osteopathy : designed for the use of practitioners ad students of osteopathy / by Carl Philip McConnell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    US? Just as often as they are deranged to such an ex- tent that nature is unable to cope with the disorder and set them right. Here is where vis medicatrix naturae is unable to meet the demand. Then the osteopath steps in and aids nature to set aright these disorders. He is unable to do more nor can he do less. He is simply an assistant to nature as a mechanical engineer of the human body. I quote from Dr. J. Martin Littlejohn from the Journal of Osteopathy, February, 1899, as regards the summary of the causes of diseases osteopathically: Path- ological conditions may be briefly summarized under three heads (i) misplacements of bone, cartilage, ligament, muscle, etc.; (2) Disturbances in the fluids of the organism including the blood and lymph and other secretions of the body. (3) Disorders and derangements of the nervous sys- tem, including its centers, ganglia, plexuses and fibres. We must not lose sight, however, of many exciting and predisposing causes, as given in medical literature. Such causes are heredity, insanitary conditions, disobedience of hygienic rules, the various micro-organisms, and scores of causes that may lead to a disturbed function or disordered tissue of the body. The osteopath takes all of these into consideration, but oftentimes they are not the real cause. The osteopath differs from others chiefly in that he adds de- rangements of the tissues of the body to his etiology of dis^ eases. The all important questions now arise, how do these lesions affect the organs of the body, and how are these lesions removed. I wish to say here, that I owe an apology to all in the way I use the word lesion. I have employed it in the most liberal manner, for I include all structural changes, displaced ribs or vertebrae, and contracted muscles as lesions, in fact any anatomical disorder that; would cause an ill effect; I know of no better word to use.