The First Chiropractic Adjustment

In 1895 Dr. Daniel David Palmer, known by his initials – D. D., had his magnetic healing office on the top floor of a four-story professional building in Davenport, IA, on the banks of the Mississippi river.  Well-educated for his time – he had graduated high school and attended some college – Dr. Palmer had been successful in several businesses before entering the healing arts and moving to Davenport.

Harvey Lillard, a janitor where Dr. Palmer had his office, had been so deaf for 17 years that he could not hear the racket of a wagon on the street or the ticking of a watch.  When Dr. Palmer asked what had caused his deafness he replied that while exerting himself in a cramped, stooping position, he felt something give way in his back, and he immediately became deaf.

D. D. palpated (felt with his finger tips) Harvey’s spine and discovered a vertebra (spinal segment) out of its normal position.  He reasoned that if the vertebra was replaced, the man’s hearing should be restored.  Dr. Palmer persuaded Mr. Lillard to allow him to attempt to return the segment to its correct location by pushing on it with his hands.

Using the various processes (bony protrusions) on the vertebra as levers, Dr. Palmer pushed on the spine and “racked” the segment into the correct position.  Soon, thereafter, Harvey was able to hear as before.  Although the improvement only lasted a few months, it still provided proof that something about the spine’s misalignment had caused the hearing loss.

D. D.’s research through the medical texts of the time led him to the conclusion that something about the spinal bones being out of place had affected the spinal cord and the nerves leaving at that level, causing an irritation, and a malfunction of the structures supplied by those nerves, leading to Harvey’s deafness.  There was nothing “accidental” about his discovery – he expected that replacing the vertebrae would remove the nerve irritation, causing the ears to function again, and so it proved to be.

Dr. D. D. Palmer was the first chiropractor.  He introduced a new healing art and organized the first chiropractic college.  His legacy is continued today here at Val Vista Chiropractic.

Getting rid of your pain,

Dr. Steven Ray, Chiropractor

Val Vista Chiropractic