Daniel David Palmer

Daniel David Palmer

Daniel David Palmer or D.D. Palmer (March 7, 1845 – October 20, 1913) was the founder of chiropractic. Palmer was born in Pickering, and raised in the southern Ontario area, where he received his education.

In 1865 Palmer moved to the United States, and around 1880 took up magnetic healing in Davenport, Iowa. In 1893 Palmer met and was treated by Andrew Taylor Still, the "father of osteopathy". Osteopathy is a holistic medicine technique that includes, among many techniques, the manipulation of the body to improve function. After returning to Davenport, in 1895 Palmer met Harvey Lillard, a janitor whose hearing was impaired. It was reported Palmer successfully restored the man's hearing after manipulating his spine.

Palmer developed the theory that mis-alignment of the bones in the body was the basic underlying cause of all "dis-ease" and the majority of these mis-alignments were in the spinal column. He regarded chiropractic as partly religious in nature. In 1897 he opened the Palmer School of Chiropractic in Davenport and started teaching his techniques. Lawsuits followed, and after brief incarceration, Palmer sold the school to his son, B. J. Palmer. B. J. greatly expanded the school and the general knowledge of chiropractic. Palmer moved west, opening several new schools in Oklahoma, California, and Oregon. His relationship with his son was strained after this point.

Palmer died in Los Angeles in 1913 of typhoid fever. His death has remained controversial due to the relationship with his son and the school he founded.

Biography

Palmer was born in Pickering, Ontario, to Katherine McVay and Thomas Palmer. At age twenty he moved to the United States with his family. Palmer held various jobs as a beekeeper, school teacher, and grocery store owner, and had an interest in the various health philosophies of his day, such as magnetic healing, and Spiritualism. Palmer practiced magnetic healing beginning in the mid-1880s in Burlington and Davenport, Iowa.

Palmer read medical journals of his time and followed developments throughout the world regarding anatomy and physiology. He worked as a magnetic healer in Davenport, Iowa. His office was located in the South Putnam Building of the Ryan Block, at the intersection of Second and Brady Streets. While working, he encountered the building's janitor, Harvey Lillard, who Palmer discovered had a palpable lump in his back. Lillard's hearing was severely impaired and Palmer theorized that the lump and his hearing deficits were related. After a reported successful restoration of the man's hearing, it led to the beginning of Chiropractic history.

His theories revolved around the concept that altered nerve flow was the cause of all disease, and that misaligned spinal vertebrae had an effect on the nerve flow. He postulated that restoring these vertebra to their proper alignment would restore health.

"A subluxated vertebra ... is the cause of 95 percent of all diseases ... The other five percent is caused by displaced joints other than those of the vertebral column."

Palmer founded a school based on his work that would become the Palmer School of Chiropractic in 1897. By 1902 the school had graduated 15 chiropractors. In 1906, Palmer was prosecuted under the new medical arts law in Iowa for practicing medicine without a license, and chose to go to jail instead of paying the fine. As a result, he spent 17 days in jail, but then elected to pay the fine. Shortly thereafter, he sold the school of chiropractic to his son, B. J. Palmer. With the help of an arbitration committee, the deal was settled for $2,196.79, various books, and some specimens from the osteological collection. As soon as the sale of the school was finalized, D.D. Palmer went to the West Coast, where he helped to found chiropractic schools in Oklahoma, California, and Oregon.

The relationship with his son B.J. was tenuous and often bitter, especially after the sale of his school. Their subsequent disagreements regarding the direction of the emerging field of chiropractic were evident in D.D. Palmer's writings. Even the circumstances surrounding his death were postulated to be attributable to B.J. Court records reflect that during a founders day parade in Davenport in August 1913, D.D. was marching on foot and was allegedly struck from behind by a car driven by B.J. Others denied he was struck by B.J.'s vehicle. He died in Los Angeles, California on October 20, 1913. The official cause of death was typhoid fever, though some believe it was the consequence of his injuries. The courts exonerated B.J. of any responsibility for his father's death. Chiropractic historian Joseph C. Keating, Jr. has described the attempted patricide of D.D. Palmer as a "myth" and "absurd on its face" and cites an eyewitness who recalled that D.D. was not struck by B.J.'s car, but rather, had stumbled.

Palmer's mysticism

D.D. Palmer was a man with subjective and personal religious beliefs. As an active spiritist, he said he "received chiropractic from the other world" from a deceased medical physician named Dr. Jim Atkinson.

According to B.J. Palmer, "Father often attended the annual Mississippi Valley Spiritualists Camp Meeting at Clinton, Iowa ... That is where he first received messages from Dr. Jim Atkinson on the principles of chiropractic." Such messages were normally received during seances, but Palmer claimed to have received them through "inspiration".

In his book, The Chiropractor (published posthumously, 1914), Palmer described the situation:

"The knowledge and philosophy given me by Dr. Jim Atkinson, an intelligent spiritual being, together with explanations of phenomena, principles resolved from causes, effects, powers, laws and utility, appealed to my reason. The method by which I obtained an explanation of certain physical phenomena, from an intelligence in the spiritual world, is known in biblical language as inspiration. In a great measure The Chiropractor's Adjuster was written under such spiritual promptings." (p. 5)"

He regarded chiropractic as partly religious in nature. In a letter of May 4, 1911 he said:

"... we must have a religious head, one who is the founder, as did Christ, Mohamed, Jo. Smith, Mrs. Eddy, Martin Luther and other who have founded religions. I am the fountain head. I am the founder of chiropractic in its science, in its art, in its philosophy and in its religious phase."

In his 1914 book, the first chapter expanded on his religious views of chiropractic: "The Moral and Religious Duty of a Chiropractor". In it he dealt with religious liberty and stated:

"... nor interfere with the religious duty of chiropractors, a privilege already conferred upon them. It now becomes us as chiropractors to assert our religious rights." (p. 1)

"The practice of chiropractic involves a moral obligation and a religious duty." (p. 2)

Later in the book he distanced himself from actually renaming the profession to the "religion of chiropractic" and discussed the differences between a formal, objective religion and a personal, subjective ethical religious belief. (p. 6) He reaffirmed that chiropractors have a religious and moral duty, and ended the first chapter by stating:

"By correcting these displacements of osseous tissue, the tension frame of the nervous system, I claim that I am rendering obedience, adoration and honor to the All-Wise Spiritual Intelligence, as well as a service to the segmented, individual portions thereof -- a duty I owe to both God and mankind. In accordance with this aim and end, the Constitution of the United States and the statutes personal of California confer upon me and all persons of chiropractic faith the inalienable right to practice our religion without restraint or interference." (p. 12)

Detractors

Palmer met opposition and was accused of being a crank and a quack. An 1894 edition of the local paper, the Davenport Leader, wrote:

"A crank on magnetism has a crazy notion that he can cure the sick and crippled with his magnetic hands. His victims are the weak-minded, ignorant and superstitious, those foolish people who have been sick for years and have become tired of the regular physician and want health by the short-cut method ... he has certainly profited by the ignorance of his victims ... His increase in business shows what can be done in Davenport, even by a quack."

Death

The 2008 book Trick or Treatment states that in 1913, B.J. Palmer ran over his father, D.D. Palmer, during a homecoming parade at the Palmer School of Chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa. Weeks later D.D. Palmer died in Los Angeles. The official cause of death was recorded as typhoid fever. The book Trick or Treatment indicated "it seems more likely that his death was a direct result of injuries caused by his son." There was speculation that it was not an accident, but instead a case of attempted patricide. They had become bitter rivals over the leadership of chiropractic. B.J. Palmer resented his father for the way he treated his family, stating that his father beat three of his children with straps and was so much involved in chiropractic that "he hardly knew he had any children". D.D. Palmer's attending physicians were persuaded to change their opinions about the main cause of death. D.D. claimed that his son B.J. struck him with his car. Chiropractic historian Joseph C. Keating, Jr. has described the attempted patricide of D.D. Palmer as a "myth" and "absurd on its face" and cites an eyewitness who recalled that D.D. was not struck by B.J.'s car, but rather, had stumbled. He also says that "Joy Loban, DC, executor of D.D.'s estate, voluntarily withdrew a civil suit claiming damages against B.J. Palmer, and that several grand juries repeatedly refused to bring criminal charges against the son."

Quotes

The following quotes are from D.D. Palmer's book, The Chiropractor's Adjuster (also called The Text-Book of the Science, Art and Philosophy of Chiropractic). The book was published in 1910 by the Portland Printing House Company of Portland, Oregon, and reprinted in 1966 by his grandson, David D. Palmer, 1966.

• Dis-ease: "The kind of dis-ease depends upon what nerves are too tense or too slack."
• Chiropractic for intellectual abnormalities: "Chiropractors correct abnormalities of the intellect as well as those of the body."
• Life and Religion: "I have answered the time-worn question — what is life?": "The dualistic system — spirit and body — united by intellectual life — the soul — is the basis of this science of biology"
• "There can be no healing without Teaching ..."
• "There is a vast difference between treating effects and adjusting the causes."

Works

• The Chiropractor's Adjuster (also called The Text-Book of the Science, Art and Philosophy of Chiropractic), Daniel David Palmer, Portland Printing House, 1910 (reprint: 1966).
• The Chiropractor (Los Angeles: Beacon Light Printing Co., c1914).

References

Notes

• Some time after his death, Palmer was mistakenly believed to have been born in Port Perry, about 30 km north-east of Audley. This information remains widespread today. Palmer did live in the town at some point, and appears to have received much of his schooling there. Today there is a statue of Palmer in the eponymous Palmer Park, which simply states he was "raised" there. Some of the confusion surrounding Palmer's early life can be seen in examples like Joseph Keating's "D.D. Palmer's Lifeline", which includes statements that "DD's father, Thomas Palmer, is born in Port Perry" in 1824 - but this was before the town existed. The same author would later correct the record in "The Palmers and the Port Perry Myths".

Citations

Bibliography

• Paul Arculus, "A Pickering Son: Daniel David Palmer", Pathmaster, Pickering Township Historical Society, Spring 2004, pp. 4-6

External links

• Chiropractic History Archives: D.D. Palmer
• D.D. Palmer's Lifeline