I started a collection of texts from old osteopathic journals that could be of interest to osteopaths and people curious about osteopathy.
You can fin the full list here
Some were translated into French here
How osteopathy was evolved
During the early years of my career as a physician, I had many obstacles to meet and to overcome under the conditions then existing. I was always seeking a better method, and thirty years ago I took as my subject the form and functioning of the human body. Although I was about as well posted in anatomy as the ordinary physician I found that in reality my knowledge of the subject was limited. I knew that there were about 206 bones in man’s framework. Each bone had two ends and as many articulations. I knew something about how one bone articulated with another. I looked upon man as the perfect machine which was run by a force we call life. I knew that if a hip was dislocated and the femur kept out of its articulating socket, that a man would have an unnatural, wobbling gait. I knew that the way to correct this was to put the thigh bone back into its socket. So long as it stayed out of its socket, just so long the man would not walk properly and would present an unnatural appearance while in motion.
I began to reason that if a dislocated hip would derange the appearance of a man while in the act of walking, what might we expect in the functioning process with the head of a humerus dropped down upon the axillary vessels and nerves? Could a normal action or a normal physical condition of that arm be expected? What would be the effect of pushing a clavicle at its sternal articulation against the nerves and blood vessels of the anterior part of the neck? Would it produce an enlargement of the thyroid gland by pressure on the thyroid veins, causing what is commonly known as goiter? Is that the cause of blood and other fluids being detained in the thyroid gland and is the enlargement caused by venous blood failing to pass back to the heart?
I proceeded to examine the bony relations in a few cases of goiter—both simple and exophthalmic.
In every case I found almost complete dislocation of the clavicle, the inner end onto the blood vessels of the neck and the outer end forward and off the acromion process; also there was usually one or both of the first ribs pushed far back and off their spinal articulations. I adjusted ribs and clavicle to their normal positions, stagnation of fluids stopped and enlargement of the thyroid gland disappeared. I did not stop with one experiment, but tried others. In exophthalmic goiter I proceeded to adjust the bony framework of the upper dorsal, and to my surprise, in a few days or weeks, when the work was properly done, the eyes became natural in appearance, the heaving of the heart stopped and the goiter disappeared. I was proud to know that my philosophy could be demonstrated in all cases of goiter by reduction of the tumor and the disappearance of the distressing symptoms.
In sciatic rheumatism, I found obstruction to blood circulation to be the cause of the pain and suffering in the lower spine and limbs. In every case I found a sub-luxation or dislocation of the head of the femur; or one or both innominates off their articulation with the sacrum. This reduced the subject of sciatic rheumatism to a demonstrable fact of variations in bones and muscles.
Proceeding with my experiments, I found variations in ribs to be the cause of asthma. I adjusted the ribs, the asthma vanished. It was simply an effect of abnormal articulation of the ribs with the transverse processes of the vertebrae.
I found the cause of side headache and facial neuralgia to be equally simple. They could both be traced to a slip of one or more of the cervical vertebrae or a subluxation of the heads of the first ribs, shutting off the ascending vertebral artery and the venous drainage from the brain. I continued my explorations of the human body. I dissected to acquaint myself with the forms and function of every organ, its supply and drainage. I tried to acquaint myself with the mechanical and physiological processes of the whole body and I am happy to say I have found and repeatedly demonstrated that the body is a machine and can vindicate all its claims for health in the hands of a man or woman who knows the normal and the abnormal. With me it is no longer a debatable question; if I fail to get the results desired, I am frank to say that my ignorance is responsible for the failure and not the ability of the body to vindicate the intelligence of its architect and builder.
A.T. Still
Journal osteopathy, August 1904
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