OS'TEOP'ATHY (from Gk. dareov, ost fon, bone + reiOos, pathos, suffering, disease). A method of treating disease by manipulation. for which its adherents claim a universal curative power. It was invented by Andrew T. Still, of Kirksville, Mo., in 1893. The underlying prin ciples of osteopathy are briefly as follows: The fluids of the human body contain greater or less amounts of all chemical inorganic and that are at all capable of existence. and hence carry a store of all dregs that may he required for checking. and Best. )ying any imag inable disease; disease itself is nothing but an abnormal effect of the powers of life and pre sumably arises, along with the normal effect motion—continually; only, under the influence of the drugs in the body, the activity of those powers is immediately redirected along normal channels, and so disease no sooner arises than it is counteracted and destroyed; the incnt of health can be prevented by only one cause. viz. the slight displacement of some bone, which would naturally form an obstruction to the flow of the drug-carrying fluids; therefore, to effect the cure of any disease whatever, all we have to do is to localize the causative displace ment of the hone or bones and remove it by ap propriate manipulation. Mr. Riggs, of Boston, a lecturer on osteopathy. defines the methods as follows: is a 111(.1110(1 of treating disease by manipulation, the purpose and result of which is to restore the normal condition of nerve control and blood supply to every organ of the body. by removing physical obstruction or by stimulating or inhibiting functional activity, as the condition may require." The technical objections raised by the medical profession to the fundamental principles of osteopathy are numerous and have •often been expressed in very strong terms. Even the more
sober-minded members of the profession, while fully recognizing the value of methods like mas sage (q.v.) and Swedish movement (see "MOVE MENT CURE) in certain cases. are very emphatic in denying that any such method can be applied in all cases without exception. Their objection is. therefore, not so much against the method itself as against its universal application. to the exclusion of medical diagnosis and of other therapeutic methods of recognized utility. In general. they object strongly to any but a person disciplined by several years' professional study taking full charge of cases in which the health, and perhaps the life, of human beings may be in great danger. Before the law the osteopath takes the position that he practices. not medi chic, but osteopathy; that he cannot, therefore, be required to take a prolonged course of medical study; and that DO law is in the way of his erttering upon the practice of osteopathy after a few months of special training. This position has been often sustained by courts of justice, many judges defining the practice of medicine proper as the treatment of diseases by the use of drugs, while physicians generally define their practice as the treatment of diseases by any method whatever, whether involving the use of drugs, or the application of the methods of sur gery, obstetrics, ophthalmology, hydrotherapy, etc.
Consult: Bonnet, "Attitude Toward Osteo paths." in Columbus Medical 'Journal (1902) ; "Education of Osteopaths," in ,Southern Journal of Osteopathy (1900).