DOI: 10.1097/01.prs.0000204794.50708.e9

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PMID: 16582810

Issn Print: 0032-1052

Publication Date: 2006/04/01


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A Plea for Understanding and Logical Thinking

N K. Pandeya

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Excerpt

It was some time in the last decade of the nineteenth century when an itinerant doctor, a former U.S. Army surgeon, started to reflect upon the then-state-of-the-art practice of medicine of the era. He had lost some of his family members to the epidemic of spinal meningitis. The common remedies did not work for his family members and he was profoundly affected by this. He was a keen observer of his surroundings, with a logical, analytical mind. He obviously possessed superior native intelligence, having excellent power of deduction from his observations and dogged determination. Mainstream medicine was deeply involved in bleeding (blood-letting), blistering, and purging and using dangerous chemicals, such as arsenic, to treat sore throat and venereal diseases. Mercury, bismuth, and similar products were being used in abundance, and medical practitioners were a “cultist” culture.
The logic behind his philosophy of osteopathy was to restore the structure of human body so that function could improve. He believed in the innate ability of human body to heal itself, in most circumstances. Andrew Taylor Still, M.D., armed with a strong sense of conviction, started his American School of Osteopathy in 1892 in the small town of Kirksville, Missouri. He taught all the subjects taught at other medical schools at the time, including obstetrics, anatomy, and surgery. Many of his faculty had medical degrees from various domestic and foreign universities. He also included the art of manipulation in an attempt to achieve the optimum state of health using the holistic approach, by using the structure of the body to restore normal function. He quickly gained popularity. New trains were added to bring patients to this man with the magic touch, the “lightning bonesetter” of Kirksville. The existing system of medicine, the allopathic system, did not use manipulation, nor did the homeopaths, hydropaths, naturopaths, or eclectics.
He was following the path of a proprietary system of medical education. He had many M.D. faculty members, but it was still his school. This resulted in his immediate family members and relatives getting preferential treatment. In those days, most medical training was obtained through apprenticeship and proprietary schools. Few doctors received their medical training through the university system. The American School of Osteopathy also had a large number of women in training. The entrance requirements were similar to those of several medical schools. Several of his relatives and former students fanned out across the country and opened their own osteopathic medical schools, in places like Minneapolis, Boston, Denver, Seattle, Kansas City, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Chicago. The Des Moines school was started in 1898 by a nephew of Dr. Andrew Taylor Still, Dr. S. S. Still.
The Flexner report revolutionized American medical education. In 1910, Abraham Flexner (1866 to 1959), a teacher who had no doctoral degree, gave his report to the Carnegie Foundation. This report, “Medical Education in the United States and Canada,” included the osteopathic medical schools. The Flexner report was directly responsible for the demise of several medical schools that were found to be substandard in their teaching and staffing. The attrition list included medical schools that taught allopathic, naturopathic, homeopathic, osteopathic, and eclectic systems. In the current thinking, perhaps, the word “osteopathy” does not fit the description of a medical system that teaches all the subjects taught at other medical schools but also includes a special emphasis on the art of palpation and manipulation and uses a holistic approach. This point was brought to the attention of the founder, Andrew Taylor Still, M.D., D.O., but he was adamant about keeping the word “osteopathy” in the name of the school.
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