Technic and Practice of Chiropractic

A rare glimpse into the origins of chiropractic, this 1915 textbook documents the techniques and philosophy of spinal adjustment as the profession's founders understood it. Joy Maxwell Loban, writing when chiropractic was still a young and contested practice, provides a systematic guide to vertebral palpation, nerve tracing, and the correction of subluxations - the spinal misalignments believed to disrupt the nervous system and cause disease. The text reveals a profession in formation, attempting to codify hands-on techniques while articulating its core premise: that the body is inherently self-healing, and that disease stems from mechanical interference with nerve function. For historians of medicine, researchers of alternative healing traditions, or chiropractic practitioners curious about their profession's roots, this volume offers an unfiltered portrait of early twentieth-century spinal manipulation - its ambitions, its methods, and its deliberate departure from conventional medicine.