Happy Birthday Chiropractic

Sept 18th marks the date of the first Chiropractic adjustment by Chiropractic’s founder DD Palmer.  On this day in 1895 DD Palmer delivered the first Chiropractic adjustment with the intent of restoring a man’s hearing. That man was Harvey Lillard. Unbelievable I know. But the results were astounding enough to begin a new study and a new profession.

Read how DD Palmer describes this first adjustment in his 1910 book The Chiropractor’s Adjuster:

“Harvey Lillard, a janitor, in the Ryan Block, where I had my office, had been so deaf for 17 years that he could not hear the racket of a wagon on the street or the ticking of a watch. I made inquiry as to the cause of his deafness and was informed that when he was exerting himself in a cramped, stooping position, he felt something give way in his back and immediately became deaf. An examination showed a vertebra racked from its normal position. I reasoned that if that vertebra was replaced, the man’s hearing should be restored. With this object in view, a half‑hour’s talk persuaded Mr. Lillard to allow me to replace it. I racked it into position by using the spinous process as a lever and soon the man could hear as before. There was nothing ‘accidental’ about this, as it was accomplished with an object in view, and the result expected was obtained. There was nothing ‘crude’ about this adjustment; it was specific, so much so that no Chiropractor has equaled it.”

Happy birthday Chiropractic! 125 years old!