On that day in 1895 in Davenport Iowa, a magnetic healer named D.D. Palmer was trying to help his janitor regain his hearing. The man had been deaf for 18 years following a small accident where he felt something “give” in his back. Dr. Palmer examined the man’s spine and found what appeared to be a misaligned vertebrae.He placed the man on a bench, put his hands over the spine, and gave a short,quick push – once -twice -three times. On the third attempt he heard a faint click in the man’s back. After nearly 18 years of deafness, the man could hear again!
Palmer was convinced he had found a cure for deafness. on the next day however, he gave another “treatment” to a patient with heart trouble, and the condition was relieved. Soon people with all kinds of conditions were coming to him for his treatments. People reported being cured of stomach troubles,asthma, skin conditions, headaches, and sciatica. D.D. Palmer was becoming well-known far and wide as the discoverer of a powerful new drug-less way of healing.
The word chiropractic, was coined by one of Palmer’s first patients, an outstanding Greek scholar, Reverend Samuel Weed. Palmer asked him if there was a Greek word meaning “done by hand”. Rev. Weed took the Greek word for hand: cheiros, and done by: pracktos and put them together. So chiropractic, meaning done-by-the-hand, was named.
In 1900, with the help of his son B.J. Palmer, the Palmer School of Chiropractic opened its doors for the first class – five students! Since that time Chiropractic has grown at an ever increasing rate each year. Today Doctors of Chiropractic can be found throughout the world. There are 24 Chiropractic colleges in existence today, all providing the highest quality of chiropractic education. Chiropractic has become the largest non-medical healing art in the world today! What was begun by one man in Davenport Iowa, with a desire to cure people’s suffering, has blossomed into the healing phenomena of the twentieth century – today’s Chiropractic!