Chiropractic and the Social Context of Medical Technology, 1895–1925

Abstract

Chiropractic and the Social Context of Medical Technology, 1895—1925 STEVEN C. MARTIN In 1924, B. J. Palmer, America’s foremost chiropractor, revealed “the most valuable invention of history,” the neurocalometer. A thermopile connected to a galvanometer that measured temperature differences along the spinal column, the neurocalometer would revolutionize chiropractic because “it picks, proves and locates the CAUSE of all diseases of the human race.”1 In response to this dramatic announcement, Palmer was widely condemned by many of his most ardent supporters in the chiropractic community. Many chiropractors scorned Palmer as a traitor to the cause, and nearly half the faculty of his Palmer School of Chiropractic (PSC) resigned. Palmer fled his headquarters, disappearing with his family on a round-the-world journey that lasted eight months. The proud PSC plummeted, and what had once been the premier chiropractic educational institution nearly folded a year later.2 Dr. Martin is an assistant professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Social Medicine and the Department of Medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He is writing a book on the history of chiropractic. He gratefully acknowledges the support of a grant from the Charles E. Culpeper Foundation and a travel grant from the Bakken: A Library and Museum of Electricity in Life. The author is indebted to the librarians and archivists at the Bakken, the Palmer College of Chiropractic, the National College of Chiropractic, and the Logan College of Chiropractic. He also thanks Ellen Koch and Ruth Schwartz Cowan for their help and encouragement. ‘B. J. Palmer, The Hour Has Struck (n.p., 1924), p. 35. ‘Details of the neurocalometer episode are derived from the following sources: ibid.; B.J. Palmer, The Neurocalometer (n.p., 1924), Why Did B.J.? (n.p., n.d.); the special neurocalometer issues of the Fountain Head News, eds. 1 —18, vol. 14, no. 18 (August 22, 1924)-vol. 15, no. 14 (February 6, 1927). These sources are available in the Archives of the Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa. Secondary sources include Chittenden Turner, The Rise of Chiropractic (Los Angeles, 1931), pp. 39-45; A. A. Dye, The Evolution ofChiropractic: Its Discovery and Development (Philadelphia, 1939), pp. 127— 45; Russell W. Gibbons, “Assessing the Oracle at the Fountain Head: B.J. Palmer and His Times, 1902—1962,” Chiropractic History 7 (1987): 9—14; Joseph C. Keating, “Introducing the Neurocalometer: A View from the Fountain Head,” Journal of the Canadian Chiropractic Association 35 (1991): 165— 78.© 1993 by the Society for the History of Technology. All rights reserved. 0040-165X/93/3404-0003S01.00 808 Chiropractic and the Social Context of Medical Technology 809 The neurocalometer controversy highlights the critically important role that technology plays in the history of chiropractic. Throughout their history chiropractors have clashed over the appropriate place of machines in health care. As a profession self-consciously defining an alternative approach to health care, chiropractic struggled with the appropriate role of medical technology. In this article I explore this facet of chiropractic history as a means of illustrating how technology helped define both orthodox and unorthodox medicine. In addition, I argue that the evolution of chiropractic attitudes toward technology illustrates important changes in popular American attitudes toward medical machines.’ Early Chiropractic, 1895—1910 Chiropractic was founded by Daniel David (D. D.) Palmer (fig. 1). Born into a Canadian frontier family, Palmer emigrated to the American Midwest as a young man. Without formal education, he supported himself as a grocery clerk, beekeeper, fish seller, and schoolteacher before turning to magnetic healing in 1886.4 He developed a successful practice in Iowa and later claimed to have spent the following decade searching for the underlying cause of disease/ In September 1895 he experienced his “eureka moment.”1’ He described it so: 'Surprisingly little literature exists on the history of medical technology. Useful sources include Audrey Davis, Medicine and Its Technology (Westport, Conn., 1981); Joel D. Howell, “The Meaning of Medical Machines” (Ph.D. diss., University of Pennsylvania, 1987); Stanley J- Reiser, Medicine and the Reign of Technology (Cambridge, 1978); Margaret Rowbottom and Charles Susskind, Electricity and Medicine: A History of Their Interaction (San Francisco, 1984); Ellen Koch, “The Process of Innovation in...