EXPLANATORY - A Manual of Osteopathy - Eduard W. Goetz, D.O. 1909

  THE science of Osteopathy was founded by Dr. Andrew Taylor Still, who was formerly an allopathic physician and surgeon in the United States army.  About forty years ago he realized that the usual remedies employed in the treating of disease were insufficient.  He then conceived the idea that the human system is a machine, perfectly framed by its Maker, and, if kept in a condition of proper adjustment, capable of keeping pace with time for a lengthened period of existence.  He found that manipulation could be made almost at will in connection with the skeletal structure, with the result that all the organs could be stimulated to perform their normal function.

    After working at the experimental table of Nature for years, he concluded that he had found a new science, and to this new science and system of healing he gave the name "Osteopathy," not because he regarded all healing as "bone setting," but because he regarded the bones as Nature's medium of manipulating the human system, just as an allopath or a homeopath regards drugs as a means of healing disease.

    The basic principle of Osteopathy is, that if the human organism is in perfect order, every body tissue and structure performs its part without interruption; the bony structure representing the framework upon which the other tissues of the body are built and to which they are attached.  Osteopathy makes use of the bone framework in establishing landmarks for physical examination as a means of restoring misplaced parts of the body.  Hence, according to Dr. Still, the bones become the basis of operative manipulation, so that osteopathic manipulation represents the medium of therapeutic action.

    It was in 1887 that Dr. Still began to teach his sons the science.  The American School of Osteopathy is the outgrowth of this first effort to impart to others this science and art of healing.  Under the existing charter, Osteopathy is taught as a science of healing and has already been applied to many, if not all, of the diseases to which flesh is heir.