THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF OSTEOPATHY -A Manual of Osteopathy - Eduard W. Goetz, D.O. 1909

 The body working under good conditions of mechanical and physical action produces blood which renders it proof against all forms of disease.

    We maintain that when all obstructions to the natural direction of the life forming and healing energies that are resident within the body are removed; when all chemical changes preparatory to nutrition are corrected, as they may be without medicine, then Nature fast and surely regains her normal equilibrium of health and strength.

    Osteopathy is the manual treatment of disease, based upon the fact that man is a most perfect, intricate, and, to a certain extent, self-recuperating machine, which, with each part or organ in its proper position and in harmonious relation with every other part, will run smoothly and perfectly; and when through osteopathic treatment we secure replacement of parts displaced by accident or any of the various forces incident to its surroundings and movements, a restoration of function (health) will supervene.

    Osteopathy is founded upon, and sustained by, the laws of Nature.  The organic substances out of which the body is built up have marvelous recuperative powers, and possess, independent of drugs, the efficacy to recover their normal function when diseased.  A part of the work is to digest and assimilate the foods prescribed by the normal appetite, to manufacture therefrom all the chemical compounds needed by the body for its own growth and repair, and to excrete that which is not so required.

    This work can only be carried on by the forces within the body, and, when interfered with, cannot be corrected, or artificial chemicals of the body substituted for the natural ones, in the form of drugs.  The Osteopath normalizes the chemical producing organs, and hence does not require medicine to bring about a cure.