Advent and Evolution: Palmer's Hylo Adjusting Table
By Miranda (Franken) Hessel
The original tables that were used for administering chiropractic adjustments to patients were Spartan in appearance, with no upholstering or specific accommodations for a patient's anatomy. As the profession matured, practitioners saw the need for adjusting tables that took advantage of technology to assist in the delivery of the chiropractic adjustment, and to make it easier for the patient to mount and dismount the apparatus. This paper is a look at the first lines of raising and lowering adjusting tables, known as "hylo" tables, manufactured and marketed by the Palmer School of Chiropractic from 1910 to approximately late 1928.
Wilson Joseph Robb, DC, Pioneer Kansas Chiropractor
By Alana Callender, EdD
Wilson J. Robb, DC, was the first chiropractor in the state of Kansas, itself the first state to pass licensing laws. This paper traces his pioneer journey from schoolteacher and principal to chiropractor. Dr. Robb combined his two careers as a faculty member at the Ratledge / Foy college in Kansas and remained active in Kansas chiropractic into his ninth decade.
CMCC Board's Commitment to Increasing Non-Tuition Revenue
By Douglas M. Brown, DC
In 1978, the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College (CMCC) became immersed in the complex procedures of accreditation through the Council on Chiropractic Education (Canada). The first phase required the production of a status study detailing the college's strengths, weaknesses and a five-year plan for improvement. A number of concerns centred on monetary inadequacies, making the CMCC Board of Governors aware that it needed to broaden the college's financial base. With this in mind, the board established a fund-raising body called "The Governors' Club."
The club's vision is to augment the capital needs of CMCC; its mission is to create a membership of alumni and friends to support the college in perpetuity. This essay covers the first 30 years of the Governors' Club's existence (1981-2011), concentrating on its financial endeavours, its participation in CMCC's other fund-raising schemes and its historical pursuits.
Sacro-Occipital Technic Block Therapy: Origin and Development
By Ned Heese, DC, FICS
Chiropractic therapeutic concepts in the early decades of the 20th century were often a result of original thinking by the developer, coupled with chance circumstances followed up with clinical research.
Around 1920, Dr. Major Bertrand De Jarnette observed a demonstration of a pneumatic table used for manipulation. Built into the pelvic portion was a raised area that allowed leverage to affect pelvic distortions. Later that decade, the table was actually used in adjusting the back problems De Jarnette acquired in a severe accident some 10 years earlier. This particular therapy began to do more for his condition than any spinal manipulation was able to do.
Inventive in nature, De Jarnette began to conduct hundreds of experiments over the following decades to develop therapies with objects he could place under the pelvis to use as leverage. His later clinical research concluded with wooden pelvic wedges (herein called blocks) which were specifically placed to align the pelvis, using body weight as the energy and respiration as the force needed for the adjustment. De Jarnette introduced the pelvic block techniques in his clinical forums and publications in 1964. This article explores the conceptual origin, design and development of the blocks.
B.J.'s Beach House: The B.J. Palmer Historic Home in Sarasota, Florida
By Michael Wayne, et al.
Upon the death of his estranged wife, Bartlett Joshua Palmer, the president of the Palmer School of Chiropractic and captain of a growing broadcasting empire, found himself without a legal residence or home to truly call his own. This situation occurred as a result of the wishes Mabel Heath Palmer expressed in her will, leaving all her assets to her husband for the length of his natural life with the stipulation that upon his death all her worldly possessions would pass to their son, David.
In addition to his interests in chiropractic and radio and television broadcasting, B.J. Palmer also had a passion for circus life. All these factors led to his purchase of a home in Sarasota, Florida, where the Ringling Brothers Circus held its winter home. This article chronicles the circumstances of B.J. Palmer's Florida migration and the disposition of his winter home after his death in 1961; and the transformation of his residence into a memorial and museum that is managed and maintained by a not-for-profit charitable foundation.