Dr. Palmer makes a discovery

In 1895 Dr. Daniel David Palmer, a popular magnetic (energy) healer, discovered a spinal “bump” on a deaf individual. It appeared as if the spinal bone were out of place. Upon questioning, Dr. Palmer learned that the man had bumped his head seventeen years prior and became deaf shortly afterwards.

Palmer reasoned that the accident may have displaced a vertebra in the man’s spine, hence the slight bump, and that re-aligning the vertebra may give relief.

A slight adjustment

Using his hands, he “adjusted” the bone back into alignment and after 17 years the man could hear again. Shortly thereafter a patient with a heart condition was similarly found to have spinal displacements. When they were adjusted the heart condition improved.

Palmer reasoned that if two conditions so different, deafness and heart disease, could be caused by displaced vertebrae in the spine, could not other conditions be related to spinal displacements (later called subluxations)?

So began the discovery and evolution of chiropractic.