The actual profession of chiropractic-as a distinct form of health care-dates back to 1895.  However, some of the earliest healers in the history of the world understood the relationship between health and the condition of the spine.  Hippocrates advised: "Get kowledge of the spine, for this is the requisite for many diseases." 

The treatment of the spine remained crude and misunderstood until Daniel David (D.D.) Palmer discovered the specific spinal adjustment.  He was aslo the one the develope the philosophy of chiropractic which forms the foundation of the profession.

D.D. actually started his career in Davenport, Iowa as a magnetic healer and opened the Palmer Cure & Infirmary downtown.  On September 18, 1895, D.D. was working late in the office when a janitor, Harvey Lillard, began working nearby.  A noisy fire engine passed by outside and D.D. was surprised to see thar Lillard didn't react at all.  He approached the man and tried to strike up a conversation.  He soon realized Lillard was deaf.

Patiently, Palmer managed to communicate with the man, and learned he normal hearing most of his life.  However, he had been in a stooping position, and felt something "pop" in his back.  When he stood up, he realized he couldn't hear.

Palmer deduced the two events--the popping inhis back and the deafness--had to be connected.

He ran his hands carefully down Lillards spine and felt one of the vertebra was not in its normal position.  "I reasoned that if that vertebra was replaced, the man's hearing should be restored," he wrote in his notes afterwards.  "With this object in view, a half hour's talk persuaded Mr. Lillard to allow me to replace it.  I racked in into posiotion by using the spinous process as a lever, and soon the man could hear as before."

Over the succeeding months, other patients came to Palmer with every conceivable problem, includinf flu, sciatica, migraine, stomach problems, epilepsy and heart troubles.

D.D. Palmer found that each of these conditions responded well to the adjustments which he called "hand treatments."  Later he coined the term chiropractic--from the Greek words, Chiro, meaning (hand) and practic, meaning (practice or operation).

He renamed his clinic the Palmer School & Infirmary of Chiropractic.  In 1898 he accepted his first students. Often surprised at the effectiveness of his adjustments, D.D. Palmer returned to his studies of anatomy and physiology to learn more about the vital connection between the spine and one's health.

He realized spinal adjustments to correct vertebral misalignments, or subluxations, were eliminating the nerve interference causing the patient's complaints.

The rest is History, and thanks to this wonderful discovery, millions of people worldwide have realized their fullest potential and regained their health through chiropractic.