More Than Machinery: Physiological Foundations for the Manual Clinician

More Than Machinery

Physiological Foundations for the Manual Clinician

A Contemporary Study of Harry E. Vedder's Chiropractic Physiology (1916)

"We in ourselves are very delicately constructed pieces of machinery, but we are more than this; we are not automatons." — Harry E. Vedder, 1916

Every tissue under a clinician's hands is alive. Its cells renew themselves, its fluids move, and its nerves report and respond. The stiffness of a joint, the tone of a muscle, the swelling after an injury and the ache of a sensitised nerve are all physiological states. A clinician who understands them can reason about what is happening, what is likely to happen next, and what will help.

In 1916 Harry E. Vedder, Professor of Physiology at the Palmer School of Chiropractic, published A Text Book on Chiropractic Physiology. It was one of the school's "Green Books," and it shaped how a generation of chiropractors understood the working body. It is both a careful physiology of its time and the fullest early statement of chiropractic theory: Innate Intelligence, the mental impulse, the Innate and educated brain, the nine primary functions, the subluxation and the adjustment.

This contemporary study follows Vedder's text chapter by chapter, from the cell to the brain. It sets out his arguments in his own words, then examines them against a century of research. Some of his ideas stand, some survive in reformed form, and some must be set aside. His questions are taken seriously, and his reasoning is engaged before it is judged.

Inside you will find:

• 29 chapters in five parts: The Living Unit; Blood and the Circulation; Respiration and the Internal Secretions; Nutrition, Excretion and Heat; and Voice, the Senses and the Brain
• Modern physiology of muscle, nerve, the heart and circulation, breathing, the glands, digestion, the kidney, the skin, temperature regulation, the senses, pain and the brain
• A "From 1916 to Today" comparison table in every chapter
• Clinical reasoning for the manual clinician, including red flags and when to refer
• A case for discussion, key points, review questions and further reading in every chapter
• A glossary, a selected bibliography and a full index

The subluxation is understood here as a site of inflammation and swelling around the nerve root, not bone pressing on nerve. The relationship between spinal segments and the tissues they supply is affirmed, but not as a fixed map of organs and diseases. The clinician's role is described honestly: not to treat or cure disease, but to reduce what interferes with the body's own capacity to regulate and repair itself, and to recognise when that capacity is failing.

This book is written for chiropractic and osteopathic students, practitioners and educators, and for anyone interested in the history and science of manual medicine. It is the fourth volume in the Clinical Reasoning Series from PCC PRESS, following The Roots of Clinical Reasoning, A Little World Within and The Body Itself.

About the Author

Jiro Yamahata, BCSc., DOMP, is the founder and educational director of PALMS School of Chiropractic in Osaka, Japan, and directs a DOMP certification programme in osteopathic manipulative therapy. He has taught chiropractic and manual medicine for about twenty-five years and has led seminars in India, Malaysia, Nepal and South Korea.