ABSTRACT
Spinal manipulation is a very old therapeutic practice. Healers of ancient times were experts in the anatomy and mechanics of the spine and believed in the pathogenic effects of spinal misalignments. Daniel David Palmer, a magnetic healer in Davenport Iowa, was the founder and first practitioner of chiropractic. Chiropractic also flourished in Canada and Europe as prominent medical physicians acknowledged its therapeutic value. The human spine is a flexible column of twenty-four inter-locking vertebrae of the central nervous system. Chiropractic represents an approach to health and health care that is uniquely distinct from that of conventional medicine. Chiropractors maintain that germs are a necessary but not a sufficient condition for the onset of disease. Currently in the United States there are over 25,000 licensed chiropractors, about 80 per cent of whom are actively providing patient care.
