Lectures on Osteopathy Volume 1

Description

Introduction

This compilation of lectures delivered over the years has now been prepared for my students in the present volume.  Covering a wide field of clinical thought and practice, the general theme of Classical Osteopathy is pursued throughout with a special emphasis in the opening paragraph (and repeated several times over), on the importance of the meeting of Still and Littlejohn at Kirksville in 1897. With hindsight, it has become clear that having recovered his health at the hands of A. T. Still, Littlejohn became lecturer and student at the American School whereupon he began to broaden the concept of osteopathic philosophy to which Still responded with a total denial. Still, the practical man of bones and their engineering and Littlejohn, with an eye to the functional activity of the body gave rise to the inevitable clash between these two stalwarts of osteopathic history – and so they parted.

In 1900, the following year, the Littlejohn College was established in Chicago and it was here that the foundations of osteopathy were laid.  During the next decade the theory became reality in the treatment from the hospital patient to the chronic condition until 1913 when the Dean returned to this country to continue his academic career in the British School of Osteopathy from 1915 until the outbreak of war in 1939.  With the cessation of hostilities in 1945 and the gradual return to normal life, the Maidstone Osteopathic Clinic began to operate in 1947, the Institute of Classical Osteopathy in 1953 and the College much later in 1980.

The sequence of time and the succession of dates yield a process of osteopathic development that has withstood much adverse criticism but is now the cornerstone of our teaching and practice in osteopathy. At the present time there are so many claimants to authority in our profession that it has become a matter of some relief to know that Classical Osteopathy has its foundation in the work of our Founders, supported by a hundred years of research and clinical evidence and from which there is no reason to deviate. We continue to look forward, with our contribution to the art of healing intact and well informed, for the future generations of osteopathic practitioners.

John Wernham
Maidstone 1995

Content

• “He Would Never Argue”
• The Osteopathic Lesion Theory
  • The Cranial-Sacral Mechanism–Summary–The Heart Mechanism–A Case Report–The Final Report
  • The Second Dorsal Lesion
• Osteopathic Philosophy
• Osteopathic Mechanice
• The Art and Science of Osteopathy
• The Articular Mechanics of the Spine
  • The Vertebral Column–2nd Cervical Vertebra–7th Cervical Vertebra–1st Dorsal Vertebra–3rd, 4th, 5th,
    6th, and 8th Dorsal Vertebrae–9th Dorsal Vertebra–10th Dorsal Vertebra–11th Dorsal Vertebra–12th
    Dorsal Vertebra–The Lumbar Area–The Sacrum–Mechanics of the Sacro-Iliac Joint–Articular
    Planes in the Spine–The Physiological Movements of the Spine–The Flexible Rod–The Axis of
    Rotation–Easy Flexion Sidebending Rotation Lesions–Extension Rotation Sidebending Lesions
• “You Can Not Adjust the Abnormal to the Normal”
• Body Adjustment
• Fragmentation
• The Institute Lecture 1992
  • Toxicosis: Bioplasm & Protoplasm
• Technique and Performance
  • Notes on Stress lines–Double Identity
• Tricks and Clicks
• The Sacro-Iliac Articulation
  • Mechanics of the Sacrum–Notes on the Sacro-Iliac Joint
• The Cerebro-Spinal Fluid
• What Osteopathy Means To Me
• Specific Treatment
• Posture and Gravity Line Effects on the Body
• The Principles of Technique and Practice of Classical Osteopathy
• Osteopathy in Great Britain – A Personal Record