D.D. Palmer

Daniel David Palmer

The Founder of Chiropractic

Palmer believed that the human body had ample supply of natural healing power transferred through the nervous system. He proposed that if any one organ was affected by an illness, it must have not been receiving its normal “nerve supply” which he called a “spinal misalignment,” or subluxation. He saw chiropractic as a form of realigning to reestablish the supply.

D.D. Palmers office was located in Davenport, Iowa. In 1896, he encountered the building’s janitor, Harvey Lillard, whom Palmer determined had a substantial lump in his back. Lillard’s hearing was severely impaired and Palmer proposed that the lump and his hearing deficits were connected. Palmer treated Lillard and successfully restored his hearing. 

B.J. Palmer

Bartlett Joshua Palmer

The Developer of Chiropractic

B.J. Palmer was the son of D.D. Palmer.He fought for the creation of a separate licensing and regulatory boards of chiropractic allowing for it to be acknowledged not as a method of medical practice, but as a separate entity. B.J. Palmer continued to develop the science, art, and philosophy of the profession. He supported the scientific advancement of chiropractic as the primary path to its acceptance. B.J. Palmer furthered the profession by using science to validate and explain chiropractic.Through his leadership chiropractic became the first health care profession to regularly use x-rays, which enhanced the science and accuracy of chiropractic. 

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“Medicine is the study of disease and what causes man to die. Chiropractic is the study of health and what causes man to live.”