Daniel David Palmer

Daniel David Palmer or DD Palmer (March 7, 1845 – October 20, 1913) was the founder of Chiropractic.

Palmer was born in Pickering, near Toronto, Canada to Katherine McVay and Thomas Palmer. At age twenty he moved to the United States with his family. Palmer held various jobs as a beekeeper, school teacher, and grocery store owner, and had an interest in the various health philosophies of his day, such as magnetic healing, osteopathy, and spiritualism. Palmer practiced magnetic healing beginning in the mid-1880s in Burlington and Davenport, Iowa.

Palmer read medical journals of his time and followed developments throughout the world regarding anatomy and physiology. While working as a magnetic healer in Davenport, IA, he encountered a deaf janitor who he discovered had a palpable lump in his back. He theorized that the lump and his deafness were related. After a reported successful restoration of the man's hearing, it led to the beginning of Chiropractic history. His theories revolved around the concept that altered nerve flow was the cause of all disease, and that misaligned spinal vertebrae had an effect on the nerve flow. He postulated that restoring these vertebra to their proper alignment would restore health.

Palmer founded a school based on his work that would become the Palmer School of Chiropractic in 1897. By 1902 the school had graduated 15 chiropractors. In 1906, Palmer was prosecuted under the new medical arts law in Iowa for practicing medicine without a license, and chose to go to jail instead of paying the fine. As a result, he spent 17 days in jail, but then elected to pay the fine. Shortly thereafter, he sold the school of chiropractic to his son, B. J. Palmer. With the help of an arbitration committee, the deal was settled for $2,196.79, various books and, some specimens from the osteological collection. As soon as the sale of the school was finalized, DD Palmer went to the west coast where he helped to found chiropractic schools in Oklahoma, California and Oregon.

The relationship with his son BJ was tenuous and often bitter, especially after the sale of his school. Their subsequent disagreements for the direction of the emerging field of chiropractic were evident in DD Palmer's writings. Even the circumstances surrounding his death were postulated to be attributable to BJ. Court records reflect that during a founders day parade in Davenport in August 1913, DD was marching on foot and was allegedly struck from behind by a car driven by BJ. Others denied he was struck by BJ's vehicle. He died later in Los Angeles, California, on October 20, 1913. The official cause of death was typhoid fever, though some believe it was the consequence of his injuries. The courts exonerated BJ of any responsibility for his father's death.

Palmer's fundamental idea
DD Palmer's effort to find a single cause for all disease led him to say:

"A subluxated vertebra… is the cause of 95 percent of all diseases. …The other five percent is caused by displaced joints other than those of the vertebral column."

Palmer's mysticism
D.D. Palmer regarded chiropractic as partly religious in nature, and in a letter of May 4, 1911 he said: "we must have a religious head, one who is the founder, as did Christ, Mohamed, Jo. Smith, Mrs. Eddy, Martin Luther and other who have founded religions. I am the fountain head. I am the founder of chiropractic in its science, in its art, in its philosophy and in its religious phase." 

Historical quotes
The following quotes are from D.D. Palmer's book, The Chiropractor's Adjuster (also called The Text-Book of the Science, Art and Philosophy of Chiropractic). The book was published in 1910 by the Portland Printing House Company of Portland, Oregon, and reprinted in 1966 by his grandson, David D. Palmer, 1966.


 * Disease: “The kind of disease depends upon what nerves are too tense or too slack.”


 * Chiropractic for intellectual abnormalities: “Chiropractors correct abnormalities of the intellect as well as those of the body.”


 * Life and Religion: "I have answered the time-worn question — what is life?”: “The dualistic system — spirit and body — united by intellectual life — the soul — is the basis of this science of biology”