Andrew Taylor Still
Andrew Taylor Still ( born August 6 1828 in Lee County, Virginia; † December 12, 1917 in Kirksville, Missouri) developed at the end of the 19th century, today counted towards alternative medicine osteopathy.
Life and work
Youth and Education
The son of a Methodist priest and doctor he was born in Lee County, Virginia, the third of nine children. He experienced a deep religious character. Through its involvement with his father he got an education in the then practiced medicine. In the American Civil War, he assumed an active role on the part of abolitionists and was probably also active in field hospitals.
Setbacks and reorientation
After returning in 1864, died within a few days after three of his children a deadly epidemic meningitis and shortly afterwards a fourth child, despite consultation of several specialized doctors from pneumonia, he turned from unsatisfied by the established medical and religious institutions. Influenced by these experiences, he went on the search for new cures and began an intensive self-study of the anatomy and physiology of the human body. Formative for the later development of osteopathy was the confrontation with the intellectual currents of his time; such as the American transcendentalism of phrenology and mesmerism, from which developed the medical hypnosis. In particular, but the bone setting ( medicine religion of the Shawnee Indians), the philosophical treatises of Herbert Spencer, the founder of the theory of evolution, as well as current developments in European medicine were closely followed by Still.
Founding of osteopathy
Was similar to the spoken mesmerism and the healing magnetism of the circulation of a universal fluid, it was Stills basic idea, anatomic disorders, which led to blood or lymphatic congestion or blocked nerves to treat. He stood up against the scientific medicine of his time and was criticized publicly.
Still in 1874 announced its new diagnostic and treatment approach and gave her the name of osteopathy. The composite term is derived from the ancient Greek words Osteo for " bone " and pathy for " suffering" here. He chose this name because he had begun his studies of the bone in order to alleviate the suffering of his patients. Still left Kansas and moved to Kirksville / Missouri and opened his practice there in March 1875. With its therapy methods he was so successful that patients from far away arrived to be treated by him. Since he soon had more patients than he could handle, and due to their entreaties, he decided to teach his osteopathy. In 1892 he founded the American School of Osteopathy ( first of two rooms in a wooden hut consisting ). As a pragmatist, he did only what was necessary. One of his principles for his students was "find it, fix it, leave it alone".
Known students and further
Among his most famous students include John Martin Littlejohn, in England with the British School of Osteopathy in 1917 founded the first European School of Osteopathy; Daniel David Palmer, the founder of modern chiropractic and William Garner Sutherland, who has enriched the osteopathy greatly by his work in the field of osteopathy kraniosacralen.