Osteopaths in Wichita

Health, wealth and wisdom encompassed the 966 osteopaths who attended the American Osteopathic Association's convention in Wichita, Kans. last week. Wichita's temperature went as high as 102DEG but failed to diminish the vigor of the osteopaths as they bustled between lectures, shows, dances, banquets. They crowded Wichita's three good hotels, dressed mostly in white, doffed their coats.

Their technical discussions held well within the frame of the special osteopathic theory of disease. What the medical side of that frame is, Dr. Perrin T. Wilson of Cambridge, Mass., A. O. A.'s retiring president, paused to explain:

"Germs are to be feared but they are not our greatest menace. The thing mostly to be feared is a breakdown in natural immunity. Perfect circulation of good blood is our first and greatest defense against disease. The production and circulation of this natural germicide depends upon rational living and correct diet, the necessary sanitary measures and by no means least, a properly adjusted body machine to make the blood and to take it where it is needed.

"With such natural protection, one need fear the inroads of scarcely any hostile germs. Without such protection, the body falls victim to germs which are ordinarily harmless. . . .

"There is a beginning for every disease. The beginning is not when the germ enters the body, but rather when something happens to lower the resistance of the body, so that the germs may get a foot hold."

To this Dr. George J. Conley of Kansas City, newly elected A. O. A. president, added the surgical side :

"Aside from those surgical disorders resulting from accidents, it is practically axiomatic that what the osteopathic physician calls a 'lesion' is a predisposing factor in the production of such disorders. Such a 'lesion' affects the circulation of blood and lymph and thus becomes responsible for producing in the tissues the point of lowered resistance in which germs locate and propagate. It is also responsible for a region of stagnant blood, or some-times of stimulated circulation, which may result in excess or defect or perversion of the growth or function in structures directly influenced."

Humbly President Conley added: "We know so little about the laws of nature and how they operate."

President Conley's entry into osteopathy parallels the path of many another osteopath. The 1893 panic forced him to cease studying sanitary engineering at Purdue University. He became a railway mail employe, developed "consumption." An osteopath declared the "consumption" was due to an old injury, gave young Mr. Conley manipulations. The patient recovered, studied osteopathy himself, became an osteopathic surgeon, teacher and office holder.

"Thousands of businessmen throughout America are undergoing osteopathic treatment weekly no matter if they feel fit as a fiddle," observed Osteopath W. W. W. Pritchard of Los Angeles. "Osteopathic manipulation has a tonic effect upon metabolism and is an important factor in the prevention of disease."

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