Classical Osteopathy

John Wernham’s Classical Osteopathy is a collection of lectures given by eminent osteopaths which include Dr. A. T. Still, Dr. John Martin Littlejohn, T. Edward Hall, George V. Webster, Carl McConnell and Louisa Burns.  In these lectures can be found the basic Principles of Osteopathy which are the foundation of the Classical Osteopathy approach to treatment known as the Body Adjustment.

In this textbook on Classical Osteopathy, Dr. John Martin Littlejohn wrote “The underlying principle of osteopathy is expressed in the words, Mechanical Organic Adjustment.”  Littlejohn continues to comment that “the body is a mechanism; that is, it is an order of machine, all the parts of the machine working together for the common good of the mechanism.  In addition to this, the body is its own commissariat; in other words it takes the raw materials from the field of nature, and it uses these basic substances in the preparation of new substances and in the preparation of forces.  The body is a vital mechanism – that is an organism.  Now this is the part we must not forget.  It is not to correct to speak of the body as a machine, or as a mechanism, unless we speak of it as a vital mechanism.  When the body takes the raw materials it transforms these into the vital.  There is nothing that is assimilated in the body that is not first vitalised, and every process which takes place in the body is a vital process.  Every lesion that we find in the body is a vital lesion in relation to the vitality of the patient.  For example, if the bone lesion were the only lesion found in the body, then after correction it would remain corrected.  Does it in fact always do so?  It gets out because the vitality will not allow it to remain correct”.

To read more of “Classical Osteopathy” you can purchase a copy from the JWCCO Bookshop for £40.00 here: http://www.johnwernhamclassicalosteopathy.com/classical-osteopathy/