Lectures on Osteopathy Volume 2
In his Introduction to “Lectures on Osteopathy” Volume 2, John Wernham writes: “For this second issue of the Osteopathic Lectures we are publishing material from the archives, especially from the lectures delivered by J. M. Littlejohn at the British School of Osteopathy during the nineteen thirties. During his lifetime, he refused to publish the lectures, but now, fifty years after his death, it is important to make his teaching known to the modern student. The early lectures from the period in question have already been printed and it is appropriate to select the best of the later lectures, which are much better recorded.
The research and practice carried out over five generations in osteopathy has been jettisoned by the sixth generation for reasons best known to itself and in spite of the well-known aphorism, that if we forget our past, then we have no future. Inevitably, perhaps, the collection of techniques now in vogue are not giving the clinical satisfaction that was once expected and questions are being asked for which there is no answer, except to look back to our forebears, where the solution might be found.
It is important to remember that this present volume is composed of a series of lectures rather than a textbook. Differing occasions and authors will mean that some repetition is likely to occur; in addition the old records which include all the ‘asides’ do not lend themselves to the printed page and there are problems of editorship.
The greater part of the archival subject matter is drawn from the old lectures with the exception of the contribution from Jonathan Scott on a most important and difficult subject which he has called ‘A Nexus of Rhythm’. The author chose this subject for his graduation thesis and it is well worthy of a place in this present collection.
It would appear that the promise of a doctorate or a degree is sufficient to convince the practitioner or student that the good standing of osteopathy is thus preserved, but the truth is neither of these educational elevations is capable of producing an osteopathic craftsman. Osteopathy is a subject in its own right, having its own educational standards and its own interpretation of scientific data and these must not be made subject to other disciplines.
We do not presume to offer any kind of criticism to other members of other therapies but we do request that the osteopathic profession should be allowed to teach and practice according to the great precepts laid down by Still and Littlejohn and which have given a service of undeniable excellence for more than a hundred years.”
John Wernham concludes Volume 2 with a brief history of Osteopathy in particular the early years in the U.K. when J. M. Littlejohn established his new school and where he taught unremittingly for over twenty years alongside a private practice in Buckingham Gate and Dover Street, Piccadilly.
To read more of “Lectures on Osteopathy Volume II” you can purchase a copy from the JWCCO Bookshop for £25 here: http://www.johnwernhamclassicalosteopathy.com/lectures-on-osteopathy-volume-2/