Daniel David Palmer

Life and work

The story behind the role.

Founder of Chiropractic (1845–1913).

Daniel David Palmer (March 7, 1845 – October 20, 1913) was a Canadian-born American spiritualist and activist best known for creating chiropractic. Palmer was born in Pickering Township, Canada West, but emigrated to the United States in 1865. He was also an avid proponent of pseudoscientific alternative medicine such as magnetic healing. Palmer opposed anything he thought to be associated with mainstream medicine, such as vaccination. Palmer believed the human body had ample natural healing power transmitted through the nervous system. He suggested that if any one organ was affected by an illness, it merely must not be receiving its normal "nerve supply" which he dubbed a "spinal misalignment", or subluxation. He saw chiropractic as a form of realigning to reestablish the supply.

Encyclopaedic excerpts from Daniel David Palmer; shortened for length and available under CC BY-SA 4.0.