FASTING
tions or interferences with the fluids of the body, all without the internal administration of drugs or medicine." The name, derived as it is from the Greek, osteon, bone, and pathos, suffering, is not such a misnomer as might at first appear. The osteopathic theory is that many disease symptoms originate in bony lesions. This applies more particularly to the vertebral column, which, owing to its complex mechanism, is liable to several forms of sub-dislocation, depending upon the region in which they may occur. The most common is that of rotation followed by forward or backward displacement of a single vertebra. Compensation always succeeds these changes so that the disturbance is communicated to the ones above or below, thus forming a group. These lesions are detected by the touch and are verified by tenderness of the surrounding parts. They are necessarily slight, but the theory supposes them sufficient to profoundly influence adjacent tissue.
Mobility of the spine is of first importance, for in health there is motion between adjacent vertebrae. Lack of movement may be caused by muscular tension, by stretching of ligaments, or by a union of the parts due
342
