DR ANDREW TAYLOR STILL

Dr Andrew Taylor Still was born in Jonesboro (now called Jonesville), Lee County, Virginia on August 6^th 1828. After moving to Kansas in 1853 ANDREW STILL decides to become a physician, he is aged 25, a married man with 2 small children.

His father, Abram STILL, a Methodist minister has been a physician for the best part of his life and so STILL becomes his fathers apprentice.

It was common practice in those days for a would-be-doctor to train simply by working with a practising physician and studying medical books, but it is thought by some that Dr Still also received some formal medical training at a school in Kansas City, however no records remain to confirm this.

As an apprentice Andrew Taylor Still learns the techniques of the time; bleeding, blistering, purging and is taught the use of compounds such as mercury, arsenic, heavy metals, as well as some natural elements such as simple herbs and tree bark.

In 1861 the Civil War brakes out. Andrew Taylor Still enlists and serves as a surgeon in the union army. Distressing circumstances certainly, but circumstances which immerse Dr Still in an environment which further expand his medical experience. Andrew Still  remains immersed in this environment for 4 years until he receives the news that his regiment can disband and go home.

But back home Andrew Still is faced with an even greater trauma.   His three sons die of what we now know to be spinal meningitis,  his daughter dies of pneumonia and his wife dies in childbirth.

Distraught that his medicine has been unable to save his family, and coupled with his grim experiences as a Civil War doctor Andrew Taylor Still rejects most of what he has learnt about medicine and begins to search for a new method of healthcare.

There were a number of alternative medical theories in circulation at this time – magnetic healing, bonesetting, grahamism, hydrotherapy and homeopathy. There is evidence to believe that in his searching for a new way of healing DR STILL investigated several of these systems adopting, consciously or subconsciously, those components which seemed to have validity.

Dr Still establishes an approach to medicine based on ideas that date back to Hippocrates. Building on a foundation of natural medicine - the vis naturae madicatrix – Still’s main principle is that function is dependant on structure, that the shape of something affects how it works.  He recognises the body’s ability to heal itself and that the key to health lay in the correction of the anatomical deviations that interfere with the free flow of blood in the body. He promotes the idea of preventative medicine and endorses the philosophy that physicians should treat the patient rather than the disease.

 

JOHN MARTIN LITTLEJOHN

Osteopathy was brought to this country by Dr John Martin Littlejohn.

John Martin Littlejohn was born in Glasgow, Scotland on February 15^th 1865.  At the Age of only 16 he enters university to study theology, the arts, Hebrew and the oriental languages, but leaves before graduating to be ordained in the ministry of The Reformed Presbyterian Church of Scotland.  The year is 1886.

In 1889 he returns to university receiving his masters of arts degree, bachelor of divinity and bachelor of law. It is thought that during the 3 years away from university, Littlejohn has studied anatomy and physiology because the understanding he shows a few years later cannot be explained in any other way.

Littlejohn moves to Londonderry, Northern Ireland but his stay is brief. Littlejohn is a frail man not well suited to the damp whether. He is given only 6 months to live and is advised to seek warmer and drier climate abroad. In 1892 John Martin Littlejohn sets sail for the Americas he is 27 years old.

On arriving he enrols in Columbia University where he studies political philosophy, political economy and finance. In 1893 he returns to Europe for the summer and autumn to study medieval culture and then returns to Columbia to received his Ph.D.

Littlejohn’s scholarship is instrumental in him becoming, at 29, one of the youngest college presidents in the United States. In 1898 owing to fragile health Littlejohn resigns from this position. But his resignation is accepted reluctantly and the following tribute is published.

“We recognise in J.M. Littlejohn one of the ablest ministers and ripest of scholars, and as an educator he has no superior. A refined gentleman a true Christian, his influence has always been on the side of right and the best interest of education, his aim in life being to lift up and stimulate the educational interests of the whole community.”

 

EARLY DAYS OF A NEW SYSTEM

From the beginning STILLS views bring him considerable opposition. The local church denounces his ideas as sacrilegious. His brothers are embarrassed by the way he has questioned the current medical practice, and when STILL asks to present his Ideas at the local university he is refused. 

The Claims that he is neglecting his family and farm in the pursuit of crazy ideas lead STILL to move to Macon, Missouri where he hopes his ideas will be be better received, they aren’t and he moves again. This time North to Kirksville. There he finds some acceptance and, advertising himself as a magnetic healer and ‘lightning bone setter’ starts to slowly build a reputation. Many stories are told of the doctor whose system of drugless manipulative medicine is able to cure many apparently hopeless cases.

In 1885 Dr Still officially names his system Osteopathy.

Ever increasing patient numbers lead Still to teach his children in order that they can help him. Soon more and more people want to learn his system and he is persuaded to start a school.

May 10^th 1892 The American School of Osteopathy (ASO) is founded in Kirksville, Missouri. (Now the Kirksville college of osteopathic medicine)

The school becomes a huge success and what started as a 2 room building soon evolves into a huge facility with two wings dedicated to the treatment of patients. It was estimated that on any given day there would have been 400 people who had come to Kirksville to be treated.  In fact the railroad has to increase the number of daily passenger trains to Kirksville to deal with the new popularity of the destination.

 

LITTLEJOHN AND STILL MEET

Hearing of Andrew Taylors Still’s reputation Littlejohn journeys to Kirksville and receives treatment.  At Stills hand Littlejohn’s health is restored and so impressed is Littlejohn that he moves to Kirksville and takes up the study of osteopathic medicine.

As he studies and receives treatment he becomes part of the faculty teaching physiology. Very soon he is appointed dean of faculty and professor of physiology.

It was during these few years at the ASO that Littlejohn initiates the osteopathic research movement. Working in partnership with STILL, using a barn as his lab, Littlejohn conducts a series of experiments on animals. He make minute examinations of the heart, lungs and spinal cords of dogs. On Dr Still’s advice he subjects the animals to the drugs of the day to show that such substances are foreign to the body, and produce detrimental instead of beneficial effects.

Littlejohn disects an entire nervous system, pining onto the side of his lab, and produces the physiological and osteopathic chart further showing the relationship of form and function.

Littlejohn looks behind the physical skeleton to the invisible function of the physiology and sees in the physiology a far more profound level of osteopathy that STILL has not recognised. Andrew Taylor Still comments that “the osteopathic student must remember that his first lesson is anatomy, his last lesson is anatomy and all his lessons are anatomy.”

Littlejohn insistence that “physiology is the gateway by which this immense field of osteopathy is to be entered” And the two great minds are in disagreement.

Littlejohn is determined to establish a school of his own and after graduating with his DO in 1900 moves Chicago and founds a new school and hospital. He spends more than 10 years in Chicago studying the fundamentals of life and movement in the living body, Treating such things as rabies malaria cerebral haemorrhage toxicity tumours and cancers, steadily he lays the foundations of our technique and practice.

Littlejohn furthers his education by studying medicine at the Dunham and Hering medical colleges in Chicago earning an M.D. degree. From 1900 to 1907 he edits the journal of the science of osteopathy and writes many books and papers including

The science of osteopathy, Treatise on osteopathy, Theory and practice of osteopathy, and The free system also.

Dr Andrew Taylor Still dies on December 12^th 1917 at the age of 89 he had remained active in the ASO almost until his death.

In 1913 Littlejohn returns to the UK bringing with him Osteopathy. He settles in Thunderley in Essex and dedicates all of his time and money into establishing the first Osteopathic College in England the British Scholl of Osteopathy (BSO).

He continues his teaching and osteopathic activities until his death.

Littlejohn died on December 8^th 1947.   Until students complained recently His name was not mentioned on the BSO web site.

Littlejohn took the original concepts of osteopathy and saw the profound physiological depth to them.

 

ALTERNATE DIRECTION

When Littlejohn died a new dean took over the running of the BSO and with a view to getting osteopathy accepted by the allopathic medics The new headmaster started changing osteopathy. His name was Shilton Webster-Jones.

Webster-Jones was born in 1899 in Liverpool. He studied pharmacy and obtained a Pharmacy certificate at Liverpool University. in 1931 he studied osteopathy at the BSO and qualified in 1934.

He soon joined the faculty and became Assistant Registrar to Littlejohn. When Dr Littlejohn died in 1947 "Webber" became Principal, the post he retained for 20 years and despite being responsible for removing 90% of osteopathy from osteopathy The Osteopathic Association of Great Britain gave him an Award for outstanding services to the profession. Ironically the award was called The Littlejohn award.

Shilton Webster-Jones died on 18th January 1986.

In 1950 a man named T. Edward HALL, concerned about how these new influences were deviating the principles layed down by Littlejohn made the suggestion that an institute should be formed to safe guard the way of osteopathy that he and his contemporaries had been taught by Littlejohn.

T. E. Hall was regarded by his contemporaries as the most accomplished technician of his time. Nothing is known of his early history, other than he was in the army and he was a musician. In fact he was a member of an orchestra on a ship and he suffered with a chronic knee injury that he had sustained on the football field. 

The story goes that among the passengers was an elderly American osteopath who’s TTT relieved both the knee and the patient.  The year was 1925 and on returning to London, HALL enrolled at the BSO, in Dover Street under Littlejohn.

After graduating in ‘29 HALL joined the faculty at the BSO teaching Osteopathic Technique the subject in which he excelled. During the early years he visited the American Schools and formed a life-long friendship with Harrison H Fryette, a man noted for his contribution to the understanding of human mechanics.

HALL became vice Dean of the BSO in 1934 and it is said if it wasn’t for HALL the school would not have survived the war.

And so THE OSTEOPATHIC INSTITUTE OF APPLIED TECHNIQUE was formed HALL, of course, a founder member. The mission of the institute was stated in the 1956 yearbook

The purpose therefore in forming the Osteopathic Institute of Applied Technique was to bring together in one body, those members of the profession who were prepared to interpret and apply osteopathy as it was laid down by A.T. Still.

Under its constitution the Institute was designed to:

promote research into the skeletal structure and mechanics of the physiological movements of the spine, and the techniques based thereon.

To preserve the fundamentals of the osteopathic concept and to create a nomenclature by which the mechanics of the osteopathic techniques may be best described.

To publish books and pamphlets of a technical nature, to build up a library and by these means to gradually establish a centre to which the profession may look for assistance in technical problems.

That Institute is now known as THE INSTITUTE OF CLASSICAL OSTEOPATHY (ICO) and has been headed for the last 28 years by Mr John Wernham.

 

JOHN WERNHAM

John Wernham was born May 2nd 1907 the youngest child of 11, coming into the world at an impressive 12 pounds. Aged 8 the family moved from London to Essex, to a place called Thundersley.  It was here where early contact was made with the Littlejohn family the head of which was to have a profound influence in later years. 

He returned to London as a young man and embarked on a promising career in photo-journalism. This was cut short by a conversation he had with John Martin Littlejohn who casually asked the young Wernham whether he had ever considered studying osteopathy.

This obviously stirred something inside him and much to the annoyance of his family and friends he signed up to the British School of Osteopathy.

Now the school at that time was almost single-handedly run by Littlejohn whose high intellect and gentle but determined manner was to make him one of the most significant men in the history of Osteopathy. John Wernham would continue to pursue the vast and detailed work of Littlejohn through the rest of his life. It was at this time that he also met

another great friend and influence, Teddy Hall. The growth and development of the British School was cut short by the World War II, where he put his photographic skills to good use working for the film and photographic section of the military intelligence in Africa.

Although this was his official capacity apparently a good many patients were also seen!

Following the end of the war, 1947 marked two significant dates.  The first was the death of Littlejohn and the second was John Wernham’s marriage to his wife Jessica. With her love and support these events triggered what were to become the Maidstone Years.

Premises were bought at 30 Tonbridge road and the old X–ray machine from the BSO installed. Over subsequent years a stream of graduate osteopaths would work there under the instruction of John Wernham. The clinic was run as a charitable establishment offering affordable treatment to the people of Kent, as it is to this very day.

In 1954 at the suggestion of Teddy Hall, Wernham was one of the founder members of the Institute of Applied Technique, now renamed the Institute of Classical Osteopathy.

This came about by a desire to maintain the philosophy and practice of osteopathy in an attempt to stem the tide of medical control within the profession. Later John Wernham was instrumental in founding the European school of Osteopathy but his insistence in teaching fundamental principles led to his withdrawal to concentrate on his own work at number 30.

Then in 1984 at the age of 77 when most men would be comfortable in their retirement, he took on a huge challenge. He opened a new college, the Maidstone College of Osteopathy at undergraduate level, to teach osteopathy as he knew it. I was lucky to be one of the early cohorts of students and though the building at that time was cold and bleak the instruction was special. 

The basic sciences were taught by specialist tutors but the osteopathic content of principles, practice notes and technique were taught by John Wernham in person. The political climate at that time was uncertain, but many of us knew we were onto a good thing and I for one am very proud of my Maidstone DO.

1993 marked the sad loss of Jessica Wernham, after 46 years of marriage. 

His journalistic and printing skills were useful throughout his career enabling him to publish many manuals and Year Books on his beloved osteopathy. No more so than his two volumes of osteopathic technique co–written with his friend and colleague Mervyn Waldman.

Progress and politics took the Maidstone College to Epsom where the institute was expanded from an undergraduate diploma to a full time undergraduate degree course which was named the John Wernham College of Classical Osteopathy (JWCCO) based within at the North East Surrey College of Technology (NESCoT).  Postgraduate courses still ran at the JWCCO main HQ in Maidstone, Kent.

In 2002 the JWCCO in Surrey became the Surrey Institute of Osteopathic Medicine (SIOM) and now offers undergraduates the chance to benefit from both a conventional and a classical understanding of osteopathic medicine with core members of the faculty having worked directly with and been practitioners for Mr Wernham.

On Friday 9^th of February 2007 Mr Wernham passed away just 3 months away from his 100^th birthday. He had been active writing and treating patients up to a week before he died.

The Institute of Classical Osteopathy continues to hold regular events, seminars and courses.   Postgraduate diplomas are run throughout the year in Kent and lectures groups of students that travel from IRELAND, ITALY, SWEDEN, BELGIUM, FINLAND, CANADA, SPAIN, SWITZERLAND, GERMANY and JAPAN to benefit from the history that has made its way there from Kirksville.

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REFRENCES

A Tribute from Henry Lee DO, Rochester Cathedral, 1st March 2007
www.kcom.edu
www.aoa-net.org
A LITTLEJOHN COMPANION - compiled by T. Norminton D.O., M.R.O.
THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN MARTIN LITTLEJOHN - JOHN Wernham