The Machines and Tools of Dr. Clarence S. Gonstead

MATTHEW J. AMMAN, D.C.*

While impo.-tant research on the history of chiropractic machines has been published, relatively little attention ha been paid to its heterogeneous acceptance. Technology's role in chiropract ic split according to the philosophical assertions of straight and mixers; howevrr, a review of the instruments used by one of the most prominent men in the field, Dr. Clarence

. Gonstead (1898-1978) illustratt•s th at state Ia'' played a role. I lis embrace of machines reflects the profession's emerging cultu ral identity toward tcchno­cientific within legislative constraint s and the pur uit of clinical competency.

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Introduction

Dr. Gonstead grew up on a small dairy farnt in the rural community of Primrose, Wisconsin. As a )'Oung man, he suffered from a painful bout of rheumatoid arthnt1s. lie took advice and direction from medical doctors with little relief. Upon suggestions from fami ly, he con-;ulted a chiropractor. After several treatments. he experienced oa1n relief that allopathic care had fa iled to accomplish. Inspired by the experience, Gonstead decided to attend chiropractic school. After graduating from Palmer School of ChiropractiC in 1923, he returned to Southern Wisconsin and bought an existing practice in the small farming community o" Mount lloreb. llis reputation as a talented chiropractor grew, and soon, other chiropractors wanted to learn his methods. n response, he consented to offer classes to teach h1s methods. Eventually, through his seminars, the Gonstead Techn que spread throughout the world. Today the Gonstead techmque with its uniform listing system, x-ray analysis and chiropractic adjusting moves is taught in most chiropractic co lleges.

have a specific and restricted role in chiropractic care: to limit technology to evaluative procl:dures. Ocsp1te his po~itton, other clmopractors would adopt technology universally and a-;similatc it into their therapeut ic procedures (2).

Technological advances in medicine during the early twentieth century profoundly affected chiropractic The usc of machines for diagnostic:evaluative procedures caugt1t the allention of the clmopractic profession. especwlly B.J . Palmer. !lis decision to use the x-ray machine in 1910

underscored a fundamental shift away from chtroprac tc's hands-only approach (I). Technology also caused a sci IS 11

in the practice of chiropractic. Palmer wanted technology o

• Addre" ull corre,r<>nd<ll<C t<> 1\lallhc\lo J Amman. D.C • 72XO South nnn<cllth Street Suuc 20 I, Oa~ (·reck, WI ~ ll ~.J; n!.llthc\\amman,u yahoo.com

Portrait of Gomtcacl

Gon tead was a disciple of P 1hner and adhered to his

model of practice until Palmer 1110\ ed on to develop

the llolc-ln-One (1-110) tcchn1que. While Palmer de\eloped

hts system for HIO, Gonstead continued to refine Palmer 's

onginal1deas. It is a misnomer to cal l the Gonstead techniqlJ(.

onginal. A more accurate description would be to call it a

The Machmcs and Tools of Dr. Clarence S. Gonstcad- Amman

56

refinement of Palmer's 1920s chiropractic methodology. The purpose of this article is to document Gonstead's usc of technology and machines and to answer the question as to why he used only his hands to help his patients feel better when many in the profession supplemented their spinal adjustments with machines that offered therapeutic benefit.

Ncurocalometer

While Gonstead was attending Palmer School of Chiropractic (PSC) between 1921-1923, Dossa Evins, D.C., developed the Neurocalometer (NCM) (3). Palmer's characterization of the instrument at Lyceum in 1924 convinced Gonstead of its value. This characterization also proposed a new model for chiropractic evaluation: "The Spinograph for Position" and "The Neurocalometer for Location" (4). Despite the high cost to lease the instrument it could not be purchased outright Gonstcad acquired the instrument with the assistance of another chiropractor.

For many years, Gonstead used the NCM affiliated

I I

( ,.h.l II ~. 'Iropra<tt·or

'

I hav leas d for use in. ~11y orlice a n~w1 in­vention ~alled the Neurocalomet~r. This instru­ment is ~he 1a1~est and greatest ahdition to Chi­ropractir>. It jlocates the press~~re upon the nerves in the region of the spine and registers in degrees thq resistance c.reatec' by sai~ pre~-

' I ' I sure .... I 1 , 1

A cot~plete reading· clf the spine \s made,l before the adjustment is giVjen and the j)ressur~ regis­tered/Afte.r the adjpstment is ~iven £nothf~t· reading is made and-it is shown to 'the Ch'h·opr,ac tor and to the pa~ient whethe1~ or riot the pressure was relieved and exactly how rrtuch.

I

C. S. Golistead,.D."· C. State Bank Buildirtg I Mt. Hor~b, W1s.

4dl·ertisement ofGonstead\ VCM.

with the PSC. llowcver, he became frustrated with the poor sensitivity of the machine. He was not the on ly one. Dr. Fosber, a chiropractor, had also become frustrated and asked

Electronic Development Lab (EDL) to build a better one. EDL made an instrument for Fosber in 1945 and then started marketing the device to the profession. Many chiropractors, including Gonstead, switched to the nervoscope. ln the late 1940s, Fosberg died and EDL developed a consulting relationship with Gonstead (5).

Questioning its validity as a medical machine, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) shut down the manufacturing of the nervoscope in 1962. Rather than pursuing a lengthy legal battle, EDL decided to change the name to Temp-o-scope a more accurate description of the device. A few years later, EDL reverted to the original name nervoscope- knowing that the FDA would not investigate them a second time. Gonstead's primary contribution to the refinement of the nervo ·cope was his recommendation that EDL improve the machine's sensitivity to detect paraspinal skin temperature variations ( 6 ).

Similarly, when Palmer developed and marketed the Ncurocalograph, Gonstead acquired one as well. I lowevcr, in the 1950s he discontinued using the machine.

Viking X-Ray Machine, Vcrsubtcc

In 1957-1958 Gonstead was an investor in a company attempting to make an x-ray machine for chiropractic usc. Despite chiropractic's cnom10us interest in x-ray films, chiropractors had not yet "merchandiLed" x-ray machines. Medical companies were the main suppliers of x-ray machines to chiropractors. llowever, these machines were designed for viewing medicGI pathology such as arthritis, infections, tumor and tumor-like processes, etc. and they failed to meet Gonstcad's primary interest in observing skeletal architecture. In addition, these machines had limited ability to take full-spine fi lms because of inadequate tube­to-film distance and poor exposure rates. In response to the growing league of chiropractors now identifying themselves as Gonstcad practitioners, Gonstead developed a relationship withJimMontagueofSanJosc, California, to fom1acompan} called Viking (7). The company attempted to produce the first x-ray machine specifically for chiropractors.

It took many years to get a working prototype, and was not until the early 1960s that the first machines were available. By 1970 the company still was not breaking even. Red ink and weak demand eventually halted the project (8). A year later, the company attempted to re-emerge as a subsidiary of Gonstead Seminars. Inc. This time Wayne William took control of the company. llowever, the company continued to suffer financial setbacks; and in the end, only a few machines were made and even fewer were sold (9). The project was dead.

Gonstead collaborated one more time with Jim Montague

.. , 1c/n•rfil('l/l('/lf for ~1king X-ruy machill''

in an efTort to develop and market a machine that could be used as an adj unct to the ncrvoscope. It was called the Versubtec which stood for "vertebral subluxation <ktect ion." The col laboration was again unsuccessful as the machme was never fu lly adopted by either Gonstead or h1s seminar staff.

Split crccn X-Ray film Cassettes

Today full-spine radiographs arc commonly assoc1a cd with Gonstead practitioners. llowever, II ugh Logan recei\ es credit tor initially popularizing full-spine x-~ays ( 14' x 36") in chiropractic. Gonstead's primary contribution "'liS

the promotion of the full-spine split screen cas ette with the assistance of R.E. Schedler of the Milwaukee X-Ray Company. It was designed to take into account indiv idual body density to optimize full-spine film exposure. In 1969 the lateral spl it screen was changed from a two spht to a four split tor better film qual ity ( 10).

amcron Hcartomctcr

The Cameron llear1omcter was a popular medical instrument used in chiropractic offices for assessing a patient's vital signs. It recorded blood pressure, pulse rate, force and character oft he heart action, and peripheral vascular circulation throughout the extremities (II). Following standard chiropractrc clinical practices, Gonstead st.lrtld using the machine in the 1940s; but as his practice grew, he began leaving consu ltations and examinations to assistants who favored the more modem sphygmomanorni:.lcr. The

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Volume 27, No 2-2007

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Camcnn llcartometer cventuall) lost favor in IllS clmic.

Gonstcad Clinic Laborator}

Between 1920 and 1950, Palmer embraced laboratory tests man effort to validate chiropractic In the same mrndsl.!l, when Gonstead decided to build a new clinic m 1964, he dectdcd to have a dcdrcatcd laboratory. Unlike Palmer, his laboratory worked as an ancillary tool establishing baseline blood profi lcs and urinalysis. For some pat rents rt helped them monitor their drabetes and for others, it revealed pathological d1seasc processes that required rmmediate rcfem1l ( 12).

Adjusting Equipment

Gonstead was ill\ olvcd in several refinements of chiropractic cqurprnent including the knee-chest table, the ccn ical stool (chair), and pelvic bench that became proprietary to his tec hnique. In 1924, IlL' had a cabinet maker bui ld a knee-chest table specific for his approach to spinal adjustment. It was a refinement or Palmer's existmg knee­chest table which was w1dely used at the drne. One year later, he designed the cervical stool tor what he called wh iplash patients. In 1928, he dcs1gned the pelvrc table. Later he addc·d modifications to the H} lo table wi th the Zenith Compan). As )Cars v. cnt by he continued to explore the cushionrng of his tables in pursu1t of better adjust ncnts ( 11).

In Ius final years, Gonstead continu(•d to tinker ""ith the knee-chest table lie felt that the current patient position caused unnecessary muscular and ligament tension in the lumbar region. To achieve a more rcla\ed posrtron, he had prototypes made that rarscd the patient's ,mklcs a couple of mches; however, the prototypes never translated rnto field models ( 14). Conclusion

Knce-Che.\1 fii'OIOII'pe.

The Machmcs and Tools of Dr. Clarence S. Gonstead- Amman

58

Gonstead's opinions regarding the appropriate use of technology mirror those of his teacher, B.J. Palmer. Both believed that instruments were beneficial in the evaluative phase but for adjustments hands-on and hands-only was the proper way to provide therapeutic care. One misconception ofGonstead's followers i that his experience from adjusting thousands of people led him away from using therapeutic machines. More likely, the answer has to do with what the law all owed during Gonstead's time. In the early 1920s, the State of Wisconsin drafted chiropractic legislation limiting

REFERENCE

I. Steven C. Martin, M.D., "Chiropractic and the Social Context of

Med1cal Technology. 1895-1925," Technology and Culture, I 993, 34(4):

808 34.

2. James C. Whorton, Natural Cures: The /Iiston· of Alternative

Medicine in America, ( cw York: Oxford University Press, 2002) p. 103.

3. Joseph Maynard, D.C., 1/ea/ing Hand1·, (freeport, New York:

Jonorm, I 959) pp. 99-10 I.

4. Roben Canterbury, " Radiography and Chiropractic

Spinography." In Chiropractic An Illustrated /listmy, Dennis Peterson

and Glenda Wiese, eds. (St. Louis: Mosby Yearbook, 1995} p. 309.

the scope of therapeutic procedures to the usc of hands only thereby making Wisconsin a "straight" state ( 15).

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank Drs. Alex Cox, Doug Cox, W. John Cox, Raymond Clinton, James Stoencr, Sandy Chilson and Larry Troxell for their assistance in preparing this article.

9. Sandy Chilson. D.C, interview with author. 25 October 2004.

I 0. James McCoy. D.C.. intervie\\ with author. 7 May 2005.

II. lntemational Rel·iell"ofChimpractlc,)uly 1973. p.25.

12. Sandy Chi lson. D.C .• telephone interviC\'v w1th author. 25 July

2007.

13. "Dr. Gonstead: Just" (n.7).

14. Erwin Gemmer, DC. telephone mten1cw ~~1th author, 7

5. Mary Polsky, owner Electronic Development Laboratories, Inc.. Fcbmary 2006.

telephone mterview w1th author, 9 December 2005

6. ____ , interview (n.5).

7. "Dr. Gonstead: Just Came in Handy," Mount Horeb Mail, Part

II, 13 Apnl 1978.

8. Edward Cmmp, D.C., telephone intemev. with author, 14

December 2005.

NOTE FOR AUTHORS

15. ElizabethBamaby-Kceney,Susan Eyrich,and l·dmond P. Minihan.

"ScctariansandScicntists: Alternatives to Orthodox Medicine." in Wi.I'COII.\111

Medicine: Historical Per.1pecti1·es, Ronald L. Numbers and Jud1th Wal1er

Leavitt, eds. ( 'v1adison: Umverslly of Wisconsin Pre~s. 19R I) pp.65-69

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