“Cranial and Facial Adjusting Step by Step” 

The Director’s Chair

I have a passion for history, especially when it comes to philosophy pertaining to various subjects. Dr. Boyd and I have spent hours discussing old texts, particularly from the early days of medicine. I like to study in this area because insight is gained and also knowledge  about how early day alternative practitioners worked with and gave credence to the inner workings of “vitalism”.  Many of these old writers were original thinkers like Palmer, Thurston, Hay, Jackson, Sutherland, not to forget our mentor Dr. Robert Boyd.  If there is enough interest in history, I could share some insights from these early writers in future articles.

 

In a recent 4-Day Hands On class, an attending practitioner brought in an interesting book called, “Cranial and Facial Adjusting, Step by Step” by Calvin Cottam, that very well could fit in with the writers aforementioned.  I personally had never heard of Nephi Cottam or his son, Calvin Cottam, who followed in his father’s footsteps, but with this book in hand, it appears they were both chiropractors and pioneers in the field of cranial work.  We would be remiss not to mention them as part of our history.  It has not been our intention to leave them out of the history of cranial work when we are presenting Bio Cranial to new practitioners.  The books by Cottam are out of print and Life West is the only college that seems to have a copy of his book.  I know many of our membership are inquisitive and for that reason I will share the opening story from “Cranial and Facial Adjusting, Step by Step” that led Dr. Nephi Cottam to his first attempt at cranial work.

 

The following is an excerpt: by Calvin Cottam's Book, “Cranial and Facial Adjusting, Step by Step”, 1985, 1987.

 

 

 

“Doctor, what would you do (on a house call without drugs or restraints) if a husband locks you in the bedroom with his screaming wife and says, “You’re staying with her until she’s quiet!”

 

Tim cried out, “Doc, there must be something you can do. You’ve been here two days and nights trying to calm my wife, but she’s still about the same.  Look at her. She’s pulling out her hair again.”  As a milder after-thought he added, “She’s torn everything in the house, she might as well tear her hair.”   He picked up some rags from the floor and said, “These used to be pretty draperies, but they’re shreds now...and you know, we were pretty proud of all our belongings, but I’ll bet the junk man wouldn’t have any of them now that she’s ripped and broken them all to pieces.”

 

“Martha’s screaming again, and tearing what little there is left of her dress.  Doc, you’ve got to do something!”

 

The words resounding in the ears of Nephi Cottam,  They hit in hollow mockery.  He thought, “What more can I do? I’ve, tried everything I know.  She’s calmed down a little...but a little is not very much for a woman who’s turned insane.”  His feelings of wanting to be of help were as the knocker of a bell clanking against the broken shell of the inadequate knowledge he then had.

 

Tim and Martha were not their names, but the event really happened during the middle nineteen twenties.

 

Cottam started straightening his tie, as a hint to the husband that he planned to leave, and said, Everything that I know how to do has been done...”

 

SCREEEEEEam!!!!

 

Before anymore could be said, Tim answered him by going to the door, turning the lock, and saying as he put the key in his pocket, “Doctor...you’re going to stay here...until Martha’s quiet.”  His strained eyes pierced Cottam’s depths as he added quiet happily, “Look, she seems to like it cause I’ve made you stay.  She’s just standing there, quiet-like, and watching us...but there she goes again.  Why can’t Martha stop screaming and pulling at the top of her head.  Doc, if she doesn’t stop soon, I’ll be going mad too.”

 

As he spoke, an idea began forming in Cottam’s brain.  “Maybe she’s trying to tell us something by the way she’s acting.  Notice as she goes by, that she yells and simultaneously grabs the top of her head and yanks her hair?”

 

“Does it mean anything?” Tim questioned.

 

“I’ve an idea, though it may sound silly...”

 

“A thought keeps flashing through me of what to do, but such a thing has never been done before, that I know of.”

 

“What is it?”

 

“It seems to me that the head is too ‘tight’; if we loosen it, she ought to calm down.”

 

“Sounds simple enough. But how do you do it?”

 

“An idea is haunting me,  It’s as if a voice is telling me just what to do.  There are sutures which are like seams where the bones join together to form the head.  If they would ‘give’ a little and the cells of the head expand and have more ease, the pressure on the brain might be reduced.”

 

“Do it; stop pacing the floor, and do it.  There has to be a first time in anything.”

 

“But I don’t really know what will happen.”

 

Tim looked Cottam straight in the eyes and with a searching, pleading stare replied, “Whatever it is, try it.  Martha’s better off dead than alive this way.  She couldn’t be any worse.  What can I do to help you?”

 

Something seemed to be telling Cottam just what to do and say as he said to Tim, “Hold her in a chair...that straight-back one in the kitchen will be fine.”  Tim brought Martha from the other room and put her in the chair.

 

“Here she is.  I’ll hold her like this,  Okay?”

 

It looked to Tim as though the doctor just put his hands in front and back of her head in a way that he had never seen before, and then made strange movements with his hands.  Tim showed his amazement as he exclaimed, “What was that?  It sounded like all the bones of her body clicked.”

 

But before he could express his astonishment, Martha calmly looked at Cottam and said with a sigh of relief, “Doctor...why didn’t you do that before?  The pain has gone!”

 

Such a quick response had them amazed,  Cottam’s only answer to her was, “I didn’t know how.”

 

For a moment there was a stifling silence. Then Tim broke the unusual quiet by asking, “Darling, why did you scream so and tear everything you could get your  hands on?  What made you act the way you did?”

 

Martha burst into tears as she replied, ”I knew I’d been acting ‘crazy’.  I knew all the things I was doing, but I couldn’t help it.  There was a pain in my head as if a hammer was pounding pins and needles into it.  At first there was just a headache, but it got so bad that I tried anything to get it to stop.  When I hit my head against the wall, it would get sort of numb and feel ‘better’ for a while.  But, the hammers just kept pounding and pounding and...Oh, now, they’ve stopped, let me forget it.  I’m limp as a dish rag.  Help me to the other room.  I’ve got to sleep.  I’ve got to rest.”

After Tim returned from the bedroom, where he had left his wife to repose in the deep quiet of recovery, he took the key from his pocket and said, “Doctor, I don’t know what you did, but you must have done something.  Martha’s surely calm now.   The change happened so suddenly I hardly know what to say.”

 

Tim turned the key and bade farewell to the doctor.

 

Nephi Cottam started home.  His brain was spinning in pondering thoughts that were to change his whole life.

 

“What had I done?”  The thought taunted him. “Why, why,,,why?  What made her stop raving and become sane?  Could it be that I really did move the bones and relieve a pressure in her head?  All the books I’ve ever read and all I’ve been taught in school sets forth the idea that the bones of the skull are immovable!  Had I really done anything, or had her condition run its course so that it was just a coincidence that she became calm when she did?”

 

 

 

So did Nephi Cottam, DC give the first recorded cranial adjustment?  According to Calvin Cottam’s book this began the journey of cranial adjusting that was eventually called “Craniopathy” in 1932.  William Garner Sutherland, DO, who we are all familiar with, was also working on a cranial system at about the same time and his osteopathic techniques were also taught under the name of Craniopathy.  This has created confusion and may be one of the reason’s Cottam’s work has been overlooked.

 

There is debate as to who was inspired first between Nephi Cottam and William Garner Sutherland.  The book states that the first newspaper report about Nephi Cottam was in January 1929, eight months ahead of the newspaper report about William Garner Sutherland  and his thoughts on the subject.  To us at this late date, we are respectful of the contributions of both of these forward thinkers.

 

I dare say, we are fortunate that when such a situation faces us and the spouse turns the key in the door and we can’t leave, we can do a Bio Cranial procedure without hesitation, knowing the cranial fixations will quickly resolve.  Thanks to our own Dr. Robert Boyd!!

Doug Hays, DC

Click on the links below to navigate through  the pages of

Vitality Journal

November 2008 issue.