Biography

Harvey Lillard was an African-American janitor who worked in the Ryan Building on Brady street, Davenport, Iowa, United States. He was the first person to be treated with chiropractic by D.D. Palmer.

Lillard maintained the corner building where Palmer had his office on the 4th floor. In September 1895, he told Palmer that he had lost most of his hearing and was almost completely deaf. Lillard added that he “could not hear the racket of a wagon on the street or the ticking of a watch.” When asked how he had become deaf he replied that, 17 years before, while bent over in a cramped, stooping position he “heard something “pop” in his spine” and immediately lost most of his hearing.

Palmer offered to take a look at Lillard’s spine and found a lump just between his shoulders; he persuaded Lillard to allow him to “rack his bone back into position.” Palmer, in fact, thought Lillard’s hearing loss was due to a misalignment that blocked the spinal nerves which control the inner ear, the so-called vertebral subluxation; he decided to push the vertebrae back into place[14] and, after a few days, Lillard said that his hearing was better and almost completely restored.[15][16] Lillard described:

I was deaf for 17 years and I expected to always remain so, for I had doctored a great deal without any benefit. I had long ago made up my mind to not take any more ear treatments, for it did me no good. Last January, Dr. Palmer told me that my deafness came from an injury in my spine. This was new to me; but it is a fact that my back was injured at the time I went deaf. Dr. Palmer treated me on the spine; in two treatments I could hear quite well. That was eight months ago. My hearing remains good. HARVEY LILLARD, 320 W. Eleventh St., Davenport, Iowa.

    Few good points:

  1. Chiropractic is about optimal nerve system function. It’s NOT about Pain.
  2. Specific Scientific Chiropractic Adjustment is designed to correct Subluxation.
  3. Adjustment is not a Joint Manipulation, although joints sometimes make noise.
  4. It is never too late to start taking a good care of yourself. Although the faster the better!
  5. Subluxation happens because of Physical, Chemical and Emotional Stress, ONE trauma or ONGOING Stress.
  6. Even one adjustment can make a miracle. Miracles are still happening now, as Harveys’ story, although the correction of Subluxation is an ongoing process due to ongoing stress.
  7. Every Person counts. Everyone has a spine. Everyone Needs to be Checked!

“We never know how far reaching something we think, say, or do today will affect the lives of millions tomorrow.”

D.D. Palmer

Thank God for knowledge and understanding!

Be Blessed