It was the custom in that day for country doctors to receive their professional training by "reading" medicine, as their legal brethren "read" law. And it was in such a manner the A.T. Still received his medical education. After serving an apprenticeship under is father, he became a licensed physician in the state of Missouri. Later, in the early 1860's he attended the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Kansas City, Missouri.

In 1849, at the age of twenty-one, Andrew married Mary M. Vaughn, and for several years he farmed and practiced traditional medicine in Macon County, Missouri. However, this was a period of unrest in Missouri. It was essentially pro-slavery, and as both Abraham and Andrew Still were strong abolitionists, they moved their families to the state of Kansas. The Reverend Abraham served as a missionary to the Shawnee Indians at the Wakarusa Mission, six miles east of Lawrence, Kansas. Andrew farmed and doctored the Indians and settlers. It was during these early days on the Kansas prairie that Andrew first began to search for new methods of treatment for the patients that he was unable to help.

During the years 1852-1853, Andrew Still was a scout surgeon under General John C. Fremont. He became close friends John Brown and Jim Lane, the anti-slavery leaders, and was active in the border warfare in Kansas. In 1857, at the age of twenty-nine, he was elected on the free-state ticket to represent Douglas County in the Kansas state legislature. His wife died in 1859, leaving him with three small children. He was married the following year to Mary E. Turner, who became his faithful and devoted companion for the next fifty years.

War was inevitable and A.T.Still was among the volunteers of the Ninth Kansas Cavalry. He served the Union Army as a surgeon during the Civil War and was discharged with the rank of Major. (His surgical kit is on display in the Smithsonian Institution). During the war, he was appalled by the number of patients who died, and he abhorred the numerous surgeries and amputations. He became concerned about the common procedures of bleeding, purging, vomiting and blistering. The scientific world of that time knew little about the drugs they used or about bacteria or antiseptics. Surgery was performed without anesthesia and in unsanitary conditions. While in the army, Dr. Still decided that when he returned to Kansas, he would study the human body and find a better way to treat disease.

When a epidemic of spinal meningitis spread through Kansas in 1864, Dr. Still watched helplessly as three of his own children died from the disease. He gave over to deep despair; he hated the drugs for their impotency. He found the existing medical theory totally inadequate and unacceptable. This personal loss almost caused him to abandon his career, but instead, he became more determined than ever to find the answers to health and disease. Another factor which undoubtedly influenced his search for health is the fact, recorded in his family history, that of the seven children born to him up to that time, all had now died except one, the oldest daughter. Three had died in the epidemic and three shortly after birth. Therefore, at a time when medicine was primarily a series of remedies that were more harmful than the disease, Andrew Taylor Still began his search for a new method of medicine.

The next ten years of Dr. Still's life were spent studying, observing, comparing and experimenting. After re-reading the medical books and finding no answers there, he turned to nature.

For over a year he concentrated on the study of bones, experimenting to understand their relationship to one another. Then he studied the blood, which he called the "river of life," and how the blood flowed.

As he pursued his research with severe intensity, he came to think of the human body as a machine. He found that this machine, made up of a skeleton with supporting muscles and ligaments, was subject to certain mechanical laws and was, therefore, subject to stresses and strains. He learned that the proper function of the nervous and circulatory systems was an important factor to health and disease.

He believed that the body contained certain substances necessary for health, and if properly stimulated, they might also cure disease. Stimulation could be obtained by working with the musculoskeletal system by applying pressure to restore normal function. These beliefs led him to the theory that all parts of the body were interrelated and that man must be treated as a whole. He believed that medicine must be more than "the three R's of medicine: repair, remove and relieve".

Through a combination of research and clinical observation, Dr. Still's new medical philosophy evolved. He named it "osteopathy," a combination of the Greek word "osteo" meaning bone and "pathy" meaning suffering. He chose that name because his experiments started with the study of bones. More that a hundred years ago, when Andrew Taylor Still was nearly forty-six years of age, he announced osteopathy to the world: "On June 22nd 1874, I flung to the breeze the banner of Osteopathy".

Over twenty-four hundred years ago, the Greek physician/philosopher Hippocrates advanced much the same theory as Dr. Still. He believed that although disease could originate outside or inside man, "it is our natures that are the physicians of our disease". He taught that the attention should be focused on the patient, rather than on disease. His philosophy emphasized the study of the health of man as an individual and as an integrated unit.

The Hippocratic influence was lost after the Greco-Roman period. The Cnidion system of treating each specific disease held sway, and man returned to this supernatural concepts of illness and disease. From time to time such men as Chung-King, Sydenham, Boerhaave, and Hahnemann revived the Hippocratic philosophy. Dr. Still followed in that tradition; the heritage of osteopathic medicine is the humanization of the physician's relationship to his patient.

About the same period of time that Dr. Still was developing his theory, other pioneer scientist in Europe were making contributions of the science of medicine: Bernard, the great physiologist; Virchow and his cellular pathology; Lister's antiseptic surgery; Pasteur's germ theory; Koch, the bacteriologist; Ehrlich's theory of immunity; Morton and Long's anesthesia. Many of their discoveries reinforced Still's ideas. An American contemporary was Sir William Osler who improved clinical methods and reorganized medical education. Several of his ideas ran in the same vein as Still's, as evidenced by the following quotes:

Medicine should begin with the patient, continue with patient and end with the patient.

One of the first duties of the physician is to educate the masses not to take medicine.

In the 19th century on the western frontier of America, a new theory of medicine, osteopathy, developed in the mind of Andrew Taylor Still, which was to change the course of medicine in America.

Dr. Still chose Baker University in Baldwin, Kansas, a college which he and his brothers helped found, as the place he wanted to first explain his theory of osteopathy. But he was refused permission because his thoughts did not conform to the accepted medical practice of the day. He was called a "quack" and rejected by his friends and neighbors. Ostracized in Kansas, he returned to Missouri where he became an itinerate doctor. He was legally entered on the roll of Physicians and Surgeons of Macon County, Missouri in the year 1874. For the next eighteen years the state of Missouri became the testing ground for osteopathy. As Dr. Still travelled from town to town, he had success after success. Many people who had not been helped by orthodox medicine were helped or cured by Dr. Still. So many miraculous cures were effected that patients began seeking him out. One instance is recorded in Booth's History of Osteopathy:

At Nevada City, Missouri, people came 150 miles in covered wagons and came with tents and on the train from far and near. We had to go out from the square where there were side streets. They filled the side streets with wagons and tents and stayed as long as we would stay. . . Those passing would ask: "Is this a funeral?" "Oh no, it's Dr. Still, the bone-setter in town".

As the fame of the "lightning bone-setter," as he was then called, grew, he received strong opposition from the regular physicians in the state and others who did not understand his methods. He was ridiculed and labeled a "crank," "faker" and "charlatan." In spite of the opposition he continued to practice and perfect osteopathy. Soon he had more patients that he could manage.

Requiring assistance and having had numerous requests to impart his knowledge, he decided to start a school. He built a small frame building (16x22 feet) and opened the American School of Osteopathy in Kirksville, Missouri. (The present name is the Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine).

The first charter was granted on May 10, 1892, under the Missouri law governing scientific institutions. A new charter was issued in 1894 under the Missouri law regulating educational institutions. Article III of that charter states:

The object of this corporation is to establish a College of Osteopathy, the design of which is to improve our present system of surgery, obstetrics and treatment of disease generally, and place the same on a more rational and scientific basis, and to impart information to the medical profession, and to grant and confer such honors and degrees as are usually granted and conferred by reputable medical colleges.

By the authority of the school's charter an M.D. degree could have been awarded its graduates. But Dr. Still wanted his degree to be different, just as osteopathy was different from traditional medicine. He chose the new D.O. degree or Diplomate in Osteopathy.

The first school had a faculty of two: Dr. Still and Dr. William Smith, a Scotsman who was a graduate of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. Twenty-one students were enrolled including three of Still's sons and one daughter. Always a liberal, Dr. Still opened the doors of his new school to both negroes and women. There were five women in the first class.

In less than five years, the enrollment had passed five hundred and the faculty numbered fifteen. The small frame building had been replaced by a four-storey brick structure, containing 30,000 square feet and costing $80,000. The new building contained the latest in medical equipment, including an x-ray machine, which was the second one west of the Missouri River.

In 1898, the course of instruction was two years, divided into four terms of five months. Tuition was $500 for the two-year course. A comprehensive curriculum was developed, comparable to other medical schools of its day, with two exceptions: anatomy was taught more thoroughly than in most institutions and a course in osteopathic theory and practice was taught. It was always a medical school, but with a philosophy intended to improve medicine.

Although sixty-four years of age when he founded the college, Dr. Still's dynamic personality was the heart of the institution in its early days. He was eccentric and unorthodox, not only in thinking but in behaviour and dress. His students loved him and called him "Pap Still." His speech was full of allegories and couched in Biblical language. Although physically strong, he usually carried a long staff which seemed to be symbolic of the shepherd guiding his flock.

He published his Autobiography in 1897, the philosophy of Osteopathy in 1899, The Philosophy and Mechanical Principles of Osteopathy in 1902, and Osteopathic Research and practice in 1910. During his later years, he was fondly referred to as "The Old Doctor." He died December 12, 1917, at the age of eighty-nine, but his philosophy and his college went on to new dimensions.

As George V. Webster said in his book, Sage Sayings of Still: "His greatness lay chiefly in his independence of thought and action, and his determination to cultivate and apply such talent as he possessed to the most worthy end".

More pictures of early Osteopathy teaching and students may be found here.

Autobiogrphy of A.T. Still