Edythe Florence Ashmore, a pioneer in the battle for recognition

Certainly a prominent figure of osteopathy in the early twentieth century, she worked untiringly to defend and expand the new discipline. Below are some of the countless episodes testifying her great commitment; referring those who could be interested to the”Journal” of osteopathy of the beginning of the century, which often mentions her name.

She had at heart the future of osteopathy, which, in her opinion, should have become an independent school of medicine, founded on a new approach, preferable to the administration of medicines. Well prepared osteopaths were to base their therapies on an accurate diagnosis and a good training, to soon specialize both in surgery and other medical disciplines, as, for example, otorhinolaryngology, gynecology, pediatrics, orthopedics, etc. This would have then increased the osteopathy efficacy, which, at the end, would have replaced the ortodox medicine with a natural way, based on the results obtained.¹

In 1914 she became a member of the teaching team of the American School of Osteopathy of Kirksville and was appointed director of the Department of osteopathic techniques.² She wrote a volume collecting some lecture notes on osteopathic meccanic, which was published the following year and remained a textbook appreciated by the osteopathic community for several years.

She was a keen supporter of clinical and professional information sharing between osteopaths, in fact, she would say that research and experimentation are useful only when they are scrupulously listed, well formulated and circulated.

From 1904 to 1909 her role in the Committee for the publications of the AOA was dedicated to the collection of clinical case reports, which would be then published in 12 little volumes as a supplement to the JAOA entitled Case Reports Series. The osteopaths could request a designated form and complete it with the report of a clinical case.⁵ This would give them the right to receive the booklet free of charge, while those who had not given a contribution could order it for a fee. In 1906, when Dr Ashmore was appointed first vice-president of the AOA for the following year, she openly asked in exchange of her total commitment to keep working at her best in the coming year, as she had always done in the past, only a clinical case report.⁶

In 1915 her textbook Osteopathic Mechanics was published; it was appreciated for its clarity of presentation. The March 1916 issue of The Osteopathic Physician dedicated the editorial, signed by H.S. Bunting, to an enthusiastic and detailed review of the volume,⁷ already announced with great emphasis in the February issue, also featuring the author’s picture.⁸

Some excerpts from this book are reported in the Foundations of Osteopathic Medicine,⁶ in the historical introduction of the chapter dedicated to the functional methods, testifying that the existence of two different methods of treatment was known since the beginning of osteopathy, one using direct techniques and the other one using indirect techniques, the latter based on the method of exaggeration to relax the tissues.

At page 72 of her book, Dr Ashmore reports two footnotes on the subject: in the first one she communicates her preference for the use of the term “direct technique” instead of “thrust technique”, considering the aggressive connotation of the word caused by the imitators of osteopathy. In the second footnote, she points out that in her lectures she prefers to teach her students the direct techniques, which are much easier to learn.

In 1903, two years after being awarded the title of DO, she was conferred a three-year assignment as a member of the Board of Directors of the AOA,¹⁰ the representative association of US osteopaths, for which she was already working within the publication Committee.

In 1904, in a speech given to the association of osteopaths of the state of Michigan, she highlighted the great importance of joining the AOA, not only to receive protection and to be referred patients in need of an osteopath, but above all because only with the enthusiastic participation of many osteopaths fully embracing it, it would have been possible to make the profession thrive and progress. Furthermore, with the membership, one would keep updated on the developments and read the articles and clinical case reports published on the JAOA.¹¹

Dr Ashmore was also involved in the political and juridical implications linked to the recognition of osteopathy and of the laws that regulated the osteopathic education in the different North American states, for example she took the floor and was heard during the course of an earring held in the state of Michigan, regarding a legislative proposal aiming at forcing the osteopaths to sustain a state exam including also the subject of Pharmacology.¹² In 1906 she was nominated a member of the Committee of the State of Michigan for the exam and registration of osteopaths.¹³

She took care of defending the professional community of osteopaths, for example by rebuilding birth and growth of chiropractic and by highlighting the differences in comparison to osteopathy. As many others, she sustained that D.D. Palmer, founder of chiropractic, had assimilated many notions from A.T. Still or from some of his more or less faithful disciples. She enrolled in the Palmer School of Chiropractic of Davenport and had very harsh words towards both the training course and the teachers, calling them imitators.¹⁴

At the Tri-State Assembly of Osteopathic Associations of Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri, held in 1907, she participated as a speaker presenting a speech entitled “The Main Points in Clinical History and Diagnosis”.

During the works the subject of terminology was treated, a long-standing and heart-felt topic (think, for example, of the theme of the definition of osteopath itself, or of the considerations of Charles Hazzard about the language of the new discipline¹⁵). Still to this day, a specific Committee within the association of the American colleges (AACOM) regularly publishes and updates a glossary of osteopathic terminology.¹⁶

When Dr Franklin Fiske of the MOA, the Missouri Osteopathic Association, proposed that all “lesions between vertebrae will be named from the subluxation at the superior articular facets”, Dr Ashmore spoke in favor of it, considering the initiative useful on the educational point of view, since the easiest technique to apply uses the lower vertebra as a fixed point.¹⁷

• Ashmore E.F. (a cura di), Case Reports Series 1-12, JAOA Supplement, 1904-1909
• Ashmore E.F. Osteopathic Mechanics: A Text-Book. Journal Printing Co., Kirksville, Missouri 1915.

By way of example:

• Ashmore E.F. “Eclampsia”. JAOA March 1902, v.1, n.4:143-145. 
• Ashmore E.F. “What Constitutes a Case Report?”: JAOA, April 1904, v.3, n.8:255-257.
• Ashmore, E.F. “The Menace of Chiropractic – Inside the History of this Fake”. The Osteopathic Physician, November 1907 v.12, n.5:1-2.
• Ashmore, E.F. “An Imitation and Its Lesson”. JAOA, January 1908, v.7, n.5:209-211.
• Ashmore, E.F. “Twentieth Century Osteopathy”. JAOA, March 1917, v.16, n.7:1011-13.

• In 1916 the The Osteopathic Physician announced that the American Anthropological Association had elected Dr Edythe Ashmore amongst its members, in consideration of the studies carried out on the pathology of the osseous tissues. The honor arrived totally unexpected. Her name had been suggested by a professor of Yale University, who knew Dr Ashmore as an osteopathic physician.¹⁸
• On the occasion of the death of A.T. Still, Dr Ashmore sent a telegram to his daughter Blanche Still, kept in the Museum of Osteopathic Medicine: “words cannot express my sympathy for you nor my grief”.¹⁹

1. Ashmore, E.F. “Twentieth Century Osteopathy”. JAOA, March 1917, v.16, n.7:1011-13.
2. Walter G.W. The First School of Osteopathic Medicine: A Chronicle. Printed by Thomas Jefferson University Press at Northeast Missouri State University, 1992 (published for A.T. Still University-©Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine – Centennial Celebration 1892-1992):81.
3.  Ashmore E.F. Osteopathic Mechanics: A Text-Book. Journal Printing Co., Kirksville, Missouri 1915.
4. For some comments on the publications of clinical cases see: “Comments on Case Reports”, JAOA, March 1904, v.3, n.7:233. For the picture of the frontispieces and of the indexes see: https://momicoh.pastperfectonline.com/library/E9B6123D-2DB8-40A8-A4EF-350754723163.
5. “The Book of Case Reports”, JAOA, September 1903, vol.3, n.1:21. For the instruction given to the osteopaths willing to send the report of a clinical case see: Hulett, C.M.T. “Card Index Records for Osteopathic Physicians”: JAOA, April 1904, v.3,n.8:251-54; Ashmore E.F. “What Constitutes a Case Report?”: JAOA, April 1904, v.3, n.8:255-257. For some enthusiastic comments on the First Series of “Case Reports” please refer to the JAOA, March 1904, v. 3, n.7.
6. “Official Report of the Proceedings of the Tenth Annual Meeting of the American Osteopathic Association”, JAOA, October 1906, vol.6, n.2:47.
7. The Osteopathic Physician, March 1916, vol. XXIX, n.3:8  https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.e0000195800&view=1up&seq=47&skin=2021&q1=ashmore 
8. The Osteopathic Physician, April 1916, vol. XXIX, n.2:1. 
9. Chila A.G. (editor). Foundations of Osteopathic Medicine. 3rd ed. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Baltimora Philadelphia, USA 2011.
10. Officers of the AOA”, JAOA, August 1903, vol.2 n.12: 369.
11.  JAOA November 1904, v.4, n.3:148-151. 
12. “Latest Legislative News – Michigan”, JAOA, April 1903, vol.2, n.8:233.
13. JAOA, December 1906, v 6 n 4:163. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b3098544&view=1up&seq=175&skin=2021&q1=ashmore
14.  Ashmore, E.F. “The Menace of Chiropractic – Inside the History of this Fake”. The Osteopathic Physician, November 1907 v.12, n.5:1-2; Ashmore, E.F. “An Imitation and Its Lesson”. JAOA, January 1908, v.7, n.5:209-211.
15. Hazzard C. “The Language of Osteopathy”. JAOA March 1902, v.1, n.4:145-148.
16. AACOM (American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic medicine) Glossary of Osteopathic Terminology, third edition, 2017.
17. “Missouri Osteopathic Association and Tri-State Meeting” JAOA, June 1907, vol.6, n.10:397. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b3098544&view=1up&seq=411&skin=2021&q1=ashmore
18. The Osteopathic Physician, April 1916, vol. XXIX, n.4:7. 
19. https://momicoh.pastperfectonline.com/archive/2C4941BE-7A6E-41CA-B232-278521092450