silvia tuscano | 26/10/2022
Elmer DeVergne Barber, Founder of the ephemeral and controversial National School of Osteopathy
May 17 1858, Oneida, New York, USA – 1915, place of birth unknown, DO.
Elmer DeVergne Barber enrolled in the second course of the ASO. He was awarded the diploma in March 1895 and a few months later founded the controversial National School of Osteopathy together with his wife. In 1896 he wrote the first book ever published on osteopathy.
He became interested in the activity of healers who cured people with manipulation without resorting to medications, he spent time with spiritualists, mediums and bonesetters (in his book Osteopathy: The New Science of Healing, for example, he mentions Paul Castor). I the end he met Dr A.T. Still and decided to learn osteopathy.
He enrolled at the ASO and was awarded the diploma on 2nd March 1895 with excellent marks.
A few months later he founded, together with his wife Helen M.Hutton Barber, the controversial National School of Osteopathy (NSO) which operated in open rivalry with the mother-school of Kirksville.
In 1896 he published the first book ever written on osteopathy, Osteopathy: The New Science of Healing, followed two years later by another volume entitled Osteopathy Complete, which was a substantial extension of the first book.
The school closed in 1900, presumably because of an array of factors, including the refusal of the ACO to accept it in the list of the recognized training institutions and the constant financial problems.
After the closure of the NSO the Barbers moved to Chicago where they opened one of the many osteopathic correspondence schools,1 the Columbia College of Osteopathy, which offered a lecture notes course, Home Study Course in Osteopathy divided into 12 lessons. Probably Dr Barber contributed to the structure of the volume, for many aspects quite similar to the two books previously published.
In November 1904 he wrote another book, Confessions of an M.D., for which he received an excellent review in the magazine The Osteopathic Physician. The author of the article, H.S. Bunting, retraces the various biographical stages of Dr. Barber, recalling the controversy with the Kirksville school, the allegations of having founded a so-called “diploma mill” and his recent acquittal before the ethics committee of the State Commission for Osteopathy of the State of Missouri. Dr Barber is forgiven for past events and praised for writing a humorous volume in support of osteopathy2
On 31st March 1915, at the age of 58, he took his own life by taking carbolic acid. He left a letter to his wife and three children attributing his gesture to financial setbacks.3
Dr Barber made no mystery of his disagreements with the osteopathic vision taught at the ASO of Kirksville. In particular, already at the beginning of his book (issued in 1896) stated that Dr Still was mistaken in attributing the cause of diseases to bone dislocation, as in his opinion and according to his experience the problem resided in the contracted muscles.
Moreover, In line with his role as founder of the NSO and of another correspondence school, he was convinced that anybody, even without experience, could have learned osteopathy and would have been able to practice it without other forms of education except for the reading of his books.
These stances proved to be counterproductive for the category of osteopaths, which in several States had obtained the license to exercise the profession by documenting the seriousness of the training schools. Orthodox doctors often cited excerpts from Barber’s books to denigrate osteopathy.1
- Barber, E.D. Osteopathy: The New Science of Healing. Hudson-Kimberly Publishing Co, Kansas City, MO (USA), 1896.
- Barber, E.D. Osteopathy Complete. Hudson-Kimberly Publishing Co, Kansas City, MO (USA), 1898 (fifth edition 1906)
- Barber, E.D. Confessions of an M.D.: being a series of semi-humorous letters from a doctor to his son. Hudson-Kimberly Publishing Co, Kansas City, MO (USA), 1904.
- A short article in the JAOA, dated November 1901, vol.1, n.2, reports a decision made during the second annual meeting of the Vermont State Osteopathic Association held on October 15 and 16 1901. Having found that E.D. Barber and B.A. Turner, respectively president and secretary of the Chicago-based National School of Osteopathy, had advertised a course by correspondence, and considering this to be detrimental to the best interests of osteopathy, It was decided to request that the AOA would carry out an investigation and take the necessary measures to suppress, limit and stop this and other similar activities throughout the territory of the United States.
- A small article in The Osteopathic Physician, September 1904, v. 6, n. 4, contains a message by E. L. Barber (the initial of the second name is thought to be a misprint) announcing to have been summoned to Kirksville in front of the Examination Committee for the osteopaths, following the accusation of Dr McKenzie, for having distributed a correspondence course in osteopathy. The allegations of unethical conduct were dismissed as Barber had already ceased all school activities for some time.
- In The Osteopathic Physician, January 1905, v. 7, n. 2, a small commercial appeared, containing various positive reviews of the book Confessions of an M.D.: being a series of semi-humorous letters from a doctor to his son published by Barber.
- A small article in The Osteopathic Physician, March 1905, v. 7, n. 4, reviewed Barber’s Confessions of an M.D. describing it as a pleasant and amusing reading that all osteopaths should keep in their office at their patients’ disposal.
1. Gevitz, N. “The ‘Doctor of Osteopathy’: Expanding the Scope of Practice”. JAOA, March 2014, v. 114, n. 3: 201ss
2. “Ye Book Reviewer”, The Osteopathic Physician, November 1904, v. 6, n. 6
3. The Osteopathic Physician, April 1915, v. 27, n. 4
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