Emmons Rutledge Booth, the first historian of osteopathy

Dr E.R. Booth was a fundamental figure in the osteopathy of the first thirty years of the Twentieth Century. His name is especially linked to the first book on the history of osteopathy, History of Osteopathy and Twentieth-Century Medical Practice,³ published in 1905 and again in 1924 in a revised and extended new edition.

In 1922 the JAOA asked those who had been presidents of the AOA to write an article on a subject of their choice. E.R. Booth wrote a paper on the past and future of osteopathy that was published along with those of the other former presidents.⁴

Of great relevance is the fact that Booth attended the 1898-1900 course at the ASO of Kirksville and got to know A.T. Still personally. He always remembered Still vividly and talked about him with great admiration, for example in his commemorative speech5 at the 26th annual Conference of the AOA, organized in Los Angeles in June 1922.

He spoke words of admiration for all those who dedicated themselves to osteopathy, a case in point was his tribute to the memory of C.M.T. Hulett at the time of his passing in January 1918.⁶

In 1909 the Journal of Osteopathy published the transcript of a speech given by Booth in Lebanon (Ohio) in commemoration of the birthday of both Abraham Lincoln and Alfred Holbrook, a pedagogue who had died that same year. The article, entitled “Great Emancipators”,⁷ also contains a biographical picture of the Dr Andrew Taylor Still: Booth states that Lincoln had been an inspiration to him in his youth, he was for him the ideal statesman and the emancipator from the tyranny of politics; Holbrook had been an inspiration to him when he came of age. He embodied the ideal pedagogue and the emancipator from servitude in the educational sector; Still had been an inspiration to him as a middle-aged man, he represented for him the ideal doctor and the emancipator from superstition in the field of medicine.

• In 1900 he wrote an in-depth article on professional ethics, published in two parts in the August and September issues of the Journal of Osteopathy.^8,9 He divided the topic into four categories: the osteopathic physician, the patients, the profession and the public.
  With regard to the first category, first of all the osteopath had to observe good personal hygiene and wear clean clothes (clean hands, fresh breath, no consumption of intoxicants or narcotics, avoid the use of perfume or the habit of chewing gums). He also had to maintain his strength and health in order to be ready to answer calls, and to do everything possible to expand his scientific knowledge and defend himself from the attacks of the medical profession.
  In the interaction with the patient, the osteopath had to maintain professional honesty and willingness to provide clear explanations, while taking care of keeping hope and motivation alive; they had to recognize their limits and leave the case to other professionals when necessary; he had to strive to be punctual and not miss appointments; finally, he had to observe professional secrecy and treat the patient’s privacy with the utmost discretion and caution.
  Professional relationships with other doctors had to be always based on fairness. Of great importance was also the spreading of the information about the preventive role of osteopathy to improve public health.

• In 1901 he published an in-depth article on osteopathy,¹⁰ highlighting some of its most relevant aspects. For example, the difficulty of spreading it in a world full of charlatans, where drugs and elixirs with secret compositions, often containing alcohol or other addictive components, were commercialized – It was only in 1906 that the Food and Drugs Act was approved in the attempt to bring some order in the food and drugs market at a federal level. Amongst the other regulations it introduced the requirements of approval by government authorities to authorize the marketing of a product and the obligation to report all the ingredients on the label.
  Booth pointed out that osteopathy was not a miraculous method that cured any disease and how substantially different it was from the methods of massage, suggestion and Christian scientism. Osteopathy had a scientific foundation and could not be learned without scrupulous training and excellent knowledge of the human body. The article also features two hand drawings: the first illustrates the path of the vagus nerve and the second the sympathetic nervous system.

• Also, in 1901, after attending the graduation ceremonies of six medical schools in Cincinnati, Booth described his impressions on orthodox medicine and what, he reckoned, was the perception the medical profession had of osteopathy.¹² To a large extent, doctors did not seem to know about osteopathy and were hostile to its spread.

• In 1905 his fundamental contribution to osteopathy, the book on the history of osteopathy, History of Osteopathy and Twentieth-Century Medical Practice,³ was published. A book documenting the beginnings of osteopathy which was also extended in a new edition in 1924.

• In 1923 he wrote a simple and clear article explaining what was meant by “Injury therapy”, in which he summarized the fundamental principles of osteopathy and described the reasons why they were at the basis of the treatments.¹³

Booth was an active member of the associative life of the osteopaths of his time. For example in 1914, for the 18th annual conference of the AOA, was one of the speakers who participated to the initiative “Health Sunday”, a day during which the ministers of many churches let the osteopaths talk from their pulpits to explain their discipline.¹⁴

In an article of 1902¹⁵ Booth highlighted the importance of safeguard the health of patients with a law recognizing osteopathy, sinse in December 1901 the Supreme Court of Ohio had canceled the clause regulating osteopathy. In the article he referred to the drug market, mentioning how some companies selling patent medicines spent $500,000 each on advertising every year, and how doctors received numerous brochures a month advertizing the advantages of drugs with a often harmful composition.

In 1909 Booth was praised in The Osteopathic Physician,16 in a column urging all osteopaths to behave like him: he had defended osteopathy on the columns of the Lancet-Clinic, a Cincinnati medical bulletin. In March this bulletin announced that a sewer worker, after completing a seven-month course, was about to open a study as an osteopath. Booth responded by pointing out that there was no recognized school that offered the course described and that in states where osteopathy was regulated no license would be granted after such a short training. He then supplemented this response with a subsequent article entitled “The Theory of Osteopathy”, also published in the same bulletin the following month.

A brief, not too serious appeal to donate to the research signed by E.R. Booth as president of the board of directors of the A.T. Still Research Institute shows his commitment also in this field.¹⁷ In 1914 his name appears among the members of the board of directors of the A.T. Still Research Institute elected for the following year.¹⁸

Booth ER. (1905) History of Osteopathy and Twentieth-Century Medical Practice. Cincinnati, OH: Press of Jennings and Graham.
New edition: Caxton Press 1924

By way of example:

• Booth E.R. Professional Ethics. Journal of Osteopathy, v. 7. n. 3, August 1900:101-104.
• Booth E.R. Professional Ethics. Journal of Osteopathy, v. 7. n. 4, September 1900:166-69.
• Booth E.R. “Lesion Therapy” JAOA, December 1923:247-250.
• Booth E.R. Osteopathy: A Scientific Method of Treating All Diseases. Journal of Osteopathy, March 1901:73-76.

1. Galbreath, C. B. (1925). History of Ohio, 5 vols. Chicago: American Historical. Vol V:442-443) https://www.heritagepursuit.com/Miscellaneous/Ohio1925VVP425.htm
2. “Why I am Studying Osteopathy” Journal of Osteopathy, v. 5. n. 7, December 1898:335.
3. Booth ER. (1905) History of Osteopathy and Twentieth-Century Medical Practice. Cincinnati, OH: Press of Jennings and Graham.
4. Booth E.R. “The Past and the Future” JAOA July 1920:430-31.
5. Booth, E.R. “Memorial Service” JAOA August 1922:771-72.
6. Booth E.R. “Tributes to the Late C.M.T. Hulett” JAOA March 1918:396-98.
7. Booth E.R. “Great Emancipators”. Journal of Osteopathy, September 1909:647-651.
8. Booth E.R. “Professional Ethics”. Journal of Osteopathy, v. 7. n. 3, August 1900:101-104.
9. Booth E.R. “Professional Ethics”. Journal of Osteopathy, v. 7. n. 4, September 1900:166-69.
10. Booth E.R. “Osteopathy: A Scientific Method of Treating All Diseases” Journal of Osteopathy, March 1901:73-76.
11. Hutt, P. B., “Turning points in FDA history”, in Daemmrich, A., & Radin, J. (2007). Perspectives on Risk and Regulation: The FDA at 100. Chemical Heritage Foundation, Philadelphia:14-28.
12. Booth E.R. “Advancement in Medicine from the Drug Standpoint”. Journal of Osteopathy, June 1901:167-169.
13. Booth E.R. “Lesion Therapy” JAOA, December 1923:247-250.
14. “The Philadelphia Meeting”, JAOA, Aug. 1914:688.
15. Booth E.R. “Relation of Osteopathy and the Law to the General Public”. Journal of Osteopathy, January 1902:12-14.
16. “Dr. Booth Defends Osteopathy” The Osteopathic Physician, v. 16, n. 2. August 1909:3.
17. Booth E.R. “I Want Some Pie” The Osteopathic Physician, v. 17, n. 6. June 1910:6.

“The A.T. Still Research Institute”, JAOA, Aug. 1914:729.