Use of the term subluxation in publications during the formative years of the chiropractic profession

The term subluxation has come to have different meanings for different health care professions in the United States for over the past century. This controversy has resulted in some contention both internal and external to the chiropractic profession. Some current factions within the chiropractic profession hold the term subluxation to be synonymous with the identity of chiropractic itself; however, this term was not solely used by chiropractic during its formative years. The purpose of this article is to look at uses of the term by various professions (osteopathy, medicine, and chiropractic) at the turn of the century, a time in which the chiropractic profession was developing.