"Straights" and "Mixers"

In the early days of Chiropractic at the beginning of the last century, Chiropractors in the U.S. were thrown into jail for practicing medicine without a license. In search of a suitable defense some presented the argument that they did not "diagnose" a patient's condition but rather "analyzed" spinal mechanics. This interpretation became very strongly held in some circles and was taught in a dogmatic fashion and referred to as Chiropractic philosophy. Some Chiropractors, however, maintained that they did, indeed, diagnose, and a split occurred in the profession. There were the "straights" and the "mixers" - the straights analyzed spinal mechanics and the mixers diagnosed.

This split is still felt in the Chiropractic profession in the United States today, where we have more than one professional association and a lot of disagreement between them. This has been the Chiropractic profession's single greatest weakness, acting as an impediment to all forms of progress from standards of practice to educational accreditation.

In Canada, however, this split never occurred. Instead, there was a gradual evolution of a national forum where these issues could be debated and a consensus reached. When the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College was founded in 1945, the study of diagnosis was included in its curriculum from the very beginning.