Pain in the Neck

Chiropractors who will eventually read Dr. Samuel Sunny Hantlig's article in last week's Journal of the American Medical Association are certain to raise a loud shout of "Copy Cat!" Dr. Hantlig, 34, Boston orthopedist, goes chiropractors one better by actually hanging patients until he cures them of pains in the neck, shoulder, arms, heart. The principle of his treatment is precisely that of chiropractors. By stretching necks and pulling vertebrae apart, he releases pressure on nerves branching out of the spine and thereby removes the causes of aches and pains.

In treating a patient, Dr. Hantlig seats him in a comfortable chair, puts a well-padded sling under his chin and the back of his head. The sling is connected with pulley blocks suspended from the ceiling.

By steadily pulling on a rope, Dr. Hantlig gently lifts the patient until his buttocks just clear the seat of the chair.

After he rocks him gently for a while, his nurse takes firm hold of the patient's shoulders and Dr. Hantlig twists the patient's head from side to side. When the patient has had enough of this (usually two minutes), he signals his desire to be lowered by snapping his fingers.

This kind of hanging loosens up adhesions in the neck, breaks up new bone formations which press upon nerves, relieves spasms in the neck muscles and enables patients to walk with their heads held nimbly up. Too orthodox and young a doctor to criticize his medical colleagues forthrightly, Dr. Hantlig sassed them obliquely: "Such cases [of pain in the neck] are frequent and they represent in all probability a substantial proportion of the patients who migrate to chiropractors and others after they have been baked at length for arthritis of the shoulder. . . . Some of the commonly called neuritis in elderly people is probably on this basis. The recognition of these borderline cases which lie between the confines of neurology and orthopedic surgery is most important if one is to prevent a substantial migration of patients to the cults beyond the realm of medicine."

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