Dr. Osteopath, M.D.

Since osteopathy was founded by an M.D. named Andrew T. Still in 1874, it has steadily moved away from Still's reliance on the manipulation of bones, muscles and ligaments as a cure for all manner of aches and agues. The Lightning Bone Setter, as Still was known, thought that "the human engine is God's medical drugstore," but the average osteopath today prescribes more drugs for his patient than the average M.D. and uses musculoskeletal therapy as only an adjunct to surgery, X rays, serums.

Despite the profession's general reputability and the fact that 38 states recognize three-fourths of the nation's 13,000 osteopaths as qualified practitioners of all branches of medicine and surgery, the professional organizations of doctors and osteopaths have long feuded. Technically, according to the American Medical Association, no doctor of medicine may consult professionally with a doctor of osteopathy without violating his code of ethics.

Last week, for most of California's 2,200 osteopaths, the feud was over. Leaders of the state osteopathic association and the state medical society signed an agreement, expected to be ratified next month, merging the two organizations. Under the terms of the agreement, the Los Angeles College of Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons will be converted into a medical school, and the state's 63 osteopathic hospitals* will be free to convert to medical hospitals. Osteopaths will be given the option of exchanging their D.O. for an M.D., with the aim of discontinuing future licensing of D.O.s.

Whether the California merger was a pattern other osteopaths would soon follow was doubtful. The California Osteopathic Association was expelled last year from the American Osteopathic Association after the Californians conducted secret merger talks in defiance of an overwhelming vote at an A.O.A. convention to remain independent.

* Nationwide, osteopaths operate six colleges and 400 hospitals.

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