Andrew Taylor Still—Inventor of Osteopathy

Andrew Taylor Still (1828–1917) was born in Virginia, USA. His father was a missionary and physician and taught Andrew medicine. There is no evidence that Still ever had any formal medical training. After his first wife died, he remarried and had 12 children with his second wife, Mary Elvira. In 1861, Still enlisted in the Union Army and served as an army surgeon during the civil war. After the war, he became disenchanted with the healthcare of his time and began studying non-toxic medical practices such as nutrition, hydrotherapy, magnetic healing, and bone-setting. Eventually, Still and his family settled in Kirksville, Missouri, where, in 1892, he established the ‘American School of Osteopathy’. In 1897, he published his first book entitled ‘Autobiography of Andrew Taylor Still with a History of the Discovery and Development of the Science of Osteopathy’. By the time Still died in 1917, osteopathy had become widely used in the USA and abroad.