author
A. T. (Andrew Taylor) Still
1828–1917
A frontier doctor, inventor, and reformer, he became best known for founding osteopathic medicine after growing dissatisfied with many medical practices of his time. His life story moves from the rough conditions of the American borderlands to the creation of a new medical school in Missouri.
1 Audiobook
Philosophy of Osteopathy
by A. T. (Andrew Taylor) Still
About the author
Born in Virginia in 1828 and raised in a family shaped by both religion and medicine, Andrew Taylor Still spent much of his early life on the American frontier. He worked as a physician and surgeon and also served as a Kansas legislator, experiences that put him close to the hardships of 19th-century life and health care.
After personal loss and frustration with the limits of conventional medicine, he developed the ideas that became osteopathy. In 1874 he publicly described this new approach, emphasizing the body's structure, movement, and natural capacity to heal. His ideas eventually led to the founding of the American School of Osteopathy in Kirksville, Missouri, which helped turn his methods into an organized field of study.
Still also wrote about his life and beliefs, leaving behind autobiographical and philosophical works that helped shape his legacy. He died in 1917, but his name remains closely tied to the origins of osteopathic medicine and to the university that still bears it.