Chiropr Hist. 1999 Jun; 19(1): 45-52.

Commonwealth laws of Massachusetts v. early chiropractic pioneers, 1911-1915.

Jackson RB.

The first few chiropractors in Massachusetts practiced as they desired, unmolested by the authorities. All this changed after Joe Shelby Riley, D.C., established his New England College of Chiropractic in Boston in 1911. Printed publicity got out as to the tuition costs, length of the course and what graduates could expect to earn in a short time, when the police stepped in. They arrested first J.O. Zimmerman, D.C., of Boston, followed by Dr. Riley, a school president, then Samuel Mendelson, D.C., in Lynn, all for illegal practices. From the judical decision in Commonwealth v Zimmerman, 1915 by the Supreme Judicial Court (State Supreme Court), the high court held that the practice of chiropractic to be the illegal practice of medicine without a license, according to the Commonwealth laws of 1902. Next came the Commonwealth v New England College of Chiropractic; this case was shortly followed on appeal from the Municipal Court in Boston, to the Suffolk County Superior Court, to the Supreme Judicial Court like Zimmerman. In this case against Dr. Riley and his school, the high court affirmed the school to be illegal because Dr. Riley had failed to receive authority from the Great General Court (the Legislature) to get a bill passed authorizing the school to have the right of granting degrees. According to the Boston Herald, all this legal action was the culmination of a campaign spearheaded by the Massachusetts Medical Society.