[9] After the Civil War and following the death of his wife, three of his children, and an adopted child from spinal meningitis in 1864, Still concluded that the orthodox medical practices of his day were frequently ineffective and sometimes harmful.

[15] Still devoted the next thirty years of his life to studying the human body and finding alternative ways to treat disease; his methods involved meticulous anatomical dissection to discover its structure and, therefore, function.

This involved exhuming corpses which, while controversial, was a widespread practice among many medical schools in the United States and abroad during that time.

"[17] Still was active in the abolition movement and a friend and ally of the Free State leaders John Brown and James H.

[21] He made improvements to a mowing machine designed to harvest wheat and hay, but before a patent could be submitted, his idea was stolen by a visiting sales representative from the Wood Mowing Machine Co.[21] In 1910, he patented a smokeless furnace burner[22] but had "some difficulty producing a full-sized working model.

[5] While maintaining his medical practice, where he treated patients afflicted with small-pox and cholera, Still spent five years building the facilities.

[7] Still believed that osteopathy was a necessary discovery because the current medical practices of his day often caused significant harm and conventional medicine had failed to shed light on the etiology and effective treatment of disease.

[24] At the time Still practiced as a physician, medications, surgery and other traditional therapeutic regimens often caused more harm than good.

[26] Still found appeal in the relatively tame side effects of those modalities[26] and imagined that someday "rational medical therapy" would consist of manipulation of the musculoskeletal system, surgery and very sparing use of drugs, including anesthetics, antiseptics and antidotes.

[26] He invented the name osteopathy by blending two Greek roots osteon- for bone and -pathos for condition in order to communicate his theory that disease and physiologic dysfunction were etiologically grounded in a disordered musculoskeletal system.

[29] Still defined osteopathy as: that science which consists of such exact, exhaustive, and verifiable knowledge of the structure and function of the human mechanism, anatomical, physiological and psychological, including the chemistry and physics of its known elements, as has made discoverable certain organic laws and remedial resources, within the body itself, by which nature under the scientific treatment peculiar to osteopathic practice, apart from all ordinary methods of extraneous, artificial, or medicinal stimulation, and in harmonious accord with its own mechanical principles, molecular activities, and metabolic processes, may recover from displacements, disorganizations, derangements, and consequent disease, and regained its normal equilibrium of form and function in health and strength.

Still's son, Charles Still, D.O., described his father's philosophy that the body would operate smoothly into old age, if properly maintained and that every living organism possessed the ability to produce all the necessary chemicals and materials to cure itself of ailments.