Eclectic medicine
Encyclopedia
Eclectic medicine was a branch of American medicine which made use of botanical remedies
along with other substances and physical therapy practices, popular in the latter half of the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries.
The term was coined by Constantine Samuel Rafinesque (1784 to 1841), a physician
who lived among the Native American
s and observed their use of medicinal plants. Rafinesque used the word "eclectic" to refer to those physicians who employed whatever was found to be beneficial to their patients (eclectic being derived from the Greek
word eklego, meaning "to choose from").
"Eclectics" were doctors who practiced with a philosophy of "alignment with nature," learning from and using concepts from other schools of medical thought. They opposed the techniques of bleeding, chemical purging and the use of mercury
compounds common among the "conventional" doctors of that time.
medicine. Regular medicine at the time made extensive use of purges with calomel and other mercury
-based remedies, as well as extensive bloodletting. Eclectic medicine was a direct reaction to those practices as well as the need to professionalize the Thomsonian medicine innovations.
Alexander Holmes Baldridge (1795–1874) suggested that the Eclectic Medicine should be called the American School of Medicine, given its American roots. It bears resemblance to Physiomedicalism, which is practiced in the United Kingdom
.
In 1827, a medical doctor named Wooster Beach, who broke with Thomson as he believed the field needed to be professionalized, founded the United States Infirmary in New York
in 1827 and the Reformed Medical College in 1829, to practice and teach "Eclectic Medicine".
The Eclectic Medical Institute in Worthington, Ohio
graduated its first class in 1833. After the notorious Resurrection Riot in 1839, the school was evicted from Worthington and it settled in Cincinnati during the winter of 1842-3. The Cincinnati school, incorporated as the Eclectic Medical Institute (EMI), continued until the last class graduation in 1939 more than a century later. Over the decades, other Ohio medical schools had been merged into that institution. The American School of Medicine (Eclectic) in Cincinnati operated from 1839 to 1857, when it merged with the Eclectic Medical Institute.
Eclectic Medicine expanded during the 1840s as part of an large, populist anti-regular medical movement in North America. It used many principles of Samuel Thomson
's family herbal medication but chose to train doctors in physiology and more conventional principles, along with botanical medicine. The American School of Medicine (Eclectic) trained physicians in a dozen or so privately funded medical schools, principally located in the midwestern United States. By the 1850s, several "regular" American doctors, especially from the New York Academy of Medicine
, had begun using herbal salve
s and other preparations.
The movement peaked in the 1880s and 1890s. The schools were not approved by the Flexner Report
(1910), which was used to decide on accreditation of medical schools. By World War I
, states and provinces were adopting curriculum requirements that followed those articulated by the AMA. Those schools preferred pharmaceutical medicines to botanical extracts and eschewed a vitalist model
.
This effectively forced the Eclectic Medical Schools to either adopt the new model or fold. The last Eclectic Medical school closed in Cincinnati in 1939. The Lloyd Library and Museum
still maintains the greatest collection of books, papers and publications of the Eclectic physicians, including libraries from the Eclectic schools.
The contemporary herbalist Michael Moore
recounts:
Major Eclectic practitioners include John Uri Lloyd
, John Milton Scudder
, Harvey Wickes Felter
, John King, Andrew Jackson Howe, Finley Ellingwood
, Frederick J. Locke, and William N. Mundy. Harvey Wickes Felter
's Eclectic Materia Medica
is one of several important Eclectic medical publications dating from the 1920s. It represented the last attempt to stem the tide of "standard practice medicine". This was the antithesis of the model of the rural primary care vitalist physician who was the basis for Eclectic practice.
In 1934 J. C. Hubbard, M.D., the president of the Eclectic Medical Association, decried the artificial hurdles of modern medical education. He described a vision for the vitalist, mentor-led eclectic tradition:
Eclectic medicine is practiced today in a modernized form, but mainly by medical herbalist
s rather than physicians. Much of the important Eclectic literature found in the Lloyd Library has been scanned by herbalists David Winston
, Michael Moore , and Henriette Kress
, and appears on their websites.
Herbalism
Herbalism is a traditional medicinal or folk medicine practice based on the use of plants and plant extracts. Herbalism is also known as botanical medicine, medical herbalism, herbal medicine, herbology, herblore, and phytotherapy...
along with other substances and physical therapy practices, popular in the latter half of the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries.
The term was coined by Constantine Samuel Rafinesque (1784 to 1841), a physician
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
who lived among the Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
s and observed their use of medicinal plants. Rafinesque used the word "eclectic" to refer to those physicians who employed whatever was found to be beneficial to their patients (eclectic being derived from the Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
word eklego, meaning "to choose from").
"Eclectics" were doctors who practiced with a philosophy of "alignment with nature," learning from and using concepts from other schools of medical thought. They opposed the techniques of bleeding, chemical purging and the use of mercury
Mercury (element)
Mercury is a chemical element with the symbol Hg and atomic number 80. It is also known as quicksilver or hydrargyrum...
compounds common among the "conventional" doctors of that time.
History
Eclectic Medicine appeared as an extension of early American herbal medicine traditions, such as "Thomsonian medicine" in the early 19th century, and Native AmericanNative Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
medicine. Regular medicine at the time made extensive use of purges with calomel and other mercury
Mercury (element)
Mercury is a chemical element with the symbol Hg and atomic number 80. It is also known as quicksilver or hydrargyrum...
-based remedies, as well as extensive bloodletting. Eclectic medicine was a direct reaction to those practices as well as the need to professionalize the Thomsonian medicine innovations.
Alexander Holmes Baldridge (1795–1874) suggested that the Eclectic Medicine should be called the American School of Medicine, given its American roots. It bears resemblance to Physiomedicalism, which is practiced in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
.
In 1827, a medical doctor named Wooster Beach, who broke with Thomson as he believed the field needed to be professionalized, founded the United States Infirmary in New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in 1827 and the Reformed Medical College in 1829, to practice and teach "Eclectic Medicine".
The Eclectic Medical Institute in Worthington, Ohio
Worthington, Ohio
-Dissolution of the Company:By August 11, 1804 the plat maps were completed, payments or notes promising payments collected and deeds prepared for all sixteen thousand acres of the Scioto Company's purchase...
graduated its first class in 1833. After the notorious Resurrection Riot in 1839, the school was evicted from Worthington and it settled in Cincinnati during the winter of 1842-3. The Cincinnati school, incorporated as the Eclectic Medical Institute (EMI), continued until the last class graduation in 1939 more than a century later. Over the decades, other Ohio medical schools had been merged into that institution. The American School of Medicine (Eclectic) in Cincinnati operated from 1839 to 1857, when it merged with the Eclectic Medical Institute.
Eclectic Medicine expanded during the 1840s as part of an large, populist anti-regular medical movement in North America. It used many principles of Samuel Thomson
Samuel Thomson
Samuel Thomson was a self-taught American herbalist and founder of the alternative system of medicine known as "Thomsonian Medicine", which enjoyed wide popularity in the United States during the 19th century.-Early life:...
's family herbal medication but chose to train doctors in physiology and more conventional principles, along with botanical medicine. The American School of Medicine (Eclectic) trained physicians in a dozen or so privately funded medical schools, principally located in the midwestern United States. By the 1850s, several "regular" American doctors, especially from the New York Academy of Medicine
New York Academy of Medicine
The New York Academy of Medicine was founded in 1847 by a group of leading New York City metropolitan area physicians as a voice for the medical profession in medical practice and public health reform...
, had begun using herbal salve
Salve
A salve is a medical ointment used to soothe the head or other body surface. A popular eye medicine known as "Phrygian powder" was one of Laodicea's sources of wealth...
s and other preparations.
The movement peaked in the 1880s and 1890s. The schools were not approved by the Flexner Report
Flexner Report
The Flexner Report is a book-length study of medical education in the United States and Canada, written by the professional educator Abraham Flexner and published in 1910 under the aegis of the Carnegie Foundation...
(1910), which was used to decide on accreditation of medical schools. By World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, states and provinces were adopting curriculum requirements that followed those articulated by the AMA. Those schools preferred pharmaceutical medicines to botanical extracts and eschewed a vitalist model
Vitalism
Vitalism, as defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary, is#a doctrine that the functions of a living organism are due to a vital principle distinct from biochemical reactions...
.
This effectively forced the Eclectic Medical Schools to either adopt the new model or fold. The last Eclectic Medical school closed in Cincinnati in 1939. The Lloyd Library and Museum
Lloyd Library and Museum
The Lloyd Library and Museum is a collection in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA, covering medical botany, pharmacy, eclectic medicine, and horticulture. It was initially started from the personal collection of the pharmacist John Uri Lloyd in 1864. In 1919, John Uri Lloyd and his two brothers, Nelson Ashley...
still maintains the greatest collection of books, papers and publications of the Eclectic physicians, including libraries from the Eclectic schools.
The contemporary herbalist Michael Moore
Michael Moore (herbalist)
Michael Moore was a medicinal herbalist, author of several reference works on botanical medicine, and founder of the Southwest School of Botanical Medicine . Before he was an herbalist Michael Moore was a musician and a composer...
recounts:
"In 1990 I visited the Lloyd Library in Cincinnati, Ohio, where, in the basement, I found the accumulated libraries of ALL the Eclectic medical schools, shipped off to the Eclectic Medical College (the "Mother School") as, one by one, they died. Finally, even the E. M.C. died (1939) and there they all were, holding on by the slimmest thread, the writings of a discipline of medicine that survived for a century, was famous (or infamous) for its vast plant 'materia medica,' treated the patient and NOT the pathology, a sophisticated model of vitalist healing."
Major Eclectic practitioners include John Uri Lloyd
John Uri Lloyd
John Uri Lloyd was an American pharmacist influential to the development of pharmacognosy, ethnobotany, economic botany, and herbalism.He also wrote novels set in northern Kentucky...
, John Milton Scudder
John Milton Scudder
Dr. John Milton Scudder was an Eclectic Medicine physician of the 19th century. The Eclectic physician Harvey Wickes Felter wrote a biography of him. He was born September 8, 1829 in Ohio and died February 17, 1894. He came to medicine late in life after losing a son to care he deemed improper...
, Harvey Wickes Felter
Harvey Wickes Felter
Harvey Wickes Felter was an eclectic medicine doctor and co-author with John Uri Lloyd of King's American Dispensatory and Felter's Eclectic Materia Medica.-External links:* @ Henriette Kress's Herbal website....
, John King, Andrew Jackson Howe, Finley Ellingwood
Finley Ellingwood
Finley Ellingwood, MD was a doctor of Eclectic Medicine who is the author of the influential The American Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Pharmacognosy in 1919. Ellingwood was an active Chicago physician with many years experience, and an acknowledged expert in obstetrical/gynecological medicine...
, Frederick J. Locke, and William N. Mundy. Harvey Wickes Felter
Harvey Wickes Felter
Harvey Wickes Felter was an eclectic medicine doctor and co-author with John Uri Lloyd of King's American Dispensatory and Felter's Eclectic Materia Medica.-External links:* @ Henriette Kress's Herbal website....
's Eclectic Materia Medica
Eclectic Materia Medica
Eclectic Materia Medica is a materia medica written by the eclectic medicine doctor Harvey Wickes Felter This was the last, articulate, but in the end, futile attempt to stem the tide of Standard Practice Medicine, the antithesis of the model of the rural primary care "vitalist" physician that was...
is one of several important Eclectic medical publications dating from the 1920s. It represented the last attempt to stem the tide of "standard practice medicine". This was the antithesis of the model of the rural primary care vitalist physician who was the basis for Eclectic practice.
In 1934 J. C. Hubbard, M.D., the president of the Eclectic Medical Association, decried the artificial hurdles of modern medical education. He described a vision for the vitalist, mentor-led eclectic tradition:
"The problem of the present is fundamental and must be solved if we are to continue as the Eclectic Section in Medicine. We must choose between being absorbed by the dominant section, our professional activities dictated and controlled, our policies subject to the approval of an unfriendly, prejudiced, self-constituted authority, and soon lose our identity as the Eclectic Section of American Medicine, or adapt ourselves to the general social change and retain the old Eclectic values of individual freedom of thought and action, independence in practice and the right to use that which has stood the test of experience in our service to mankind.
"If we are to retain the heritage passed on to us by our Eclectic fathers, we must purge ourselves of the cowering fear of prejudicial criticism that comes from the uninformed and vicious contingent of the majority section in medicine. Rather should we listen to the voice of suffering humanity calling for physicians to relieve pain, restore and maintain health and efficiency; for institutions of intelligence and understanding dedicated and standardized for the purpose of rendering service."
Eclectic medicine is practiced today in a modernized form, but mainly by medical herbalist
Herbalist
An herbalist is:#A person whose life is dedicated to the economic or medicinal uses of plants.#One skilled in the harvesting and collection of medicinal plants ....
s rather than physicians. Much of the important Eclectic literature found in the Lloyd Library has been scanned by herbalists David Winston
David Winston
David Winston RH is an American herbalist and ethnobotanist. He has been in practice and teaching since 1977 and has written several books on the subject. He works in the Cherokee, Chinese and the Western eclectic herbal traditions...
, Michael Moore , and Henriette Kress
Henriette Kress
Henriette Kress, known as "cyberspace's herbal archivist" is a well-known Finnish herbalist who has developed one of the most encyclopedic noncommercial web sites on herbal medicine worldwide...
, and appears on their websites.