The practice of Medicine has been performed since the times of Ancient Greece. While the Greeks believed these illnesses came from the Greek Gods, today’s physicians and medical experts know the true causes due to research and practices being carried out in America since the early 17th century. Medical procedures have drastically changed whether from hygienic purposes to practical or an increase of knowledge of the body. How different are our modern practices from the early Greeks and 17th century America? Section Two: Summary
During the times of Ancient Greece, illness was considered to be caused by the Greek Gods. The Greeks regarded illness as a divine punishment and healing was quite literally, a gift from the gods(Cartwright).
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America’s medical practice was divided into three kinds of fields durin the early 1600s, physicians, surgeons, and apothecaries(Berman). Physicians were the most educated and the only one out of the three groups to have a degree(Burman). The other two groups instead of going to universities, were house trained and commonly carried out apprenticeships(Burman). This practice of medicine is not the same as today, for all medical practitioners need some degree or certification to carry out the practice of medicine. The first medical institution, the New Jersey Medical Society was formed in 1766, creating the standards of practice, education, apprenticeship, and a code of ethics(Burman). These standards are still relatively seen in today’s modern medicine. These practices continued to be regulated to ensure transparency in doctors. By the early 1800s, medical societies were in charge of regulations, standards of practice, and certification of doctors(Burman). After these regulations were put in place, the first American medical schools were formed. The first medical college formed was the “Medical Society of the County of New York”, founded March 12th, 1807(Burman). After many complaints of corruption in medical education, a national convention was held in 1846(Burman). The convention would lead to the creation of the American Medical Association(Burman). By 1930, almost all medical schools required a liberal arts degree for admission(Burman). Specialization of Medicine did not appear until the mid-1900s. After many years of regulations and practice, Medicine is one of the most regulated professions in America, due to strict guidelines and constant evaluation by Medical
Nearly all their subjects had to be taken at precisely the same time, and in the same way, and the number of drugs was such that students had no time to explore subjects out of independent interest. In his experience, there’s less intellectual freedom than any other professional education in the United States. (The New Drug Story by Morris A. Bealle) The U. S. Congress agreed there needed to be a standards keeper in American medicine, so it created the American Medical Association (AMA) to standardize drug education in all American medical schools. (Abraham Flexner: A Flawed American Icon by Michael Nevins)
His reforms improved the quality and efficiency of medical education that resulted in highly qualified physicians who could give the best medical care possible to the citizens. He once said, "We have indeed in America medical practitioners not inferior to the best elsewhere; but there is probably no other country in the world in which there is so great a distance and so fatal a difference between the best, the average, and the worst" (Flexner 20). There is no one more deserving to be accepted into The Progressive University than Abraham Flexner because he revolutionized the process of obtaining a superior medical
(Jarvis 53) Eliot proposed the establishment of Harvard Medical School as an extension to the readily established Harvard University. This School did a great service to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, in providing education to budding doctors, thus expanding the Medical profession, and vicariously improving the health of the Colony. This institution beyond Eliot’s contribution helped the Colony for generations to come shows what Eliot had done for his community.(Jarvis 53) To further the former, Harvard was established originally for the education of the Natives, meaning Natives too could attend the Medical School and go on to help their own communities develop their health program.
The doctors did not want to negotiate a change that might threaten their monopoly. Members of the profession were free to decide if they wanted to practice or not. (Badgley, R., & Wolfe, S., 1965) The organized medical mounted a ferocious propaganda campaign fronted by the local College of Physicians and Surgeons with the support of the Canadian Medical Association (CMA), the AMA, the local economic elite and most of the media in the province. “The College wielded tremendous power and discipline because it was the only economic group representing doctors and was also the licensing body which determined who could practice medicine.
During the 1800s, physicians practiced various medical techniques, such as homeopathy and herbalism, while some physicians invented new techniques, like Electrotherapy. In the early 1800s, physicians relied on the "heroic" medicines for their medical treatments. Physicians classified the "heroic" medicines as treatments that would clean impurities from the body like purgation or bleeding by cup or by leech. For the people and physicians who did not agree with the "heroic" medicine, the development of other medical practices allowed them to deviate from the practices of the "heroic" medicines.
At that time doctors were not fully educated to the best of knowledge on
Medical care plays an important role in the health and longevity of life, becoming increasingly more innovative as medical knowledge and technology expands. When regarding the nature of health care, it is often defined by specialized safety measures, rapidly developing medicine/medical treatments, and established medical facilities with highly trained work forces. Although these characteristics are known to be prevalent in American medicine today, their advancement may not have had the same degree of maturation without the limitations and hindrances faced during the American Civil War. The challenges of the Civil War provided a unique climate in which an urgency for advancement and reform throughout the medical field became an impending necessity.
A lack of government regulation, formally educated doctors and overall specialized knowledge contributed to insufficient medical care (Breslaw). Common treatments were aggressive and designed to achieve balance within one’s body. Popular techniques encouraged physicians to induce bleeding, vomiting, and other conditions in hopes of curing a patient (Jones). Although most practices were horrific by today’s standards, progress was slowly taking place in the medical field. On October 16, 1846, Harvard Professor of Surgery John Collin prompted a patient to inhale an anesthetic substance prior to an operation.
Instead, they consulted midwives who assisted with childbirths and made herbal remedies to treat illnesses. Minor surgeries were not done in the hospital but at the local barbershop” (Medicine: The Renaissance, 2023). Additionally, the widespread belief in superstition and the supernatural made it difficult to gain acceptance for new medical ideas and treatments. This led to a resistance to change and innovation in the medical field.
"Dr. Crombine was only a county practitioner and had never written a prescription" (Uschan 14). During the Civil War many people were very underprepared. This quote was from 1861 and was very disturbing when people learned about it. Many people complained about the lack of professionalism and amazement. While doctors were unprofessional, surgeons were too.
Medicine is one of the most impactful advantages of modern-day society. Today, medicine consists of vaccines, surgeries, and yearly doctor visits. However, medical practices have existed in very different ways in each period. One of the significant shifting moments occurred during the period of the 1800s to the early 1900s. This hundred-year span marked the start of the exponential growth of medicine and medical operations.
Anatomy and surgery became parts of the medical program in universities. Medicine went from being a philosophy to a practical physical
Today, when someone is interested in a rigorous, challenging, and significant career such as a career in the medical field, it is encouraged and praised. However, around the 1800s, this was not the case. Before 1849, a woman getting a degree in medicine was unheard of in the United States; the only medical jobs that were suit for women were that of a midwife or nurse. The first woman to successfully change this stigma was Elizabeth Blackwell. She was the first female to graduate from medical school in the United States and get an M.D. degree; Elizabeth permanently changed the medical field and still inspires others.
The Hippocratic Oath, written around 300 BC, outlines many of the current guidelines for physicians. Though the procedures have greatly changed, the oath is still commonly used, and parts are even written into modern laws*.School systems are even further affected by the ancient people, to the point that the entirety of the modern educational laws are taken from the ideas of the Greek philosopher Aristotle in his piece, The Politics. He was one of the first ones to come up with the idea of legislation to make education compulsory, so that the population was all taught the same things in the same way. He was against allowing parents to teach their kids in any way they wished, such as is shown in Aristotle’s own words “(...) education must necessarily be one and the same for all, and that the superintendence of it should be common and not on a private basis