Homeopathic and Allopathic Physicians During
the Civil War
During the Civil War, there were
two competing camps of medical education: homeopathic and allopathic.
The homeopaths believe they could cure disease by administration of
varying doses of naturally occurring chemicals or drugs. Their
education was significantly different from the alternative and more
popular allopathic medicine.
Allopathics were more closely
aligned to what we expect from physicians today. They did surgery
and were more or less science based than the homeopaths. During
the Civil War, the Union Medical Department, which was dominated by
allopathic physicians and surgeons had to create evaluation boards to
weed out incompetent doctors. Since homeopathic physicians
didn't believe in or do surgery, they were religated to rear area care
of the injured or eliminated completely from working on injured
soldiers.
Medical education before and
during the Civil War was not what we expect today. The medical
colleges were only two years in length, and knowledge of major surgery
was very limited when the doctors graduated. Any doctor with
surgical experience was immediately used to perform amputations or any
complicated surgery.
Homeopathic medicine still exists
today, but only as a fringe element more closely aligned with
alternative medicine or health food 'cures'.
The history of
homeopathy begins with the discoveries of its founder Samuel Hahnemann
(1755 - 1843), a German physician... (homeopathy refers to) the law of
similars... Hahnemann was particularly disliked by the apothecaries
because he recommended the use of only one medicine at a time and
prescribing only limited doses of it... Homeopaths were primarily
critical of the suppressive nature of (allopathic) drugs. They felt that
they simply masked the person's symptoms, creating deeper, more serious
diseases... (Homeopathy) expanded so rapidly that the homeopaths decided
to create a national medical society. In 1844 they organized the
American Institute of Homeopathy, which became America's first national
medical society. Partially in response to the growth of the homeopaths,
in 1846 a rival medical group formed which then vowed to slow the
development of homeopathy. This organization called itself the American
Medical Association." Homeopathy was practiced widely in the Civil War.
"It's advocates included WIlliam James, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,
Nathanial Hawthorne, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Daniel Webster, William
Seward, Horace Greeley, and Louisa May ALcott. WIlliam Cullen Bryant,
the famous journalist, was president of the New York Homeopathic
Society." (source: Dana Ullmann, MPH 1991 A Condensed History of
Homeopathy from the Homeopathic Educational Services website)
Medical education
during and before the Civil War
Medical colleges
during and before the Civil War
