A Profile in Alternative Medicine: The Eclectic Medical College of Cincinnati, 1835-1942

by John S. Haller Jr.

Overview

The Eclectic Medical Institute was an American institution in origin, concept, and practice. For nearly a century, EMI was known as the “mecca of eclectic thinking” and the “Mother Institute” of reformed medicine. A Profile of Alternative Medicine recounts the history of eclectic medicine which, along with hydropathy, homeopathy, physiomedicalism, chiropractic, and osteopathy, competed with regular medicine (allopathy) in the nineteenth century.

This history of EMI is set within the broader context of American medicine and recounts the internal feuds, successes, adversity, and ultimate failure of this bastion of freedom in medical thought.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781612771885
Publisher:	Kent State University Press
Publication date:	12/14/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	863,109
File size:	633 KB

About the Author

John S. Haller, Jr. is a professor of history and medical humanities at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. His publications include Outcasts from Evolution: Scientific Attitudes of Racial Inferiority, 1859-1900 (winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Award in Race Relations); The Physician and Sexuality in Victorian America; American Medicine in Transition, 1840-1910; and Kindly Medicine: Physio-Medicalism in America 1836-1911 (The Kent State University Press, 1997).

Editorial Reviews

3 Stars from Doody

This book is a retelling of the history of the Eclectic Medical College of Cincinnati, Ohio. The rise in the mid-nineteenth century and decline by the Second World War of this College is a documentation of the history of medical sectarianism in the U.S. The author not only reveals a heterogeneous and turbulent landscape of medicine and healthcare, he also shows that the ascendancy of regular or allopathic medicine produced distinctly unfavorable consequences for alternative medicine. Practitioners and other students of medicine interested the history of alternative and/or regular medicine should find this account a fascinating, if not bittersweet, read. Drawing on the archives of the now defunct school, the author carefully reconstructs how academic leaders and students vainly sought to preserve an eclectic system of medicine when the leading professional organizations such as the American Medical Association and the American Association of Medical Colleges relentlessly sought to standardize medical education. This book fills an important gap in the history of American medicine. Rather than ridiculing medical sectarianism or privileging regular medicine, the author offers a thoughtful chapter in the making of American medicine.

Douglas M. Haynes

Reviewer: Douglas M. Haynes, PhD (University of California Irvine)
Description: This book is a retelling of the history of the Eclectic Medical College of Cincinnati, Ohio.
Purpose: The rise in the mid-nineteenth century and decline by the Second World War of this College is a documentation of the history of medical sectarianism in the U.S. The author not only reveals a heterogeneous and turbulent landscape of medicine and healthcare, he also shows that the ascendancy of regular or allopathic medicine produced distinctly unfavorable consequences for alternative medicine.
Audience: Practitioners and other students of medicine interested the history of alternative and/or regular medicine should find this account a fascinating, if not bittersweet, read.
Features: Drawing on the archives of the now defunct school, the author carefully reconstructs how academic leaders and students vainly sought to preserve an eclectic system of medicine when the leading professional organizations such as the American Medical Association and the American Association of Medical Colleges relentlessly sought to standardize medical education.
Assessment: This book fills an important gap in the history of American medicine. Rather than ridiculing medical sectarianism or privileging regular medicine, the author offers a thoughtful chapter in the making of American medicine.

Doody's Review Service