Source.

Asa Gray, Dar-winia Essays and Reviews Pertaining Darwinism (New York Appleton, 1879)

The Organisation Of American Medicine

Changes in the Field of Medicine.

Between 1850 and 1877 American medicine became more professionalized. Modern hospitals began to appear in the 1860s and 1870s, and along with them came the professionalization of nursing. The nation's physicians, however, lacked the professional cohesiveness that American scientists were beginning to find during these decades; not until the early twentieth century would a unified and independent medical profession be established in the United States. The delay occurred largely because of the lack of standardized educational and licensing requirements for doctors and because of the sharp divisions that existed within the medical community.

American Physicians.

Attempts at Reform. In 1846 a group of physicians met in New York to establish the American Medical Association (AMA). Composed mainly of younger, less-well- doctors, the organization's main goals were to raise and standardize educational requirements for a medical degree and to create a code of ethics that would distinguish "regular" doctors from "irregular" ones who practiced homeopathy or other "natural" forms of medicine. The AMA received little support in its first few decades: irregular practitioners, of whom there were many, viewed the organization with disdain, but established regular physicians also remained lukewarm in their support. Not until the early twentieth century did the AMA begin to exert significant influence in the medical community.