National Eclectic Medical Association Quarterly.

Introduction by Michael Moore:

In 1915, there were 12,000 Eclectic physicians and 14,000 Homeopathic physicians in practice. The Flexner report was published in 1910, financed by the Carnegie and Rockefeller foundations, with active assistance by the A.M.A, the self-proclaimed (and similarly supported) "National Board of Medical Examiners" was began shortly thereafter, and the Flexner-Carnegie-Rockefeller-A.M.A. intent of decreasing the number of both medical schools AND physicians (allopaths only) was begun. In 1915 there were 8 accredited Eclectic schools, 9 Homeopathic schools, 7 African-American-only schools and 3 women-only medical schools, all producing students that sat for the various state boards and that took the same tests as everyone else. By 1935, there remained only 1 Eclectic school, 2 homeopathic schools, 2 negro-only schools and NONE for women. The number of schools had been cut in half, the new physicians were virtually all white males, and the numbers of physicians dropped and their income rose...and they all migrated (it seems) to the cities. By 1940, ALL private medical schools had vanished and ONLY Standard Practice Medicine ("Allopaths") and the Flexner-modelled curriculum survived. Chiropractice and Osteopathy survived in shaky alternate universes, constantly hounded by a well-honed and experienced Inquisition.

I don't mean to tirade here, but the United States and Canada once had a rich and diverse community of squabbling physicians that represented several sophisticated medical "sects", that trained in separate schools but sat for the SAME BOARDS. All gone, and mostly forgotten, killed in virtually invisible trench warfare that was funded in part by the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research and, let's be honest, the A.M.A.

The Quarterly contained information on the N.E.M.A, and papers were published that were read at the national meetings...often with a spirited "Discussion".

These are the more interesting excerpts.

Thank you, Michael, for these!

- Henriette

National Eclectic Medical Association Quarterly, Vol. 7, 1915-16, was edited by William Nelson Mundy, M.D.