The Fall of Homeopathy I
Now more on the History of Homeopathy by taking a closer look at the Fall of Homeopathy. It is amazing that homeopathy survived at all in spite of the AMA’s attempts to effectively suppress homeopathy. In order to make themselves look like the “good guys”, the AMA was open to join for graduates from homeopathic medical schools. One cave-eat; they had to denounce homeopathy or at least quit practicing it. (1) The AMA also dropped the consultation clause, not because they no longer were ill disposed to homeopathy, but because they had better, more practical ways in defeating homeopathy.
In 1910, the Carnegie Foundation issued the infamous Flexner Report, an evaluation of American medical schools headed by Mr. Abraham Flexner and of course in cooperation with leading members of the AMA. (2) While pretending to at least be somewhat objective, Flexner in his report established guidelines to endorse orthodox medical schools and condemn homeopathic ones. The report gave the most credits to medical schools with a full time teaching faculty and institutions that taught a pathological and physiochemical analysis of the human body. Homeopathic colleges did not get as high credits because there preference of employing professors who were not only teachers or researchers but also in clinical practice. Even though homeopathic schools included many basic science courses, they offered courses in pharmacology, which the Flexner report found to be a waist of time.
As you might have guessed, homeopathic colleges, in general, were given poorer ratings by Mr. Flexner’s report. One of the implications of the report was that only graduates of schools that received a high rating were permitted to take the medical licensing exams. In 1900 there were 22 homeopathic colleges, by 1923 only two remained. (3)
Homeopathic schools were not the only ones feeling the brunt of the Flexner Report. Of the seven African-American medical schools, only two were able to survive. For all you feminists out there, the report also contributed to a 33 percent decline in female graduates from medical schools. (4)
In order for a homeopathic student to pass the new licensing exams that stressed the basic sciences, homeopathic colleges decided to offer more classes on pathology, chemistry, physiology, and other medical sciences. Due to the increase in the study load one can imagine that something had to suffer. And this was unfortunately the homeopathic training. (5) With the result that graduates from the homeopathic colleges were not as keen in practicing homeopathy as they should have been. Instead of individualizing medicines to the person’s totality of symptoms, many homeopaths began prescribing according to symptoms and disease categories, with predictable poor outcomes. Finally a lot of homeopaths gave up practice and their patients were seeking care some other place.
The turbulent history of homeopathy continues with the Fall of Homeopathy II.
Beste Gesundheit,
Werner
1. Coulter H. (1982) Divided Legacy vol. 3. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books. p.430
2. Starr P. (1984) The Social Transformation of American Medicine. New York: Basic. p 119
2. Coulter H. (1982) Divided Legacy vol. 3. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books. p.446
3. Kaufman M. (1971) Homeopathy in America : The Rise and Fall of a Medical Heresy Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. p.166
4. Starr P. (1984) The Social Transformation of American Medicine. New York: Basic. p 124
5. Coulter H. (1982) Divided Legacy vol. 3. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books. p.444