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Nineteenth-century medicine was characterized by constant competition among three major medical sects: Regulars, Eclectics, and Homeopaths.<ref>Article is a portion of an unpublished dissertation by Sandvick, Clinton (2013)''Licensing American Physicians: 1865-1907'' University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon. This portion of the dissertation is reproduced here with the permission of the author.</ref> Each of these medical sects not only meaningfully disagreed on how to treat illnesses and diseases, but sought to portray their type of practice as the most effective and scientific. Arguably none of the three sects was superior to the others, but their adherents concluded that their sectarian beliefs were better than their competitors. Regulars were the inheritors of Galenic tradition and were the largest and most established of the three sects. Homeopaths represented a new approach to medicine with a new unified medical system developed in the eighteenth century. Homeopaths were quite successful in the United States and represented the biggest threat to the Regulars’ dominance of medicine. The Eclectics were true to their name. They were a diverse sect composed of dissident Regulars, herbalists, and medical reformers. While the Regulars were the largest sect, their members constantly worried that they may lose their place at the head of the table of American medicine. In the later portion of the 20th century, Regular physicians would constantly lobbying state legislatures to create medical licensing to solidify their place as the preeminent medical sect.

==The Regulars==

Before 1800, western medical therapeutics changed remarkably little over the last 2,000 years.<ref> Charles E. Rosenburg, “The Therapeutic Revolution: Medicine, Meaning and Social Change in Nineteenth-Century America,” in ''The Therapeutic Revolution: Essays in the Social History of American Medicine'', ed. Moris J. Vogel and Charles E. Rosenburg, (Philadephia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1979), 3.</ref> Traditional Regular physicians (also known as Allopaths) might have viewed themselves as learned professionals, but Galen’s 2,000-year-old “four humoral theory” was the basis for their therapeutic methods. “The body was seen, metaphorically, as a system of dynamic interactions with its environment,” and physicians believed that specific diseases played an insignificant role in the system. During the nineteenth century, this understanding of the human body came under assault because it was not effective in treating human illnesses.

Many formally educated physicians (Regulars) were the followers of Galen’s therapeutic legacy, but during the nineteenth century they became increasingly devoted to the principles of scientific medicine. They began to believe in the “long-term efficacy of such principles as rational research and cooperative intercommunication.” The Regulars created medical societies and journals and attempted to combat the abysmal standards of American medical schools.<ref>James Mohr, ''Abortion in America: The Origins and Evolution of National Policy, 1800-1900'' (New York, Oxford University Press, 1978), 33.</ref> Their approach to medicine was essentially scientific, but their alleged reliance on science produced few results until the late nineteenth century because they lacked the tools to truly understand viruses, bacteria, and human physiology.<ref> Joseph F. Kett, ''The Formation of the American Medical Profession: The Role of Institutions, 1780-1860'' (New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1968), 162.</ref> As a result, the Regulars’ dominance of American medical practice eroded dramatically between 1820 and 1850. Competing medical sects and systems evolved to fill the vacuum.<ref>Rosen, ''The Structure of American Medical Practice'', 20.</ref>