Assessment.

The period 1783 to 1815 was a time of few great advances in medical science in America. In many ways doctors continued the crude medical practices of the colonial period, with some indications of new thinking regarding preventive medicine, mental disease; and public sanitation. The story of American technology, on the other hand, is much more dynamic, inaugurating an era of industrial revolution, mass production (interchangeable parts), and powered transportation, as well as extraordinary progress in learning about the geography, plants, animals, and native inhabitants of a nation that would double in area during this period.

Medical Science.

At the time of the American Revolution, it is estimated, there were about thirty-five hundred medical practitioners in America, only four hundred of whom had formal training. After the war American medicine became more organized, with the establishment of new hospitals and medical schools. Prior to this period there were very...