National Pride.

The period from 1815 to 1850 was not one of great achievement in American science and medicine. It was, however, a period during which distinctively American developments in science and medicine first began to emerge. Public interest in the sciences grew rapidly, and the institutional framework necessary to foster theoretical and applied research began to appear. Simultaneously, social and political conditions in the United States prompted a revolt against the medical establishment. Since European advances in anatomy and physiology would not produce practical treatments until the turn of the twentieth century, a wide variety of nontraditional medical therapies and practitioners filled the void in the anti-authoritarian atmosphere of Jacksonian America.

Limited Resources.

Prior to 1815 the United States looked to England and the European continent for leadership in science and medicine. American scientists and doctors sought formal academic training at universities in Edinburgh, Oxford, Cambridge, and Paris. With the...