ABSTRACT

HOMEOPATHS COMMONLY REFER TO the period between 1930 and 1970 in the United States as the “dark ages.” Although homeopathy enjoyed considerable popularity in the nineteenth century and was still favored by many patients at the turn of the twentieth, the rapid decline in the numbers of homeopathic medical schools, hospitals, and professional organizations during the first decades of the century did not augur well for its future. Based on the authority of modern biological science, American medicine writ large had resulted in a general consensus in the early decades of the century, affecting the structures of medical education, research, institutions, and labor.1 Yet homeopathy did not simply disappear. American medicine is also defined by the behavior of individuals-to patronize a particular doctor or healer, to take one drug rather than another, or to refuse drugs altogether. At the personal level, American medicine has been far more eclectic than the hegemony of mainstream medicine suggests.2