ABSTRACT
The physicians' Union movement was organized in the late nineteenth century to promote the interests of private practitioners. The Third Republic presented private practitioners with the opportunity to achieve their professional goals of eliminating competing practitioners, controlling state medicine, and equalizing the profession. The solidarists used social reform to oppose the joint threat of socialism and urbanization. The reforms were intended to bring the benefits of scientific progress, as perceived by the governing elites, to all sectors of French society. The private practitioners of the Union movement saw many dangers in the public health movement. These practitioners successfully resisted the centralization of public health Like the Medical Practice Law, the Medical Assistance Law was seen by the physicians' Union as a way of alleviating overcrowding in the profession by expanding the territory in which doctors could make a living. Doctors perceived the reporting of cases of contagious disease and of cause of death to be a threat to their clienteles.
