Eclectic Medicine

Branch of American Medicine popular at the turn of the century. These physicians (called ‘Eclectics’) believed in a philosophy of ‘alignment with nature’. Eclectics made use of botanical plants and other substances, practiced a type of physical therapy, and in general, employed methods and concepts they found to be beneficial to their patients. They opposed the techniques of bleeding, chemical purging and the use of mercury compounds, common among the ‘conventional’ doctors of their time.