From my research, people who provided "medical care" in the losest form could be called "Doctors" or "Doc" in the 1700's and 1800's. "In 1796, Dr. Hahnemann founded the first homeopathic school of medicine, which was located in Philadelphia. During the 1800's, homeopathic physicians, as well as allopaths and many other types of healers, flourished in many countries including the United States." _http://www.naturalhealthschool.com/15_1.html#3_ (http://www.naturalhealthschool.com/15_1.html#3) According to modern homeopathic testimony, when as a group the homeopathic doctors submitted themselves to the American Medical Association for guidance, homeopaths went into disrepute except for chiropractors. From the AMA: "In the early 1840s most doctors learned through apprenticeships, and many did not attend medical school. Anyone could work as a doctor, with or without a medical license. In 1845 New York physician Nathan Davis introduced a resolution to the New York Medical Society calling for American physicians to establish a nationwide professional association to help regulate the practice of medicine. In May 1847 about 250 delegates from across the country gathered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and created the American Medical Association. The organization’s primary tasks were to raise ethical standards in the medical field, establish ways to disseminate information to members and the public, and create national standards for medical education. In 1858 the AMA created the Committee on Ethics, now called the Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs, to write and implement an ethics code for American medical professionals. Davis served as president of the AMA from 1864 to 1865 and became the first editor of JAMA in 1883. The AMA incorporated in 1897." _http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761567010/American_Medical_Association.html_ (http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761567010/American_Medical_Association.html) Frank's question puts me in mind of a couple memories that I have related to health-care in the very early 1900's, especially regarding females in the medical field. My Dad's aunt--my G-Aunt-- was a nurse and midwife who after being born and raised in the Andover Mine area of Sussex County, became well-known for her maternity home in the Wharton, New Jersey area from 1907-1940. Her maternity home on S. Main Street was well known locally for it's advanced approach to taking care of new mothers and their babies. So it would be no surprise that when my Dad had his head gashed in, his mother, the midwife's sister, took him to a female doctor. This would have been ca. 1912. Many years later, in telling me and my brother the story, Dad said that after the female doctor had stitched up his head-wound, he started feeling sicker to his stomach than he had ever felt in his life. He related how he sat down on a curb, feeling nauseated and dizzy, holding his hand to his head-wound. His mother took him to a local male doctor who told her that if she had waited, Dad would have died. Dad vividly remembered the male doctor splitting open the stitches and stuffing cotton gauze into the wound to soak up the puss. He was relating this story to his young children in the 1950's, and it was very obviously a vivid memory to him. Our family, obviously, never lost faith in the efficacy of females in the medical profesion; not only did Mama Linnie Carpenter provide a thriving midwife service (with a local doctor brought in for more serious cases) but but her niece would have three daughters who would in one way or another work in the medical field, one of whom is a Master-degreed nurse. Relative to female doctors at least, when I was a young adolescent I read the story about Elizabeth Blackwell, the first female doctor in America. Her dates of birth and death were 1821-1910. She was born and died in England. But in 1847 or 1848--when she was 27 years old-- Elizabeth Blackwell was accepted at only one medical school: Medical Institution of Geneva College, New York . She was the sister of Emily Blackwell (also one of the first women doctors). Elizabeth Backwell: · 1849 Granted medical degree; entered La Maternite in Paris, France · 1850 Studied at St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London · 1854 Founded New York Dispensary for Poor Women and Children · 1857 Founded New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children · 1861 Organized U.S. Sanitary Aid Commission · 1868 Founded Women's Medical College · 1910 Died in England _http://www.galegroup.com/free_resources/whm/bio/blackwell_e.htm_ (http://www.galegroup.com/free_resources/whm/bio/blackwell_e.htm) This confirms my G-Aunt's experience as well as the experience of other women involved in medicine: because of choice or necessity, they were vastly involved in medicine for the benefit of indigent families, especially women and children. A contemporary of Elizabeth Blackwell was Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), a English hospital reformer. Elizabeth Blackwell's father was "Samuel Blackwell, an abolitionist and a vociferous dissenter from the Church of England, believed that the future duties of all his children included the reform of society." _http://www.galegroup.com/free_resources/whm/bio/blackwell_e.htm_ (http://www.galegroup.com/free_resources/whm/bio/blackwell_e.htm) Not amazing, even after receiving her medical degree in America, when attempting to practice medicine in American hospitals, she not only met with suspicion of male doctors but found that the male doctors' wives thought that she was either morally loose or insane. Though hospitals largely came and went, the hospital she founded is now vastly enlarged and renamed New York Infirmary-Strang Clinic, still operating on East 15th Street. By the time of her death in 1910, the number of female doctors in the United States had risen to over 7,000. At the time of Elizabeth Blackwell's death in 1910, Medical Education in the United States and Canada showed that three-fourths of North American medical schools were "inadequate." Kathleen >>Hello List, Could anyone tell me what the educational requirements were to become a doctor in the early 1800’s? I have an ancestor who was born in Sussex County, NJ in 1782 and did not leave there until sometime after 1830. Based on the 1850 census, this ancestor resided in Missouri where he identified himself as a “Doctor”. He did not leave New Jersey until after 1830, thus whatever education was required he most likely would have received in New Jersey. Does anyone know what schools were in existence in that area at that time and how one would go about obtaining any records that may still be available? Thanks so much for any help, Frank<<