pharmaceuticals

Prior to the U.S. Civil War, native healers, midwives, herbalists and witches - mostly women - were the primary caregivers. By 1865, the discipline of scientific medicine was imported from Europe, particularly from Germany. The germ theory of disease, specific disease etiology (cause), and the discovery of the tubercle bacillus by Koch, Virchow and Pasteur lent credence to the notion of a specific cure for a specific ailment. Otherwise known as the biomedical model, it became the basis for the production of synthetic drugs, with less emphasis on the whole person or the environment.

Resources

Worst Pills, Best Pills: A Consumer's Guide to Avoiding Drug-Induced Death or Illness, Sidney M. Wolfe, Ed.