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[[File:Andrew_Taylor_Still_1914.jpg|left|thumbnail|250px|Andrew Taylor Still, founder of the Osteopathic Medicine in 1914]]

By Clinton Sandvick

In the last quarter of the 19th Century in the United States, Osteopathy posed a significant challenge to existing physicians. At the end of the 19th century, medicine in America was dominated by three separate competing medical sects - regular (M.D.), homeopaths and eclectic physicians. Each sect advanced competing theories explaining the causes of disease and illness. The emerging science surrounding germ theory threatened to upend the medical doctrine of all three sects. Osteopaths, on the other hand, dismissed scientific medicine entirely. Osteopaths manipulated the body to treat their patient's health. Because of Osteopaths' unusual treatments, the newly created medical licensing boards around the United States struggled with whether their practice constituted the practice of medicine.