Changes

By 1870, these three national medical organizations along with their local and state affiliates began the thirty-year battle over dominance of American medicine. While the Regulars represented the largest number of physicians in the country, they were constantly concerned that the Homeopaths and Eclectics threatened their dominance. Principally, these organizations sought to establish or maintain their power through the passage of licensing laws that benefited their sects throughout the United States. All of these organizations played a critical role in shaping and passing the new licensing laws. While the differences among the three sects over medical licensing played out in legislatures, all of these organizations faced internal dissent and strife that complicated licensing efforts and fractured previously unified sects.