Eclectic medicine

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Eclectic medicine is a branch of alternative medicine which makes use of herbal remedies.

The term was coined by Constantine Samuel Rafinesque (1784 to 1841), a physician living among the Native Americans, and observing their use of medicinal plants.

He coined the word "eclectic" to refer to those physicians who adopted in practice whatever was found to be beneficial to their patients. The Eclectic Medical Institute was formed in the 1830s as an alternative to the conventional medicine of the time. By the 1850s, several American doctors, especially from the New York Academy of Medicine, had begun using herbal salves.

Eclectic medicine is still practiced today, but mainly by medical herbalists rather than physicians.

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