Heroic medicine 382412 201180820 2008-03-26T23:15:10Z Hans Adler 5773149 removing "unreferenced" tag, which no longer applies [[Image:Benjamin Rush Painting by Peale.jpg|thumb|right|[[Benjamin Rush]], an important proponent of heroic medicine.]] '''Heroic medicine''' is a term for aggressive medical practices or methods of treatment, and usually refers to those which were later superseded by scientific advances. It is not known who first used the pejorative term “heroic medicine”; but it is most likely that it was first used by US or British scholars of the history of medicine in the early years of the twentieth century. Heroic medicine, in which the patient, rather than the physician (or the therapy) was ''heroic'', flourished between the 1780s and 1850s. [[Benjamin Rush]] (1745–1813), who signed the American Declaration of Independence, and is considered to be one of the “fathers" of American medicine, and who had been trained in medicine at Edinburgh University (1766–1768), was a strong advocate of “heroic medicine”.<ref name=toledo>Barbara Floyd, University Archivist, University of Toledo.[http://www.utoledo.edu/library/canaday/exhibits/quackery/quack2.html From Quackery to Bacteriology: The Emergence of Modern Medicine in 19th Century America] Retrieved June 23 2006</ref> During the '''Age of Heroic Medicine''' (1780–1850), educated professional physicians aggressively practiced "heroic medicine," including [[bloodletting]] (venesection), intestinal purging ([[Mercury(I) chloride|calomel]]), vomiting (tartar [[emetic]]), profuse sweating ([[diaphoretic]]s) and blistering. Physicians originally treated diseases like [[syphilis]] with [[salve]]s made from [[mercury (element)#Precautions and Regulation|mercury]]. These medical treatments were well-intentioned, and often well-accepted by the medical community, but were actually harmful to the patient. ==References== {{reflist}} [[Category:History of medicine]]