And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) to be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.

And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. Luke 2:3-14

“Doctors in America were not always the powerful and authoritative profession that they are today. A century ago they had much less influence, income, and prestige. “In all of our American colleges,” a professional journal commented bitterly in 1869, “medicine has ever been and is now, the most despised of all the professions which liberally-educated men are expected to enter.” Although a few eminent doctors made handsome fortunes, many before 1900 could hardly scrape together a respectable living. […]

Beginning in the 1760s, some educated doctors took the initial steps to reproduce in America the professional institutions that in England gave physicians a distinct and exclusive status. They succeeded in organizing medical schools, and in some fields of work, such as obstetrics, doctors gained ground against rival practitioners. But they failed in their larger efforts to establish themselves as an exclusive and privileged profession. The licensing authority doctors secured had little more than honorific value, and during the Jacksonian period in the 1830s and 1840s, their claims to privileged competence evoked a sharp backlash that crippled their ambitions for the next half century. State legislatures voted to do away with medical licensure entirely. No profession was being allowed, Oliver Wendell Holmes told the graduating class at Harvard in 1844, “to be the best judge of its own men and doctrines.” Lay practitioners, using native herbs and folk remedies, flourished in the countryside and towns, scorning the therapies and arcane learning of regular physicians and claiming the right to practice medicine as an inalienable liberty, comparable to religious freedom.”

Paul Starr, The Social Transformation of American Medicine