sentences:  Heroic medicine became the convention for treating patients, with aggressive practices like bloodletting and prescribing chemicals such as mercury, becoming the forefront in therapeutics.Alternative medicine had its beginnings in the early 19th century, when gentler practices in comparison to heroic medicine began to emerge.Homeopaths, Thomsonians, and hydropaths practiced unconventional forms of healing that may have had strong appeal to patients due to their more attenuated practices.