The Kappa Lambda Society of Hippocrates: historical perspective on an early medical professional society.

The Kappa Lambda Society of Hippocrates, an early medical professional organization, was founded circa 1819 in Lexington, Kentucky, amid the first economic depression in the United States. Its primary stated purpose was to elevate medicine as a profession. This article will reevaluate the acknowledged purposes and accomplishments of the Society in the social and economic context of its time, and consider the extent to which it may have advanced the professional stature and economic station of educated medical practitioners.