Morris Fishbein
Morris Fishbein | |
---|---|
Journal of the American Medical Association | |
Title | Editor |
Term | 1924-1950 |
Spouse | Anna Mantel Fishbein |
Morris Fishbein (July 22, 1889 – September 27, 1976) was an American physician and editor of the
Ira Rutkow's Seeking the Cure: A History of Medicine in America provides a brief overview of Fishbein's influence on American medicine during the Interwar period.[1]: 192–199
Fishbein is vilified in the
Biography
He was born in
He joined George H. Simmons, editor of The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), as an assistant and advanced to the editorship in 1924, a position he maintained until 1950. He was on the cover of Time on June 21, 1937. In 1938, along with the AMA, he was indicted for violating the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.[4] The AMA was convicted and fined $2,500 but Fishbein was acquitted.[5]
In 1961 he became the founding Editor of Medical World News, a magazine for doctors. In 1970 he endowed the Morris Fishbein Center for the study of the
He died on September 27, 1976, in
Quacks
He was also notable due to his affinity for exposing quacks, notably the goat-gland surgeon John R. Brinkley, and campaigning for regulation of medical devices. His book Fads and Quackery in Healing debunks homeopathy, osteopathy, chiropractic, Christian Science, radionics and other dubious medical practices.[7]
In 1938, Fishbein authored a two-part article "Modern Medical Charlatans" in the journal Hygeia which criticized the quackery of Brinkley.[8] Brinkley sued Fishbein for libel but lost the case.[9] The jury found that Brinkley "should be considered a charlatan and a quack in the ordinary, well-understood meaning of those words." Fishbein responded that "the decision is a great victory for honest scientific medicine, for the standards of education and conduct established by the American Medical Association."[9]
Fishbein was critical of the activities of Mary Baker Eddy. He considered her a fraud and plagiarist.[10]
Selected publications
- The Medical Follies (1925)
- The New Medical Follies (1927)
- Shattering Health Superstitions (1930)
- Fads and Quackery in Healing (1932)
- Frontiers of Medicine (1933)
- Your Diet and Your Health (1937)
- A History of the American Medical Association 1847 to 1947 (1947)
- Medical Writing: The Technic and the Art (1957)
- Morris Fishbein, M.D.: An Autobiography (1969)
See also
References
- ISBN 978-1416538288.
- ^ Donahue, (1996), 16(1):39-49.
- ^ "Morris Fishbein: transcript of an interview interviewed by Charles O. Jackson," (Interview). March 12, 1968.
- ^ "Medicine: A. M. A. Indicted". Time Magazine. 2 Jan 1939. Archived from the original on December 1, 2010.
- ^ Carl F Ameringer (2008). The Healthcare Revolution (PDF). University of California Press. p. 35. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 May 2010. Retrieved 8 July 2010.
- New York Times. September 28, 1976. Retrieved 2009-07-18.
- PMC 1558161.
- .
- ^ ISBN 0-8131-2232-5
- ^ Hudson, Robert P. (1983). Disease and Its Control: The Shaping of Modern Thought. Greenwood Press. p. 70.
Further reading
- Theme Issue: The Fishbein Festschrift, Medical Communications, Vol.5, No.4, (1977).
- Barclay, William R. (1976). "Morris Fishbein, MD—1889-1976; Editor of JAMA—1924-1950". JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association. 236 (19): 2212. .
- Bealle, Morris Allison, "Medical Mussolini", 'A Comprehensive Text Book on Humanity's Scourge - Medical Politics', Columbia Pub. Co, Washington D.C., 1945.
- Brock, P., Charlatan: America's Most Dangerous Huckster, the Man Who Pursued Him, and the Age of Flimflam, Crown Publishers, (New York), 2008. ISBN 978-0-307-33988-1
- Fishbein, M., The Medical Follies: An Analysis of the Foibles of Some Healing Cults, including Osteopathy, Homeopathy, Chiropractic, and the Electronic Reactions of Abrams, with Essays on the Anti-Vivisectionists, Health Legislation, Physical Culture, Birth Control, and Rejuvination, Boni & Liveright, (New York), 1925.
- Fishbein, M., The New Medical Follies: an encyclopedia of cultism and quackery in these United States, with essays on the cult of beauty, the craze for reduction, rejuvenation, eclecticism, bread and dietary fads, physical therapy, and a forecast as to the physician of the future, Boni & Liveright (New York) 1927 and AMS Press (New York) 1977. ISBN 0-404-13262-6.
- Fishbein, M. (1932). Fads and Quackery in Healing: An Analysis of the Foibles of the Healing Cults, With Essays on Various Other Peculiar Notions in the Health Field. New York: Covici Friede.