Morris Fishbein

Morris Fishbein M.D. (July 22, 1889 – September 27, 1976) was a physician who became the editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) from 1924 to 1950.

Morris Fishbein
Born(1889-07-22)July 22, 1889
St. Louis, Missouri
DiedSeptember 27, 1976(1976-09-27) (aged 87)
Chicago, Illinois
EmployerJournal of the American Medical Association
TitleEditor
Term1924-1950
Spouse(s)Anna Mantel Fishbein

Fishbein is vilified in the chiropractic community due to his principal role in founding and propagating the campaign to suppress and end chiropractic as a profession due to its basis in pseudoscientific practices.[1]

Biography

He was born in St. Louis, Missouri on July 22, 1889, son of an immigrant Jewish peddlar who moved his family to Indianapolis. He studied at Rush Medical College where he graduated in 1913. Fishbein served for 18 months as a resident physician at the Durand Hospital for Infectious Diseases.[2]

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.[3] The AMA was convicted and fined $2,500 but Fishbein was acquitted.[4]

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 history of science and medicine at the University of Chicago. Its first activity was a lecture series taking place in May of that year. Allen G. Debus served as director of the Center from 1971 to 1977. Fishbein also endowed a chair at the university for the same subject, a chair taken up by Debus in 1978. The 7th floor in Shoreland Hall at the University of Chicago was known as Fishbein House, using the Fishbein name as its namesake.

He died on September 27, 1976 in Chicago, Illinois.[5] He was survived by two daughters, Barbara Fishbein Friedell and Marjorie Clavey, and his son, Justin M. Fishbein.

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.[6]

In 1938, Fishbein authored a two-part article "Modern Medical Charlatans" in the journal Hygeia which criticized the quackery of Brinkley.[7] Brinkley sued Fishbein for libel but lost the case.[8] 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."[8]

Fishbein was critical of the activities of Mary Baker Eddy. He considered her a fraud and plagiarist.[9]

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)
gollark: I have some excellent and efficient ideas.
gollark: Probably anything below a few minutes is fine.
gollark: Using my excellent C and javous bindings.
gollark: I wrote them for ALL rounds except one I did not.
gollark: Well, I wrote automated testing harnesses and I think ubq had a script.

See also

References
  1. Donahue, (1996), 16(1):39-49.
  2. "Morris Fishbein: transcript of an interview interviewed by Charles O. Jackson," (Interview). March 12, 1968.
  3. "Medicine: A. M. A. Indicted". Time Magazine. 2 Jan 1939.
  4. 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.
  5. "Dr. Morris Fishbein Dead at 87. Former Editor of A.M.A. Journal". Associated Press in the New York Times. September 28, 1976. Retrieved 2009-07-18. Dr. Morris Fishbein, a prominent medical authority and for many years the editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association, died today. He was 87 years old.
  6. Tobey, James A. (1933). Fads and Quackery in Healing. American Journal of Public Health and the Nation's Health 23 (3): 295–296.
  7. "The Case of Brinkley Vs. Fishbein: Proceedings of a Libel Suit Based on an Article Published in Hygeia". JAMA (journal).
  8. Lee, Alton R. (2002). The Bizarre Careers of John R. Brinkley. University of Kentucky Press. pp. 211-218. ISBN 0-8131-2232-5
  9. Hudson, Robert P. (1983). Disease and Its Control: The Shaping of Modern Thought. Greenwood Press. p. 70.

Further reading
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