David Meredith Reese (1800–1861) was an American physician and skeptic.
Reese worked as a physician at the Bellevue Hospital until 1849.[1] He was a skeptical of the many "isms" of his day.[2] He had heavily criticized quackery in his book Humbugs of New York (1838).[3] He was highly critical of phrenology.[4]
Reese's book was published several years before Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (1841) and has been described as early debunking work.[5][6]
In 1835, Reese published Letters to the Hon. William Jay. A Reply to his 'Inquiry Into The American Colonization and American Anti-Slavery Movements, in which he supports the efforts of the American Colonization Society.
Publications
edit- Letters to the Hon. William Jay. A Reply to his 'Inquiry Into The American Colonization and American Anti-Slavery Movements (1835)
- Phrenology Known by Its Fruits (1836)
- Humbugs of New-York: Being a Remonstrance Against Popular Delusion, Whether in Science, Philosophy, or Religion (1838)
- Medical Lexicon of Modern Terminology (1848)
- Elements of Zoology, Or, Natural History of Animals (1849)
References
edit- ^ Kelly; Howard Atwood; Burrage, Walter Lincoln. (1920). American Medical Biographies. Norman, Remington Company. p. 968
- ^ Lewis, W. David. (2009). From Newgate to Dannemora: The Rise of the Penitentiary in New York, 1796–1848. Fall Creek Books. p. 236. ISBN 978-0801475481
- ^ Miller, Julie. (2008). Abandoned: Foundlings in Nineteenth-century New York City. NYU Press. p. 103. ISBN 978-0814757260
- ^ Fabian, Ann. (2010). The Skull Collectors: Race, Science, and America's Unburied Dead. University Of Chicago Press. p. 74. ISBN 978-0226233482
- ^ Logan, Peter Melville. (2003). The Popularity of "Popular Delusions": Charles Mackay and Victorian Popular Culture. Cultural Critique. No. 54. pp. 213–241
- ^ Loxton, Daniel. (2013). Why Is There a Skeptical Movement? The Skeptics Society. Retrieved 18 April 2016.