David Meredith Reese (1800–1861) was an American physician and skeptic.
Reese worked as a physician at the Bellevue Hospital until 1849. He was a skeptical of the many "isms" of his day. He had heavily criticized quackery in his book Humbugs of New York (1838). He was highly critical of phrenology.
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.
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
- 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
- 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.