Morris Fishbein
and Albert Abrams
Dr. Morris Fishbein's first book, The Medical Follies, became an influential best seller. His 1932 book, Fads and Quackery became a classic in the field and was referred to by many authors who wrote on the subject of quackery in the coming decades. All three books by Fishbein dealt with Dr. Albert Abrams. Like the AMA literature, he ridiculed Abrams numerous outrageous claims, methods and endless gadgets.
In 1926, Annie Hale wrote the book, "These Cults"
as a
response to Morris Fishbein's 1925 The Medical Follies. It defended the medical "cults" from Fishbein's attacks. These
included Chiropractic, Osteopathy, Naturopathy and others including the "electronic
reactions of Abrams."
Her complaints about the AMA’s attack on Abrams such as Fishbein's book
was that it was an a priori attack without investigating it. She
complained that Abrams was the "storm center of medical rancour and hate". As an example, she mentioned JAMA's review of Abrams' book
Spondylotherapy that was "a long sarcastic review... a gratuitous slap
at its author".
In Abrams' defense she said he was "one of the most educated men of
his day". She mentioned a few prominent individuals who supported
the E.R.A., the most prominent one being Sir James Barr, a past president of the
British Medical Association. As would be the case after the Scientific
American and Thomas Horder committees' investigation of the E.R.A., she only
briefly mentioned the Scientific American investigation and paid much
attention to a few positive statements by the Horder committee and ignored their
mostly negative conclusions.