MORRIS FISHBEIN - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 12/15/1975 - HFSID 17901

MORRIS FISHBEIN
Morris Fishbein, editor of JAMA, signed this typed letter on his personalized letterhead in 1976, one year before his death. In it, he thanks the recipient for a Christmas card and muses idly about on plays and movies about medical charlatans.
Typed letter signed "Morris Fishbein". 1 page, 8½x11, on Fishbein's personalized letterhead. Dec. 15, 1975. Addressed to Gerald Carson, Millerton, New York. In full: "Dear Gerald: I have just read the interesting note on your Christmas card. I am happy with the McCutcheon cartoon. Hanging on my wall is an original of a cartoon which he drew on July 7, 1914, which was our wedding date and his cartoon is most appropriate without referring specifically to that. I notice your suggestion about a play or movie based on Brinkley. Somebody could have some fun writing a paper for a society in the field of medicine dealing with famous plays and movies that were concerns with the live [sic] of a charlatan. Included would be Albert Abrams, John R. Brinkley, one in which George M. Cohan played the lead and several others. This would avoid reference to Moliere and Shaw. In each case the charlatan would have to be a man who had a medical diploma before becoming a charlatan. With my best wishes for the holiday season and the new year, Sincerely yours, MF:bg". Fishbein (1889-1976) was an American medical doctor and editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) from 1924 to 1950. On June 21, 1937, Fishbein had been featured on the cover of Time magazine, and he protested in an inside article about FDR's plan to federalize the medical profession. Fishbein, as editor of American Medical Association publications, said that medicine "is practiced as an art and as a science, without any reference to hours of work or any fixed formula for its administration..." In 1970, he endowed the Morris Fishbein Center for the study of history of science and medicine at the University of Chicago. Folds and creases (not near signature). Otherwise in fine condition.