FISHBEIN, MORRIS

FISHBEIN, MORRIS (1889–1976), U.S. physician, editor, and author. Fishbein, who was born in St. Louis, Mo., received his M.D. from Rush Medical College in 1912. He edited the Journalof the American Medical Association from 1924 to 1949, and was editor and coeditor of numerous other journals. Fishbein built the Journal into the world's largest medical periodical. He was considered the official mouthpiece of U.S. medicine. Fishbein also edited numerous reports, pamphlets, and books and wrote daily health columns for various American newspapers. Fishbein, in the course of his career, was also a vigorous opponent of chiropractors and medical quacks and faddists. His books include Frontiers of Medicine (1933); Modern Home Medical Adviser (1935); Popular Medical Encyclopaedia (1946); History of the American Medical Association (1947); Medical Writing: The Technic and the Art (1938); New Advances in Medicine (1956); Modern Home Remedies and How to Use Them (1966). From 1960 Fishbein was editor of Medical World News, and also medical editor of Britannica Book of the Year. He wrote an autobiography, Morris Fishbein, M.D. (1969). -BIBLIOGRAPHY: S.R. Kagan, Jewish Contributions to Medicine in America (1939), 106–8. (Fred Rosner)