Dan King (1791–1864) was an American

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

and early skeptical writer. King was born in

Mansfield, Connecticut Mansfield is a town in Tolland County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 25,892 at the 2020 census. Pequot and Mohegan people lived in this region for centuries before the arrival of English settler-immigrants in the late 17th cent ...

.Kelly, Howard Atwood; Burrage, Walter Lincoln. (1920). ''American Medical Biographies''. Norman, Remington Company. p. 660 He practiced medicine in

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the List of U.S. states by area, smallest U.S. state by area and the List of states and territories of the United States ...

and

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

until his retirement in 1859. King is most notable for his book ''Quackery Unmasked'' (1858) which heavily criticized

homeopathy Homeopathy or homoeopathy is a pseudoscientific system of alternative medicine. It was conceived in 1796 by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann. Its practitioners, called homeopaths, believe that a substance that causes symptoms of a dis ...

and other

alternative medicine Alternative medicine is any practice that aims to achieve the healing effects of medicine despite lacking biological plausibility, testability, repeatability, or evidence from clinical trials. Complementary medicine (CM), complementary and alt ...

claims.Hoolihan, Christopher. (2002). ''An Annotated Catalogue of the Edward C. Atwater Collection of American Popular Medicine and Health Reform: Volume I, A-L''. University of Rochester Press. p. 587. He was also critical of the use of

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

and published a book on its negative health effects.

Publications

''Spiritualism, an address to the Bristol County Medical Society''
(1857)
''Quackery Unmasked''
(1858)
''The life and times of Thomas Wilson Dorr, with outlines of the political history of Rhode Island''
(1859)
''Tobacco: What It Is, and What It Does''
(1861)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:King, Dan 1791 births 1864 deaths Physicians from Rhode Island American skeptics Critics of alternative medicine People from Mansfield, Connecticut