Daniel Webster Hering (23 March 1850 – 24 March 1938) was an American physicist and university dean.

Biography

Hering was born near Smithburg in Washington County, Maryland, and graduated from the Sheffield Scientific School ( Yale) with a Ph.B. in 1872. He occupied positions at Johns Hopkins University, McDaniel College (then Western Maryland College), the University of Pittsburgh (then the Western University of Pennsylvania), and New York University, where he was dean after 1902. He was the author of ''Essentials of Physics for College Students'' (1912). Hering is credited with taking the first human x-ray in the United States on February 5, 1896, at Bellevue Hospital.

''Foibles and Fallacies of Science''

Hering's work ''Foibles and Fallacies of Science'' (1924) is considered one of the key original texts on matters concerning pseudoscience. The book was positively reviewed in the '' Nature'' journal as containing much "curious and interesting information." The book covered alchemy, astrology,

divination Divination (from Latin ''divinare'', 'to foresee, to foretell, to predict, to prophesy') is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic, standardized process or ritual. Used in various forms throughout histor ...

, prophecies,

perpetual motion Perpetual motion is the motion of bodies that continues forever in an unperturbed system. A perpetual motion machine is a hypothetical machine that can do work infinitely without an external energy source. This kind of machine is impossible, a ...

devices,

hoax A hoax is a widely publicized falsehood so fashioned as to invite reflexive, unthinking acceptance by the greatest number of people of the most varied social identities and of the highest possible social pretensions to gull its victims into pu ...

es and quackery. A review in the '' Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences'' described it as a "serious study of pseudoscience" intended for the "layman in science and the professional student to whom we can highly recommend it." Hering was one of the original citations for Martin Gardner in his work '' Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science'' in which it is argued that he founded the modern scientific skepticism movement. Martin Gardner. (1957). '' Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science''. Dover Publications. p. 8.

Selected publications

''Essentials of Physics for College Students''
(1912, 1921) *''Physics: The Science of the Forces of Nature'' (1922)
''Foibles and Fallacies Of Science''
(1924)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hering, Daniel Webster 1850 births 1938 deaths American skeptics American physicists Critics of parapsychology People from Washington County, Maryland Rationalists Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science alumni Johns Hopkins University faculty University of Pittsburgh faculty New York University faculty