Rufus King Noyes
From Philosopedia
Rufus King Noyes (Born 24 May 1853)
Noyes was born in Hampstead, New Hampshire, the son of a prosperous farmer. He graduated from Atkinson Academy in 1872 and received his medical degree from Dartmouth in 1875. As a house surgeon, he worked at Boston City Hospital, ranking first in his competitive exam and receiving a "hospital diploma" after 18 months. Practicing medicine and surgery in Boston, he was known for holding that diseases can be cured without alcoholic liquors and that diseases can be cured without using poisonous drugs. He was anti-vaccination.
"Dr. Noyes is a strong believer in nature, and is the author of the treatise entitled The Self-Curability of Diseases," according to Samuel Putnam's Four Hundred Years of Freethought (1894). He compiled the History of Medicine for the Last Four Thousand Years and The Science and Art of Ignorance; or, The Conspiracy of Christian Ministers, Press and Theologians Against Humanity.
Dr. Noyes described himself as a Materialist who found great satisfaction in the opinions of Haeckel, Darwin, and Spencer.
In 1906, he wrote Views on Religion (1906).
