Antônio da Silva Mello | |
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| Born | (1886-05-10)May 10, 1886 |
| Died | September 19, 1973(1973-09-19) (aged 87) |
| Occupation(s) | Physician, writer |
Antônio da Silva Mello (May 10, 1886 – September 19, 1973), best known asA. da Silva Mello was a Brazilianphysician and writer.[1]
Mello was born inJuiz de Fora. He studied at the Granbery Institute and then joined the Medical School ofRio de Janeiro, where he attended until the third year, when he moved toBerlin, graduating in 1914. He specialized in clinical medicine, publishing scientific papers on the subject. He wrote onepidemiology,immunity,metabolism,nephrology,nutrition andpsychology.[2]
In 1918 he returned to Brazil, he was a professor at the Faculty of Medicine of Rio de Janeiro.[3] He held courses for physicians and students at the Policlínica de Botafogo andSanta Casa de Misericórdia.
In 1944 he founded theBrazilian Journal of Medicine, of which he was scientific director until 1973. Mello was a member of theAcademia Brasileira de Letras and theBrazilian Academy of Medicine. He identified as anagnostic.[2]
Mello was a friend of psychiatristRudolf Dreikurs who was impressed by his research on mental health.[4]
Mello was the author of theskeptical bookMistérios e Realidades Deste e do Outro Mundo published in Brazil in 1950. It was translated into English by M. B. Fierz and published asMysteries and Realities of This World and the Next byWeidenfeld & Nicolson in 1960.[5] He examined case studies offaith healing, hypnosis,parapsychology andspiritualism. He discovered much credulity, deception and exaggeration. According to a review it is a "very interesting and provocative work... [Mello] disbelieves in the reality of paranormal phenomena and thinks that all can be explained in terms of the known. In his view psychical researchers are both credulous and gullible and are to be blamed for pandering to human superstition and the widespread hunger for the occult."[6]
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