Robert Means Lawrence

Robert Means Lawrence (1847-1935) was an American physician and writer, born and died in Boston. He took his M.D. at Harvard in 1873, worked as a physician at the Boston Dispensary, and served as assistant surgeon of the First Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers from 1877 to 1882. In later life he wrote on folklore, superstition, genealogy and New England local history. He is best remembered for The Magic of the Horse-Shoe (1898) and Primitive Psycho-Therapy and Quackery (1910), alongside later volumes such as Old Park Street and Its Vicinity (1922) and New England Colonial Life (1927).