A propounder of the fantastic theory positing that the whole universe was contained in the hollow of Earth. Humans, along with all the plants and animals, were thought to be living on the inner surface of the shell. When we are observing the cosmos, we are not looking upward and outward but inwards.
Teed was born on a farm in Delaware County, New York, and in his youth was a devout Baptist. Following service in the Union Army during the Civil War, he attended the New York Eclectic Medical College, and established a practice in Utica, New York.