American Medical Biographies/Loomis, Alfred Lebbeus
Loomis, Alfred Lebbeus (1831–1895)
With little money and less health, Alfred Loomis began to practise in New York when only twenty-three. Tuberculosis had run rife in the family and on January 23, 1895, he himself died of it. His parents were Daniel and Eliza Beach Loomis and Alfred was born at Bennington, Vermont, on October 16, 1831, and had barely funds enough to carry him through Union College where he took his A. M. in 1856. He had his M. D. from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York in 1853. It was not long before he gave special attention to diseases of the chest, the art of auscultation and percussion, then developing rapidly, having great attractions for him. In 1864 want of money, the war, and a fire had brought the University of the City of New York to a very low ebb. Loomis brought all his energy as teacher and organizer to diagnose and heal its condition, with the result that the Loomis Laboratory was built and endowed, someone donating the sum of $100,000 through Dr. Loomis in 1886 for the building of the laboratory. He joined with Dr. Trudeau in making provision for impecunious consumptives and took keen interest in the Hospital in the Adirondacks.
He had great skill as a clinical teacher and anyone reading a "Clinical Lecture on Empyema," published in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, June 26, 1879, is impressed with the happy blending of questioning of the student and demonstration by physical signs.
His great talent lay in discriminating between the patient and the disease, looking beyond the morbid process to the man fighting with it for his life. During the three days he himself lay dying, all classes came to beg to do something for him, for few men had exerted so powerful an influence in so many directions.
Among his appointments were: professor of pathology and practice of medicine, University of the City of New York; physician, Bellevue Hospital; lecturer on physical diagnosis, College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York.
His chief written work was "Lessons in Physical Diagnosis," 1868; a volume on "The Diseases of the Respiratory Organs, Heart and Kidneys," 1876; "A Text-Book of Practical Medicine," 1884; besides papers contributed to leading medical journals.