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sicians and surgeons in 1853. He then became assistant physician to the hospitals on Ward's and Blackwell's islands, but after two years established himself in general practice in New York city, giving special attention to the treatment of pul- monary diseases, in which branch of medical science he has acquired a national reputation. He became visiting physician to Bellevue hospital in 1860. and in 1874 to the Mount Sinai hospital, which appointments he continued to hold, and he was also consulting physician to the Charity hos- pital on Blackwell's island in 1860-'75. Dr. Loomis was lecturer on physical diagnosis in the College of physicians and surgeons in 1862-'5, and was then made adjunct professor of theory and practice of medicine in the University of New York. In 1867 he became professor of pathology and practice of medicine in the same institution, in which chair he continued. An unknown friend of the university gave through Dr. Loomis in 1886 the sum of $100,000 to the medical department, to build and equip the Loomis laboratory, which it is intended to make the finest of its kind in the United States. He was a member of medical societies both in the United States and Europe, and was president of the New York pathological society, also of the New York state medical society. Besides occasional contributions to current litera- ture, he published " Lessons in Physical Diagnosis " (New York, 1868); -'Diseases of the Respiratory Organs, Heart, and Kidneys " (1876) ; " Lectures on "Fevers " (1882) ; " Diseases of Old Age " (1883) ; and "A Text-Book of Practical IMedicine" (1884). Vide " In Memoriam " (New York. 189o).

LOOMIS, Arphaxed, lawyer, b. in Winchester, Conn., 9 April. 1798; d. in Little Falls, N. Y., 15 Sept.. 1885. Early in life he accompanied his family to Herkimer county, N. Y., and worked on the home farm till he was fourteen years old. when his father hired him out as teacher of a district school. After teaching and studying law in Watertown and Saekett's Harbor, he was admitted to the bar, and practised in the latter place till 1827, when he removed to Little Falls, N. Y. He was county judge and surrogate from 1827 till 1837, first judge in 1835-40, and in 1837-'9 sat in congress, having been chosen as a Democrat. He was a member of the New York assembly in 1841, and of the State constitutional convention in 1846. and a commissioner to revise the code of practice in 1847 with Nicholas Hill and David Graham. Mr. Hill shortly afterward resigned and was re- placed by David Dudley Field. • The committee reported a code of procedure, which went into op- eration in 1848. In 1842, as chairman of the as- sembly judiciary committee. Judge Loomis had prepared a " bill to improve the administration of justice," and his interest in law reform continued from this time. Judge Loomis was an able public speaker and wrote much for the press on political subjects. He published in pamphlet-form a " His- toric Sketch of the New York System of Law Re- form " (Little Falls, N. Y., 1879).

LOOMIS, Dwight, lawyer, b. in Columbia, Conn., 27 July, 1821. He studied law in New Haven, and was admitted to the bar in 1847. Set- tling in Rockville. Conn., he followed his profes- sion there until 1851, when he was elected to the Connecticut legislature. In 1856 he served as a delegate at the People's convention held in Phila- delphia, and in 1857 was sent to the state senate. He was elected as a Republican to the United States house of representatives, and served from 5 Dec, 1859, till 3 March, 1863. In 1864 he was appointed a judge of the superior court of Connecticut, and in 1875 was advanced to the supreme court, where he has since remained.

LOOMIS, EHas, physicist, b. in Willington, Conn., 7 Aug., 1811; d. in New Haven. Conn., 15 Aug., 1889. He was graduated at Yale in 1830, where in 1833-6 he held the office of tutor. In No- vember, 1834, for two weeks, from 4 to 6 a. m.. with Alexander C. Twining, of West Point, he made ob- servations for de- termining the alti- tude of shooting- stars. These are be- lieved to have been the first concerted observations of this kind made in the United States. For fourteen months, in 1834- '5. he made hourly observations from 5 or 6 A. m. till 10 p. M. of the declination of the magnetic needle. He was the first

person in this country to discover Halley's comet on its

return to perihelion in 1835, and he computed the elements of its orbit from his own observations. In 1836-7 he spent a year in Paris attending the lectures of Arago." Biot, Dulong, Poisson, Pouillet, and others. On his return he became professor of mathematics and natural philosophy in Western Reserve college, Ohio, where he re- mained until 1844, making diligent use of the philosophical and meteorological instruments that he had purchased in Europe. Prof. Loomis ob- served during these years 260 moon culminations for longitude, 69 culminations of Polaris for lati- tude, 16 occultations of stars, and made a series of observations upon five comets, sufficiently extended to determine their orbits. He also observed the dip of the magnetic needle at over 70 stations, spread over 13 states, extending from the Atlantic to the Mississippi river. In 1844 he became professor of natural philosophy in the University of the city of New York, which chair he continiied to fill until 1860. During this period he prepared a series of text-books embracing the entire range of mathematical subjects that are taught in high-schools and colleges, and they were subsequently extended to embrace natural philosophy, astronomy, and meteorology. This series attained an aggregate circulation of more than 500,000 copies; his treatise on astronomy has been used as a text-book in England ; that on analytical geometry and calculus translated into Chinese; and his "Meteorology " into Arabic. A part of his time between 1846 and 1849 was employed in telegraphic comparisons for longitude with Sears C. Walker. The difference in longitude between New York and Washington was determined in 1847, that between New York and Cambridge, Mass., in 1848, and the difference between Philadelphia and the observatory in Hudson, Oliio, in 1849. In the two former comparisons Prof. Loomis had charge of the observations in New York, and in the latter comparison he had charge of those in Hudson. The first observations by which the velocity of the electric fiuid on telegraph-wires was determined were made on 23 Jan., 1849, between Washington, Philadelphia, New York, and Cambridge, under the direction of Sears C. Walker, a clock in Philadelphia being employed to break the electric cir-