Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/721

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LEVIS 699 LEWIS man General Hospital, in honor of the man who did so much for the medical department of the army. A Review of the Life and Work of Jonathan Letterman, M.D., Joseph T. Smith, M.D., Bull. Johns Hopkins Hosp., Aug., 1916, 243-247. Jour, of the Military Service Institution, B. A. Clements, 1883. Levis, Richard J. (1827-1890) Richard J. Levis, the son of Dr. Mahlon M. Levis, was born June 28, 1827, in Philadel- phia, graduated from the Central High School, and in 1848 from Jefferson Medical College, studying also with Professor Thomas D. Miit- ter. He settled in Philadelphia and attained a high reputation as a general and ophthalmic surgeon. In 1859 he was elected surgeon to the Philadelphia Hospital and in 1871 to the Pennsylvania Hospital, where he served until 1887. He was also an attending surgeon at Wills Eye Hospital. During the Civil War he was surgeon-in-chief to the two United States military hospitals in Philadelphia. A skilful ophthalmic surgeon, he introduced the well-known wire loop still used in certain cases of extraction of cataract. Dr. S. D. Gross speaks of the ,spatha invented by Dr. Levis as "a contrivance of great power, well adapt- ed to the reduction of dislocations of the thumb and fingers." For many years he was clinical lecturer on ophthalmic and aural surgery at Jefferson Medical College and also took up active work at Jefferson Hospital. Dr. Levis was the first president of the board of trustees of the Phil- adelphia Polyclinic and College for Graduates of Medicine, and one of the original mem- bers of the faculty, being professor of clinical and operative surgery. He was one of the original members of the American Surgical Association and an active member of the Philadelphia County Medical Society. He died at Cedarcroft, Pennsylvania, No- vember 12, 1890. History of the Pennsylvania Hospital, T. G. Mor- ton and F. Woodbury, Phila., 1895. A Century of Amer. Med., S. D. Gross, Phila., 1870, p. 154. Trans. .mer. Surg. Asso., 1891, vr.l. ix. p. 24. (J. B. R.) Univ. Med. Mag., Phila., 1890-91, vol. iii. p. 150. Lewis, Dio (1823-1886) Dio Lewis, homcopathist, medical reformer, and pioneer physical culturist, was born in Auburn, New York, March 3, 1823. He stud- ied medicine at the Harvard medical school, adopted homeopathy and went to Buffalo, where he practised for several years and edit- ed a medical magazine in which he decried the use of drugs, and advocated physical exer- cise as a part of public education. From 1852 to 1863 he engaged in lecturing on hygiene and physiolog}', settling in Boston in 1863, and founding the Boston Normal Physical Training School, from which five hundred pupils grad- uated in seven years. He was one of the leaders in establishing physical culture in in- stitutions of learning in the United States. In 1864 he established a school for young wo- men on hygienic principles in Lexington, Massa- chusetts, which was burned in 1868, when he resumed lecturing on hygiene and temperance, and originated the women's temperance cru- sade in Ohio. He edited "Today," "Dio Lew- is Nuggets," and "The Dio Lewis Treasury," and published many pamphlets and papers in magazines, writing "New Gymnastics" (1862) ; "Weak Lungs and how to make them Strong" (1863); "Talks About People's Stomachs" (1870); "Chats with young Women" (1871). Dr. Lewis had a compelling personality and profoundly influenced a large number of peo- ple in America by his teaching at a time when the nation was devoting itself more and more to sedentary pursuits and the need of physi- cal e.xercise had not become recognized. He died in Yonkers, New York, May 21, 1886. Appleton's Cyclop. Amer. Biog., N. Y., 1888. Lewis, Eldad ( -1825) Eldad Lewis of Lenox, Massachusetts, had a reputation for eloquence, wherefore he be- came the first orator of the Berkshire Medical Society in 1787. His oration on "The Useful- ness of Medical Societies," delivered before the fourteen members of the Medical Asso- ciation of the County of Berkshire, gathered at Mr. Bingham's in Stockbridge on the twelfth of June, 1787, was carefully recorded by vote in the old record book of that so- ciety. After lamenting the lack of medical schools, hospitals and opportunities to study medicine in this country. Dr. Lewis says : "A society of physicians united upon liberal prin- ciples offers a fine opportunity for improve- ment from the communications of the several members ; important incidents occurring in private practice will by this means be rescued from oblivion, talents will be stimulated to exercise, Avhich otherwise might forever have lain dormant and useless, or there will be the greatest and most noble excitements to a laudable emulation and industry. Opportuni- ties also will often present of habituating our- selves to observe accurately, to think justly, to reason truly and analogically and judge with precision." Dr. Lewis hoped that the "association" might control the quacks, at that time a great menace to the community. He said: "It will undoubtedly be in our power.