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Dr. LOEB, LEO, M.D. (September 21, l869-December28, 1959), Pathologist, Experimental Biologist, and Cancer Researcher, by Franklin Parker, bfparker@frontiernet

LOEB, LEO (September 21, l869-December28, 1959), pathologist, experimental biologist, and cancer researcher; born in Mayen, near Koblenz, Germany, the son of Benedict Loeb, a prosperous businessman, and Barbara (Isay) Loeb.

His mother died when he was three; his father died of tuberculosis when he was six.  His older brother, Jacques (1859-1924), took him to live with their maternal grandfather in Trier, Germany, where he attended the gymnasium, 1875-79.  After age 10 he lived with a maternal aunt, wife of a professor of medieval German history, University of Berlin (their daughter later married Albert Schweitzer,1875-1965).

Despite tubercular periods in health resorts, Leo attended Askanische Gymnasium, Berlin; then  gymnasiums in Durkheim and Heidelberg. He entered Heidelberg University, 1989; attended Freiberg University lectures by August Weismann (1834-1914), and spent a semester each at the universities of Berlin and Basel, Switzerland, the last studying under biochemist Gustav von Bunge (1844-1920) and physiologist Johann Friedrich Miescher (1844-1895).

Disliking German nationalism and militarism, he studied premedicine at the University of Zurich, 1890-92; did clinical work at the University of Edinburgh and at London Hospital;  returned to Zurich in1895, passed the Swiss state medical examination, and completed an M.D. dissertation (1897) under pathologist Hugo Ribbert (1855-1920), writing on the results of skin transplantation on guinea pigs.

He visited his brother Jacques Loeb, University of Chicago physiologist, in 1892 and 1894 at Woods Hole, Mass.  Attracted by opportunities for biological research, Leo immigrated to Chicago in 1897, briefly practiced medicine near the University of Chicago (he was physician to John Dewey’s experimental laboratory school), then was adjunct professor of pathology at Rush Medical College, 1900-02, while doing experimental research in a rented room behind a drugstore.  He became a naturalized citizen in 1902.

He continued his experiments for a few months at the Johns Hopkins University Medical School Pathology Department. He accepted a research fellowship during 1902-03 at McGill University under John George Adami (1862-1926).  He became assistant professor of experimental pathology, University of Pennsylvania, 1904-10.  In 1910 he moved permanently to St. Louis, MO, first as director, pathological laboratory, Barnard Skin and Cancer Hospital (1910-15); then as professor of comparative pathology at Washington University School of Medicine, 1915-1924; and finally as Mallinckrodt Professor of Pathology, 1924-37.

On retiring in 1937, he continued as research professor emeritus, Oscar Johnson Institute, 1937-41,  doing  laboratory research until 1950, when he stopped at age 81 because of severe tuberculosis.

On January 3, 1922, at the age of 53, he married physician Georgiana Sands, a physician’s daughter, in Port Chester, New York.  They had no children.  He died in St. Louis on December 28, 1959.

His honors included: President, Society of Cancer Research,19ll; President, American Association of Pathologists and Bacteriologists, 1914-15; the American College of Physicians’ John Phillips Memorial Medal Award, 1935; the Phi Beta Pi Medical Fraternity Annual Lectureship in his name at Washington University,1937; an honorary Doctor of Science degree from Washington University, 1948; and dedication to him of the December 1950 issue of the <i>American Medical Association’s Archives of Pathology</i>,  containing a full bibliography of his over 400 published writings.

Dr. Peyton Rous (1879-1970) called Leo Loeb “a founder of experimental cancer research.”  With collaborator Miss A.E.C. Lathrop he demonstrated hereditary factors in cancerous mice and the effects of estrogen on the origin of cancerous tumors in mice.

With collaborator Mayer Fleisher he found that neoplastic cells treated with colloidal copper led to resistant strains in cancerous mice.  He also did research on tissue culture, transplantation, the pathology of circulation, internal secretions, venom of Heloderma, and the analysis of experimental amoebocyte tissue.

His biographer, Ernest William Goodpasture (1886-1960), wrote that while Loeb did not perfect in vitro cell culture, “he conceptually paved the way.”

<u>Bibliography</u>

Leo Loeb’s major books are (with M. S. Fleisher), <i>The Venom of Heloderma</i>, Carnegie Publication No. 177, Washington, D.C., 1913; <i>Edema</i>, Baltimore, 1924; and <i>The Biological Basis of Individuality</i>, Springfield, Ill., 1945. His “Autobiographical Notes,” <i>Perspectives in Biology and Medicine</i>, 2, No. 1 (Autumn 1958), pp. 1-23; was reprinted in “Leo Loeb, M.D.: Some Personal and Professional History and Philosophy,” <i>A Dozen Doctors: Autobiographical Sketches</i>, edited by Dwight J. Ingle, Chicago:  University of Chicago Press, 1963, pp. 86-108.

Philip A. Shaffer, “Biographical Notes on Dr. Leo Loeb,” <i>Archives of Pathology</i> (Chicago), 50, No. 6 (December 1950), pp. 661-675, is followed by “Bibliography of Writings of Dr. Leo Loeb From 1896 to 1949″ (over 400 entries). The entire issue is dedicated to Leo Loeb.

Obituaries and biographical sketches are in <i>New York Times</i> (December 30, 1959), p. 21; Ernest W. Goodpasture, “Leo Loeb, September 21, 1869-December 28, 1959,” <i>Biographical Memoirs, National Academy of Sciences</i>, 35 (1961), pp. 205-219; W. Stanley Hartroft, “Leo Loeb, 1869-1959,” <i>Archives of Pathology</i> (Chicago), 70, No. 2 (August 1960), pp. 269-274; George W. Corner, “Loeb, Leo,” <i>Dictionary of American Biography</i>, Supplement Six 1956-1960, edited by John A. Garraty,  New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1980, pp. 385-387; Franklin Parker, “Loeb, Leo,” <i>Dictionary of Scientific Biography</i>, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1973, Volume VIII, pp. 447-448; Marion Hunt, “Loeb, Leo,” <i>Dictionary of American Medical Biography</i>, edited by Martin Kaufman, et al., Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1984, Volume I, A-L, p. 452-453; “Loeb, Leo,” <i>Oxford Companion to Medicine</i>, edited by John Walton, et al., New York: Oxford University Press, 1986, Volume I, A-M,  p. 678; “Loeb, Leo,” <i>Index to Scientists of the World From Ancient to Modern Times</i>, by Norma Olin Ireland, Boston: F.W. Faxon Co., 1962, p. 386; “Loeb, Leo,” <i>Encyclopedia of Medical Sources</i>, by Emerson Crosby Kelly, Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins Co., 1948, p. 258; L. P. Rubin, “Leo Loeb’s Role in the Development of Tissue Culture,” <i>Clio Medica</i> 12 (1977), pp. 33-56; Herman T. Blumenthal, “Leo Loeb, Experimental Pathologist and Humanitarian,” <i>Science</i> 131, No. 3404 (March 25, 1960), pp. 907-908; “Loeb, Leo,” <i>Who Was Who in America</i>, Chicago: A.N. Marquis Co., 1960. Volume 3, p. 527; “LOEB, Leo,” <i>The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography</i>, New York: James T. White & Co., 1962, Volumbe 44, pp. 522-523; “The Weakness,” <i>Time</i>, Volume 57, No. 2 (January 8, 195l), pp. 32, 34; obituary, <i>Time</i>, Volume 75, No. 2 (January 11, 1960), p. 66.

End of Manuscript.  Email corrections and questions to:  bfparker@frontiernet.net

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