Dr. Samuel A. Levine Dead at 75: Cardiologist Was Medical Innovator

Dr. Samuel A. Levine '11, clinical professor of Medicine, emeritus, died Thursday after a short illness. Dr. Levine was 75.

Dr Levine was the second American physician to diagnose coronary thrombosis, which he described in his book. Clinical Heart Disease. The disease became widely known through his early clinical' teaching. Dr. Levine also helped diagnose pernicious anemia.

Dr. Levine was an innovator in the treatment of coronary thrombosis patients. He substituted arm-chair recuperation for bed rest. He was one of the early users of the mechanical--electro-cardiograph to study heart patients, but he impressed upon his students the value of simple bedside methods of examination. He believed a physician should use the cardiogram to supplement his stethoscope.

Dr. Levine had been a staff physician at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital and was in consultant in cardiology there when he died. He was also affiliated with six other hospitals throughout the country.

Although he conducted research and wrote over 180 articles for medical journals. Dr. Levine concentrated on training heart specialists. After his release from the Army in 1919, he returned to Harvard as a member of the Medical School faculty. For 36 years he conducted a summer postgraduate course in cardiology.

In 1954, Harvard established the Samuel A. Levine Professorship with a gift from the late Charles E. Merrill of New York. Last year Peter Bent Brigham Hospital opened a cardiac center named after Dr. Levine. The center is an intensive care unit for heart disease patients.