Algernon Coolidge

Dr. Algernon Coolidgue was born in Boston, January 24, 1860.
He graduated from Harvard with the (degrees of A.B. in 1881 and of M.D. in 1886. He served as Surgical House Officer at the Massachusetts General Hospital, and began practice in Boston in 1888, specializing (diseases of the nose and throat.
Dr. Coolidge held a leading position in laryngology. At the
Massachusetts General Hospital he was assistant laryngologist from 1889 to 1892, laryngologist from 1892 to 1911, and chief of service in the department from 1911 until his retirement from active duty in 1920. At the Harvard -Medical School he successively held the positions of the clinical instructor in laryngology from 1893 to 1906. assistant professor from 1906 to 1911, a professor from 1911 to 1925 and professor emeritus after 1925.
During the period of activity in practice he contributed many
important articles to medical journals and was especially interested in the problem of the extraction of foreign bodies from the air passages.
He was the first in America to report the use of the bronchoscope.
His paper entitled "Removal of a Foreign Body from the Bronchial Tube Through the Tracheal Opening. Report of a Case" was published in the New Youk Medical Journal( on September 30. 1899. This was followed by, a number of other articles on the removal of foreign bodies from the air passages. Dr. Coolidge was also interested in
direct inspection and treatment of the esophagus and published several papers on this subject also. His book on Diseases of the Nose and Throat was published by W. B. Saunders Cu. in 1915.
Dr. Coolidge was elected to the Climatological in 1889 and became a life member in 1914. His record of 50 years in the Society exceeds that of any other member. He was 1lresident of the American Larvngologyical Association in 1908-09.
Following retirement from the staff of the Massachusetts General Hospital in 1920, Dr. Coolidge was made a member of the Board of Consultation. and in 1921 he was made a trustee. As a trustee. his long familiarity xvi the hospital and his sound judgment were of treat-value. with two other members of the board he made a study of hospitals for the insane and was especially helpful in the reorganization of the McLean Hospital and the establishment of the Department of Psychiatry at the Massachusetts General Hospital.
The holding of important positions sufficiently attests to the high esteem in which Dr. Coolidge was held by the medical profession.
His rare personal qualities endeared him to a large circle of friends. He was kindly, courteous, diligent and capable. His death on August 16, 1939. in his 80th year, terminated a life of long and untiring devotion to the relief of suffering from disease and the solution of the problems of a large and important general hospital.