SKETCH OF DR. AUSTIN FLINT, Jr. 105 



in which cholestersemia has been produced in animals by injection of 

 cholesterine into the blood. 



In 1867, at the request of the Commissioners of Public Charities 

 and Correction of New York City, Dr. Flint reorganized the dietary 

 system for the institutions under their charge, including Bellevue Hos- 

 pital, Charity Hospital, Poorhouse, Workhouse, Penitentiary, etc., etc., 

 making diet-tables for more than 10,000 persons. In 1871 he made 

 observations upon Weston, the pedestrian, analyzing his food and 

 secretions for fifteen days before, during, and after one of his great 

 walking-exploits. These inquiries help to decide some important 

 physiological questions. 



In 1869 Dr. Flint published an elaborate review of the history of 

 the discovery of the motor and sensory properties of the roots of the 

 spinal nerves, in which the discovery was ascribed to Magendie in- 

 stead of to Sir Charles Bell, who has generally been regarded as its 

 author. This review, originally published in the Journal of Psycho- 

 logical Medicine, New York, in 1868, was translated into French, and 

 published in Robin's Journal de V anatomic It produced such an im- 

 pression that it was soon followed by the publication, in the English 

 Journal of Anatomy, of the original paper of Charles Bell, "Idea of 

 a New Anatomy of the Brain," which was privately printed (not pub- 

 lished) in 1811. The original manuscript was furnished to the Jour- 

 nal of Anatomy by the widow of Sir Charles Bell. It was upon this 

 paper that the claims of Charles Bell to the discovery were based ; 

 and, before its publication in the Journal of Anatomy, it had been 

 entirely inaccessible. 



Claude Bernard has been the eminent advocate of the theory that 

 the liver is a sugar-producing organ ; but observations upon this sub- 

 ject were discordant, and eminent physiologists contested Bernard's 

 position. In 1869 Dr. Flint published, in the New York Medical 

 Journal, a series of experiments upon the " glycogenic function of the 

 liver," in which he endeavored to harmonize the various conflicting 

 observations, and is considered by most physiologists to have settled 

 the question. 



In 1866 he announced the publication of the " Physiology of 

 Man," a work in five volumes, of 500 pages each, and the last volume 

 was issued in 1874. He printed a little work in 1870 on "Chemical 

 Examinations of Urine in Disease," which went through several edi- 

 tions. He contributed the articles on gymnastics and pugilism to the 

 "American Cyclopaedia," was appointed Surgeon-General of the State 

 of New York by Governor Tilden in 1874, and has recently published 

 a voluminous " Text-book of Human Physiology." He has also writ- 

 ten much for scientific periodicals and popular journals, and has been 

 actively engaged in his duties as a physiological teacher. 



