186 HENKY PICKEKING BOWDITCH— CANNON. m ™°™v£™vi£ 



work of reforming medical education. " His uncle had warned him to be cautious about accept- 

 ing a subordinate position and to insist on his "rights. " But young Bowditch accepted without 

 conditions, explaining, " on general principle I think it is best to take it for granted that people 

 are going to do the right tiling." 



In August he put together in an "essay" the results of the year's investigation and handed 

 it to Prof. Ludwig, "who seemed quite well pleased with it." A few days later he left Leipzig, 

 Ludwig accompanying him to the station, seeing him into the care, and kissing him "very af- 

 fectionately" on taking leave of him. Thus ended an experience which had a profound effect 

 on Bowditch's scientific interests, and which did much to impress on him and his American 

 students the methods and standards of the Leipzig school. 



From Leipzig Bowditch went to Oberammergau to witness the Passion Play. He was 

 accompanied by his Russian colleague, Usthnowitsch, and by Miss Selma Knauth and her 

 mother, Leipzig friends whom he had known for many months and at whose house he and other 

 American students had received a delightful hospitality. He intended to proceed from Oberam- 

 mergau to Munich " and from there straight to Paris," but on August 16, at Munich, he became 

 engaged to Miss Knauth and his plans were changed. On September 9, at Leipzig, with Usti- 

 mowitsch as groomsman, he was married, and on September 14 he and his wife sailed from 

 Liverpool for the United States. 



So many and so varied were Dr. Bowditch's activities during the years of his service in 

 Boston that it will be impossible to give a clear chronological account of them. Instead, the 

 various aspects of his labors will be dealt with separatqfy. 



SERVICES TO PHYSIOLOGY. 



On his return to Boston there was no physiological laboratory for Bowditch to work in. 

 The rooms in the old Medical School Building on North Grove Street were crowded. Two 

 small rooms in the attic were made over, however, and in them was placed the apparatus 

 which had been brought back from Germany. This was the first physiological laboratory for 

 the use of students in the United States. 



These rooms might perhaps be better designated the first laboratory for experimental 

 medicine established in this country, for every phase of experimental medical work was repre- 

 sented there within a few years after its establishment. Charles S. Minot carried on investi- 

 gations in general biology, J. Ott and R. W. Lovett in experimental pharmacology, J. C. Warren 

 in experimental pathology, G. Stanley Hall and W. F. Southard in experimental psychology, 

 O. K. Newall in experimental surgery, and W. P. Lombard, J. J. Putnam (assisted by William 

 James), C. S. Minot, G. M. Garland, C. H. Williams, J. W. Warren, F. H. Hooper, and F. W. 

 Ellis in physiological researches. The hospitality of the laboratory was unbounded; indeed, 

 some of the first careful work on bacterial cultures in this country was done there by H. C. 

 Ernst. With Dr. Bowditch's enthusiasm and inspiration almost every scientific interest of a 

 complete modern medical school was stimulated. From the start the emphasis was on pro- 

 ductive scholarship. In the preface to the first collection of papers published from the labora- 

 tory the announcement was made that the contributions were presented in a volume, "not from 

 any exaggerated idea of their value and importance, but with the hope that by calling attention 

 to the facilities offered in the laboratory for original research a greater number of workers may 

 be encouraged to attempt the investigation of the many physiological problems now pressing 

 for a solution." 



The Leipzig Laboratory was characterized by the simultaneous pursuit of a variety of 

 problems. It was characterized also by the attempt to explain physiological facts in physical 

 terms and by the use of physical methods. Thus Dr. Bowditch had come to know "the many 

 physiological problems" and had learned ways of attacking them. The employment of physical 

 apparatus gave play to bis inventive faculties. As already noted, one of the first things he did 

 at Leipzig was the contriving of records of time and stimulation periods on the kymograph to 

 accompany the physiological tracing — a device said to have first directed Ludwig's attention to 



