ACADEMY OF SCIENCE] BIOGRAPHY 3 



papers contain contributions to the subjects of physiology, pharmacology, pathology, and 

 clinical medicine, in addition to a number of lectures and general addresses. It is a striking 

 demonstration of the breadth of his interests and knowledge that he was recognized as a com- 

 petent and indeed leading investigator in all of these subjects. Physiology was the subject in 

 which he was most deeply interested and in which he had the most intensive training as an 

 investigator, and his contributions to the other medical sciences were made mostly from the 

 point of view of the physiologist. His practical knowledge of clinical medicine and his extensive 

 and thorough acquaintance with its literature gave him the opportunity to realize how often 

 the results of physiology, as a basal medical science, may be applied with profit to throw light 

 upon the problems of all other branches of the subject. 



The professional physiologist is usually out of touch with the problems of the practitioner, 

 and hence he fails often to realize how useful the new results in his science may be to bis coworkers 

 on the practical side. Once in a while we have active practitioners who at the same time are 

 competent investigators in one or other of the underlying medical sciences. Such men serve 

 as liaison officers capable of bringing about rapidly a mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge, 

 which otherwise would develop only slowly through many intermediate agencies. Weir Mitchell 

 and Meltzer are perhaps the two most conspicuous examples in this country of this advan- 

 tageous combination in one individual of practical and scientific knowledge in medicine. In 

 Weir Mitchell's generation it was perhaps less difficult to play this dual role, since the medical 

 sciences had not become such highly developed specialties. In Meltzer's generation the task 

 was more difficult, and he was able to carry it through with success only because of bis unre- 

 mitting devotion, his remarkable capacity for work, and his excellent training in the theoretical 

 and practical sides of medicine. While he made important contributions to the fundamental 

 problems of physiology, it may be said with truth that his special field of work lay in the 

 borderland between medical practice and medical science. He was in sympathetic touch with 

 the workers in both fields, he pubhshed papers in the theoretical and the practical journals, 

 and he enjoyed the acquaintance and confidence of the leaders on both sides. No one perhaps 

 in the generation now passing was more influential in bringing about a sympathetic under- 

 standing and coordination between the laboratory worker and the practitioner. To the latter 

 he preached without ceasing the importance and necessity of scientific investigation, and the 

 former he kept continually reminding of the possible application of scientific results to the 

 explanation or cure of disease. As a consequence of this somewhat unique position which he 

 held in the medical profession of this country we find that he was an active member of many 

 of the important medical societies, both clinical and scientific, and indeed he was immediately 

 concerned in the formation of some, particularly those whose chief function was to bring the 

 results of scientific investigation to bear upon the problems of the clinician. In further con- 

 firmation of this view, that he served in a special way to link up the practical and theoretical 

 workers in medicine, attention may be called to the fact that at various times he served as 

 president of the American Physiological Society, the Society for Experimental Biology and 

 Medicine, the American Gastroenterological Society, the American Society for the Advance- 

 ment of Clinical Research, the Association of American Physicians, and the American Associa- 

 tion for Thoracic Surgery. In this list are represented some of the societies that stand mainly 

 for research, together with associations that are composed mainly of active clinicians. That 

 he was elected to the presidency by the votes of his fellow members is a clear enough demon- 

 stration that he stood high in the esteem of both groups of workers in medicine. It is not 

 probable that he will have a successor in this unique position. While his activities covered this 

 large range, his training primardy was that of a physiologist. It was from this standpoint that 

 he worked and investigated, and his contributions to this subject entitle him to be ranked among 

 the foremost physiologists of his generation. It seems appropriate, therefore, to attempt to 

 give a critical estimate of the major contributions at least that he made to physiology. His 

 papers in this field are so numerous and cover such a variety of topics that it is not possible to 

 bring them all under review. 



