6 SAMUEL JAMES MELTZER— HOWELL [toMO,M [voExxY; 



written in collaboration with his daughter, Mrs. Auer, "On the paradoxical pupil-dilation caused 

 by adrenalin" (American Journal of Physiology, 1904, Vol. XI, page 40). He believed that this 

 process of "contrary innervation" is practically universal in its action; it is "manifest in all the 

 functions of the animal body." As was his custom with all of his theoretical conclusions, he 

 attempted to apply this law to the explanation of some of the pathological phenomena that were 

 presented to him in his practical work as a physician. As he expresses it, " a disturbance of this 

 law is a factor of more or less importance in the pathogenesis of many disorders and diseases of 

 the animal body," and he illustrates his meaning by a specific application to gastric and intestinal 

 colic. If we could imagine that the orderly sequence of a peristaltic wave is disturbed so that the 

 advancing wave of contraction meets a constricted instead of an inhibited area, then evidently 

 conditions are present which may cause distension and give rise to the pains of colic. Other 

 instances of a similar character, cardio spasms, biliary obstructions, etc., are cited to show that 

 known pathological results may follow from a disturbance of or a disharmony in the normal 

 process of contrary innervation. How far Doctor Meltzer was correct in these concrete applica- 

 tions of his theory it is not possible to say. Some of the cases he uses are undoubtedly amenable 

 to other explanations; but in his general conception of the importance of the inhibitory proc- 

 esses in the functional activity of the organs he was in advance of most of his contemporaries, 

 and he deserves credit for keeping this more or less hidden side of vital activity in the forefront 

 of physiological discussions. The whole story is far from being told, and it may be that later 

 work will demonstrate that he saw deeper into the processes of life than his fellow workers have 

 done. Certainly so far as the effect upon himself was concerned it was a rewarding and stim- 

 ulating theory. It played, as he expressed it, a dominating part in all of his researches. Thus 

 his explanation of the mysterious condition of surgical shock, to which he held tenaciously in the 

 face of all opposing criticisms, was that " the various injuries which are capable of bringing on 

 shock do so by favoring the development of the inhibitory side of all the functions of the body," 

 or to express it in a figurative way, the normal balance of the opposing processes is shifted toward 

 the side of inhibition. 



In all of his experimental work Meltzer was very exact and objective in describing his 

 results. In fact he entered into the minute details of his observations with a thoroughness 

 that was probably derived from his German training. On the other hand, it is evident from 

 what has been said of his views upon inhibition that he had a marked tendency to theorize or 

 speculate upon the basis of his findings. He was not content to simply catalogue his observa- 

 tions and publish them as isolated facts which somehow would find their place in the growing 

 structure of science. They were for him the subject of much reflection. He regarded them 

 as revelations of the processes of the body which he must try to interpret, and his genuinely 

 scientific mind was constantly seeking to formulate general theories to fit or to embrace the 

 facts that were disclosed by his experiments. Nothing seemed to give him greater pleasure 

 than to discuss these theoretical possibilities with his fellow workers, and from many conversa- 

 tions of this kind which it was my good fortune to enjoy I got always the impression of a mind 

 constantly on the alert to understand and interpret his results and full of a certain eager expects 

 ancy of discoveries of importance. His theories and generalizations in turn supphed him with 

 the interest and energy to devise new work, so that throughout his long career there was never 

 any lack of problems to be attacked nor any diminution in enthusiasm for research. Young 

 scientific workers are sometimes warned by their older associates against the dangers of specu- 

 lation; and while this advice may be wise as regards the written word, there can be little doubt 

 that an original and constructive mind must react in this way. Reflection and speculation 

 are essential in keeping alive a spirit of investigation. When the proper time came Meltzer 

 did not hesitate to announce his theoretical views in published papers or addresses. Some of 

 them were effective in guiding and stimulating other workers beside himself, and some were 

 so bold and far-reaching that only the future can determine whether they will be fruitful or 

 barren. The work, for instance, which he began with Welch in 1884 upon the effect of mechani- 

 cal vibration upon bacteria, red corpuscles, and other cells, and to which he returned from time 

 to time in his laboratory investigations, led him to believe and announce that a certain rate 



