I9I4] S. J. Meltzer 347 



ecker was the inventor of this method) ; the extensive studies (with 

 his collaborators) on the physiology of deglutition; the discovery 

 of a coördinating center in the heart. I wish to record here the fact 

 that Kronecker had an essential share in the development of the 

 dinically important methods of studying blood pressure in human 

 beings. The first human sphygmomanometric studies are usually 

 ascribed to Von Basch, but Von Basch carried out these studies in 

 Kronecker's laboratory and under his direction and assistance. I 

 can testify to that as an eye-witness. 



During his long stay in Berne a great many physiological sub- 

 jects were investigated in conjunction with advanced co-workers or 

 students. The results were usually published under the name of 

 the co-workers. In the last years of his life he was intensely inter- 

 ested in experiments which could throw light upon the origin of the 

 heart beat ; he was a firm believer in the neurogenic theory. 



A subject in which he took a great interest in the last two decades 

 of his life was the nature and origin of mountain disease. The Swiss 

 government, before granting permission to build the now famous 

 Jungfrau railroad, asked Kronecker to pass an opinion, whether 

 going up a high mountain in a railway would be accompanied by 

 mountain disease and other disturbances of health. This gave rise 

 to numerous studies connected with this question, Kronecker organ- 

 ized a party of sixty, who ascended the Zermat Breithom; some of 

 the party were carried up, in order to eliminate muscular action. 

 Circulation, respiration and other functions were then investigated. 

 The problem was also studied in pneumatic Chambers with lowered 

 atmospheric pressure. Kronecker came to the conclusion that the 

 Syndrome of mountain disease was primarily due to mechanical 

 causes — to a stasis in the intrapulmonary veins brought about by 

 rarification of the air in higher altitudes. Kronecker's publications 

 gave rise to many international studies which caused the Italian 

 physiologist Mosso, with the aid of Kronecker, to establish an inter- 

 national institute on Monte Rosa for the study of physiological phe- 

 nomena in the mountains. 



Kronecker was a master in physiological methods. He invented 

 many Instruments which found a permanent place in the methods of 

 experimental physiology of which I shall mention here only his 



