Tributes 



the first congress for him and for me. It was a small congress ; so 

 far as I know there were only about 400 people present, and it was a 

 congress held in the most friendly spirit, which I am afraid cannot be 

 said of all later congresses. I remember that on the second day of the 

 congress we had a delightful river trip on the Neckar and in the evening 

 we all gathered together in the Stadthalle. Then it was suggested that 

 representatives of all the nations present should speak in their own 

 language in praise of Heidelberg, and that was done. Barcroft presented 

 several important papers on blood flow and metabolism of several 

 organs, but what did create a sensation was his demonstration of the 

 manometer for measuring the blood gases. Jt attracted the special 

 attention of Zuntz, the professor of physiology in the Berlin Veterinary 

 High School. He looked upon it with very great interest, and I remember 

 his voice very clearly : ' Das ist ja fur die Kliniker geradezu gef undenes 

 Fressen.' I am afraid Zuntz was not right there ; it was not nearly 

 simple enough for the clinic. Apart from that this manometer became 

 of great significance in physiology and biochemistry by itself and 

 through further developments. 



Barcroft and I met again a few days later in Zuntz's laboratory in 

 Berlin. We had to agree that Zuntz's methods were clumsy, but it 

 could not be denied that he had made an outstanding contribution to 

 the physiology of human work and that especially his book under the 

 curious title Hohenklima und Bergwanderungen, which no one would 

 suspect was a scientific book, was a beginning of the specific study of 

 high altitudes and at the same time of the scientific study of muscular 

 work. I believe it was on that occasion that the idea came of the high 

 altitude expedition to Teneriffe which was undertaken, I think, in 

 1909-10 in which Barcroft took part with Zuntz. Barcroft told me 

 somewhat later that this expedition was to a certain extent camouflage 

 for attempts on the part of the German government to establish strategic 

 points for use in war, but we were agreed that Zuntz could not have 

 been a party to such devices. Zuntz was an unusually lovable man, 

 but he was kept down severely by Rubner, who was the typical German 

 ' Geheimrat '. High altitude work was taken up in Denmark a few 

 years later by Hasselbalch and Lindhard and we had constructed in 

 Copenhagen the first really large chamber for low pressure work. At 

 that time we were in constant correspondence with Barcroft, and I 

 remember a letter from Barcroft to my friend Lindhard who spent 

 about a month in this chamber to study acclimatization to high alti- 

 tudes. The address was given as Monte Rosa, Rosenvanget, Copen- 

 hagen, because the pressure in the chamber corresponded almost 

 exactly to the pressure at Monte Rosa in the Alps. I am not going to 

 try and characterize Barcroft's scientific work. That will be done much 



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