HENRY PICKERING BOAVDITCH. 741 



bringing with him, as his wife, Selma Knauth, the daughter of Franz 

 Theodor and Fanny Elizabeth Knauth, at whose home he, with other 

 American students, had been hospitably welcomed. On his return he 

 became Assistant Professor of Physiology in the Harvard Medical 

 School, and in October, 1871, began his service. Previous to that time 

 Oliver Wendell Holmes had given, at the end of his lectures on 

 anatomy, a half-dozen lectures on the functions of the body. In 

 medical circles in Boston at that period there was little appreciation 

 of the ideals of the investigator in scientific medicine ; there was only 

 one laboratory and that was the dissecting room. Dr. Bowditch had 

 to create not only his own laboratory, but also his own atmosphere. 

 He secured for his uses two rooms in the attic of the Medical School 

 building on North Grove Street, and fitted them with physiological 

 apparatus. That 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 there represented. Charles S. Minot 

 carried on investigations in general biology, J. Ott in experimental 

 pharmacology, J. C. Warren in experimental pathology, G. Stanley 

 Hall and W. F. Southard in experimental psychology, 0. K. Newell 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 the first 

 careful work in bacteriology in this country was begun there. With 

 Dr. Bowditch's inspiration every scientific interest of a complete modern 

 medical school was stimulated. From the start the emphasis was on 

 productive scholarship. In the preface to the first collection of papers 

 published from the laboratory 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 in- 

 vestigation of the many physiological problems now pressing for a 

 solution." 



Dr. Bowditch's own investigations were almost as varied as those of 

 the men who worked with him. His training in the Leipzig school, 

 which was characterized by the application of physical principles to 

 bodily processes, gave full play to his unusual inventive faculties. 

 Simultaneous records on a single kymograph were suggested by him 

 while in Leipzig, and this suggestion is said to have first directed the 



