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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LIU. No. 1362 



of physiology, pharmacology, pathology and 

 clinical medicine together with a number of 

 lectures and general addresses. That he was 

 an investigator of recognized standing in 

 these several branches of medicine and was 

 regarded as a valued contributor to so many 

 scientific journals of the first rank is a strik- 

 ing demonstration of the breadth of his inter- 

 ests and knowledge. He was a member of 

 twenty or more national scientific or clinical 

 societies and in all of them it may be said he 

 was prepared to take his part as an expert in 

 the reading and the discussion of technical 

 pai)ers. 



He served as president of the American 

 Physiological Society, the Society for Experi- 

 mental Biology and Medicine, the American 

 Gastro-enterological Society, the American 

 Society for the Advancement of Clinical 

 Research, the Association of American Phys- 

 icians and the American Association for 

 Thoracic Surgery. The membership in these 

 societies is composed of trained specialists. 

 It is their custom to choose as their presiding 

 officer only those who have made contribu- 

 tions of distinction to the subject to which 

 the society is devoted. It seems to me unique 

 in the modern history of medicine for one 

 man to have received such special recognition 

 from technical workers in so many different 

 fields. 



While his activities covered this large range 

 he was interested primarily in physiology. 

 " I belong," he said in a recent paper " to 

 those who believe . . . that the knowledge of 

 physiology is of special importance to clinical 

 medicine." His work in this field entitles 

 him certainly to be ranked among the fore- 

 most American physiologists. In attempting 

 to present some estimate of the results of his 

 labors I must limit myself mainly to his 

 physiological activity. Indeed in this subject 

 alone his papers are so varied that it will 

 be possible to bring under review only what 

 seem to be his major contributions. His first 

 appearance as an investigator is recorded in 

 a brief note in the Proceedings of the Berlin 

 Physiological Society, May 14, 1880. In this 

 note it is stated that Professor Kroneeker ex- 



hibited a dog in which Herr Cand. Med. 

 Meltzer had cut the nerves going to the 

 mylohyoid muscle and thus demonstrated the 

 importance of this muscle in the initial stage 

 of swallowing. At a later meeting of the 

 society in the same year Kroneeker presented 

 the full results of an investigation carried 

 out by Herr Cand. Med. Meltzer under his 

 supervision on the " Process of Swallowing." 

 This paper was published subsequently by 

 Kroneeker and Meltzer in the Monatsbericht 

 der Konigl. AJcademie der Wissenschaften zu 

 Berlin, 1881. In this important contribution 

 the mechanism of swallowing was given an 

 entirely new interpretation which has since 

 been generally accepted and is known as 

 the Kronecker-Meltzer theory of deglutition. 

 Meltzer had attracted Kronecker's attention 

 while a student in his course. Out of this 

 acquaintanceship developed an invitation to 

 engage in a research and eventually a warm 

 friendship between the two men that lasted 

 throughout life. Meltzer's career was thus 

 determined while still a student of medicine. 

 Kronecker's influence attracted him to physi- 

 ology and set his feet in the paths of research. 

 The investigation in which they collaborated 

 was important and original — ^just what part 

 each contributed it is not now ix)ssible to 

 discover, but it is interesting to find that this 

 initial venture into research furnished a 

 motif which can be detected recurring again 

 and again in Meltzer's subsequent work. A 

 companion paper upon " Die Irradiationen 

 des Schluckcentrums und^hre Bedeutung" 

 was published by Meltzer alone in 1883. It 

 is a very suggestive paper on account of the 

 careful analysis it contains of the far-reach- 

 ing and cinnous effects in the central nervous 

 system of the act of swallowing and also be- 

 cause in it Meltzer announces certain views 

 upon the importance of the inhibitory proc- 

 esses which subsequently formed the basis of 

 his theory of inhibition, and remained with 

 him throughout life as a sort of compass by 

 which to set his course on his voyages of dis- 

 covery. He calls attention in this work to 

 the fact that reflex excitation of the inspira- 

 tory muscles is accompanied by reflex in- 



