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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LIII. No. 1362 



in recognition of the importance of this work 

 that the American Association for Thoracic 

 Surgery asked him, a physician and labora- 

 tory worker, to serve as their first presi- 

 dent. It was natural that this work should 

 have led him to consider the whole matter of 

 artificial respiration in its relations to resusci- 

 tation after accidents of various sorts. His 

 general paper in the Medical Record for 1917 

 giving a history and critical anlysis of the 

 methods of resuscitation is an interesting and 

 valuable contribution. He gives experimental 

 data to prove that his device of intratracheal 

 insufflation is the most efficient method of 

 artificial respiration both for man and ani- 

 mals. But he realized that it is a method 

 which requires special knowledge and training 

 for its successful execution, and his broaden- 

 ing acquaintance with and interest in the 

 practical aspects of resuscitation led him to 

 experiment with the less efficient and less 

 safe method of pharyngeal insufflation. He 

 was a member of the three national com- 

 missions on resuscitation and served as chair- 

 m.an of the third commission. In connection 

 with the duties of this service he devised 

 a simple portable form of apparatus for 

 pharyngeal insufflation which can be used 

 with very little previous instruction and he 

 demonstrated, with entire success I believe, 

 that this form of apparatus is much more 

 efficient than any of the so-called manual 

 methods of resuscitation, or than any of the 

 special machines for this purpose, pulmotors 

 and lungmotors, which have been exploited 

 commercially during the past few years. It 

 was, I imagine, a sore disappointment to 

 him that he was not able to convince his 

 colleagues on the third commission that this 

 apparatus met all the requirements for in- 

 dustrial and military use. It is probably the 

 simplest and best instrument yet devised for 

 artificial respiration as applied to man, and 

 in institutions or industrial establishments 

 where the need for artificial respiration may 

 arise frequently and where s]Deeial individuals 

 may be instructed in its use it can be em- 

 ployed to great advantage. But it does re- 

 quire some little amount of training to use 



it properly — the average uninstructed man or 

 woman can not be trusted to apply it intelli- 

 gently, and for this reason the commission 

 felt that it was wise to urge adoption of a 

 manual method as the form of first aid which 

 may be applied most successfully imder ordi- 

 nary conditions. 



While the researches that I have attempted 

 to summarize represent his most important 

 contribution to physiological science, Dr. 

 Meltzer kept in close touch with the progress 

 in almost all branches of experimental medi- 

 cine. He gave evidence of this interest in 

 the publication of occasional papers on va- 

 rious topics or in articles of a general char- 

 acter. Shock, cardiac arrhythmias, therapeu- 

 tics of self-repair, hemolysis, thyroid therapy, 

 edema are among the subjects upon which 

 he wrote, but probably the most original and 

 helpful of his general papers is his well- 

 known Harvey Lecture, 1906, on " The Fac- 

 tors of Safety in Animal Structure and Ani- 

 mal Economj'." He applied this engineering 

 term in a convincing way to dascribe the re- 

 serve powers possessed by many of the 

 mechanism of the body. Doubtless the gen- 

 eral conception involved had occurred to many 

 others, but no one before him, so far as I 

 know, had developed the idea so comprehen- 

 sively and made of this provision a leading 

 factor in the adaptation of the economy to its 

 environment. The happy phrase that he em- 

 ployed served to precipitate the loose thought 

 upon the subject, and its frequent recurrence 

 since in medical literature is proof that the 

 conception which it expresses has foiind wide 

 acceptance in scientific circles. It is evident 

 that his own thoughts were turned in this 

 direction by the work of Chittenden upon the 

 minimum protein diet. While he accepted, 

 of course, the facts demonstrated by this ob- 

 server in regard to the possibility of mainte- 

 nance upon a low protein diet he was not will- 

 ing to believe that a minimum diet is also 

 an optimujn diet in relation to the various 

 metabolic stresses to which the body may be 

 subjected. The experiences of the great war 

 may serve to show that he was correct in 

 taking this position. 



