April 21, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



the First Massachusetts Cavalry. His regi- 

 ment went south in January, 1862, and from 

 that time until the close of the civil war he 

 ■was almost continually in active service. He 

 resigned June 3, 1865, heing then major of the 

 Fifth Massachusetts Cavalry. He reentered 

 the scientific school, and passed from there to 

 the Harvard Medical School, from vehich he 

 received the degree of M.D. in 1868. He fre- 

 quently referred with gratitude to the influ- 

 ence of Jeffries Wyman upon his own scien- 

 tific development. 



With the approval and encouragement of 

 his father he decided to devote himself to a 

 scientific career, and as it was impossible to 

 obtain satisfactory training in medical science 

 at that time in this country, he went to 

 Europe to study in Paris, Bonn and Leipzig. 

 At the latter place he worked under Carl 

 Ludwig, of whom he always spoke with rever- 

 ence and affection. The great master found 

 an apt pupil in the young American, and the 

 pupil rapidly became a master himself. Bow- 

 ditch had remarkable mechanical talents. 

 Ludwig was wont to tell how Bowditch ar- 

 rived in the laboratory when the kymograph- 

 ion invented by Ludwig was beginning to be 

 used, and the automatic record showed only 

 the movement of the muscle or heart, the time 

 of stimulation being marked by hand. Bow- 

 ditch immediately set to work and produced 

 the devices for recording the actual time and 

 the duration of the stimulus automatically. 

 Many valuable ideas are simple, like Bow- 

 ditch's invention, and after they have been 

 produced appear obvious and invaluable, but 

 in reality lucid simplicity is one of the essen- 

 tial characteristics of a superior intellect. 

 Bowditch was endowed with this quality in a 

 high degree, and it showed itself throughout 

 his life in the perfection with which he worked 

 out the problems he had to deal with. Li 

 Ludwig's laboratory he carried through his 

 researches on the heart, which were of funda- 

 mental importance and therefore rank among 

 the cherished classics of physiology. 



He remained abroad until 1871, returning 

 to Boston in September of that year to become 

 assistant professor of physiology at the Har- 



vard Medical School. IJp to 1871 Dr. Oliver 

 Wendell Holmes had lectured on anatomy and 

 physiology, thereafter the professorship was 

 divided. Holmes restricted himself to anat- 

 omy. Physiology was assigned to Bowditch. 

 In 1876 he was made full professor. In 1906 

 he resigned his position owing to failing 

 health, and was made professor emeritus. He 

 met the increasing limitations of his illness 

 with perfect courage. Courage was one factor 

 of his power over others. Death came quietly 

 on March thirteenth last. 



The Harvard Physiological Laboratory was 

 the first modern laboratory for instruction and 

 research in the medical sciences to be founded 

 in America. It was wonderfully equipped for 

 the period of its foundation, for Bowditch put 

 into the laboratory the large supply of appa- 

 ratus, his personal property, which he had 

 brought back from Europe. He at once began 

 a course of lectvTres in physiology, which ex- 

 celled so enormously anything which had ever 

 been presented in America, that the effect was 

 instantaneous. The consequences were revo- 

 lutionary, for his work at Harvard initiated 

 the creation of the new medical standards. 

 The present writer was his first research pupil 

 and recalls vividly the revelation opened by 

 admission to the new laboratory. 



During thirty-five years Bowditch was an 

 efl5cient leader in the development of the Har- 

 vard Medical School, in the advancement of 

 physiology and other medical sciences in the 

 United States, and he found time besides to 

 promote energetically many causes of civic 

 betterment. Very few men have contributed 

 so much as he to the elevation of medical 

 education. He stood for the highest ideals of 

 progress and maintained always that the old- 

 fashioned " practical " physicians must be 

 replaced by men scientifically trained and 

 animated by the scientific spirit. For this 

 principle he carried on a long campaign. In 

 the face of opposition and much early discour- 

 agement he kept steadily at this great task, 

 and had the satisfaction in the end of seeing- 

 his cause triumphant. The superiority of the 

 laboratories abroad, especially in Germany a 

 generation since, made a profound impression 



