September 25, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



443 



first human sphygmomanometric studies are 

 usually ascribed to Von Basch ; but Von Basch 

 carried out these studies in Kroneeker's labo- 

 ratory and under his direction and assistance. 

 I can testify to that as an eye-witness. 



During his long stay in Berne a great many 

 physiological subjects were investigated in 

 conjunction with advanced coworkers or stu- 

 dents. The results were usually published 

 under the name of the coworkers. In the last 

 years of his life he was intensely interested in 

 experiments which could throw light upon the 

 origin of the heart beat ; he was a firm believer 

 in the neurogenic theory. 



A subject in which he took a great interest 

 in the last two decades of his life was the 

 nature and origin of mountain disease. The 

 Swiss government, before granting permission 

 to build the now famous Jungfrau railroad, 

 asked Kronecker to pass an opinion, whether 

 going up a high mountain in a railway would 

 be accompanied by mountain disease and other 

 disturbances of health. This gave rise to 

 numerous studies connected with this question. 

 Kronecker organized a party of sixty, who 

 ascended the Zermat Breithorn; some of the 

 party were carried up, in order to eliminate 

 muscular action. Circulation, respiration and 

 other functions were then investigated. The 

 problem was also studied in pneumatic 

 chambers with lowered atmospheric pressure. 

 Kronecker came to the conclusion that the 

 syndrome of mountain disease was primarily 

 due to mechanical causes, to a stasis in the in- 

 trapulmonary veins, brought about by rarifica- 

 tion of the air in higher altitudes. Kro- 

 neeker's publications gave rise to many inter- 

 national studies which caused the Italian 

 physiologist Mosso, with the aid of Kronecker, 

 to establish an international institute on 

 Monte Eosa for the study of physiological 

 phenomena in the mountains. 



Kronecker was a master in physiological 

 methods ; he invented many instruments which 

 found a permanent place in the methods of 

 experimental physiology, of which I shall men- 

 tion here only his well-knovra. induction coil, 

 divided in units, the " perfusion canula " and 

 the frog heart manometer. The perfusion 



canula (or its modification) has been and still 

 is extensively used in pharmacological studies 

 upon the frog's heart. 



In the seventies, during Kroneeker's stay at 

 Leipzig, Ludwig's physiological institute was 

 an international center for physiology and 

 physiologists. Many English, Italian, Ameri- 

 can, Sussian, Belgian, Scandinavian and 

 French physiologists received there their train- 

 ing in physiology. Kronecker, who spoke 

 many languages fluently, has been of great 

 assistance to them. With his very kind, unsel- 

 fish nature he was always ready to help them 

 with his rare experimental skill and in every 

 other direction. Many who worked there dur- 

 ing that period bear witness that Kronecker 

 was the " soul " of the laboratory. Here he 

 formed strong bonds of a lifelong friendship 

 with men who became later international 

 leaders in science. I need only mention here 

 Bowditch and Minot of the United States; 

 Lauder Brunton, Gaskell and Schafer of Eng- 

 land; Alberto Mosso and Luciani of Italy; 

 Paul Heger of Belgium and Holmgren of 

 Sweden. Very few men had the happiness of 

 having so many true friends as Kronecker, 

 and few could bo a truer friend than he. He 

 had the esteem and affection of all who had the 

 good fortune to know him well. 



His international, cordial relations to so 

 many physiologists of so many countries was 

 not a small factor in the success of the Inter- 

 national Congress of Physiologists, which was 

 founded by Michael Foster and Kronecker. 

 In his obituary of Sir Michael Foster, Gaskell 

 states that " when the International Medical 

 Congress met in London in 1881 he (Foster) 

 and Kroneceker together drew up a scheme for 

 a separate International Congress of Physiol- 

 ogy to meet every three years and a committee 

 was formed." According to Heger the final 

 decision, to call that Congress into being, was 

 made by a group of physiologists who met 

 September, 1888, in Kroneeker's house in 

 Berne. The third International Congress met 

 in Berne under Kroneeker's presidency. 



Kronecker was also the chief founder and 

 for some time the president of the Institut 

 Marey in Paris, an international institution 



