ii Obituary Notices of Fellows deceased. 



various salts upon the tissues, and especially upon the muscular tissue of the 

 heart, which resulted in the recognition of the influence exerted by simple 

 inorganic constituents of the blood in maintaining the activity of the living 

 tissues — an influence which had remained obscure, in spite of the elaborate 

 series of researches of the same nature which were conducted in the famous 

 Physiological Laboratory of Leipzig and elsewhere. 



Einger was the first to show that a solution containing certain ions 

 (chlorine, sodium, calcium, and potassium), in the form of inorganic salts in 

 definite proportions, provides a fluid which can completely replace the 

 ordinary blood of an animal in so far as the activation of the living tissues is 

 concerned, and that the presence of these ions or others of similar nature is 

 necessary for such activation. Such a fluid is now in general use in 

 physiological laboratories and is known as " Kinger's solution." 



Later he extended these researches to embrace the action of the same salts 

 upon the heat-coagulation of proteins and upon ferment-actions such as those 

 producing the clotting of blood and the curdling of milk. Above all he was 

 instrumental in discovering the important part which calcium plays in most 

 of these processes. He also carried out numerous investigations into the 

 action of special drugs, such as veratrine, muscarine, pilocarpine, and 

 aconitine, and was the first to investigate the direct action of anaesthetics 

 upon cardiac tissue. Some of these researches were conducted with the aid 

 of fellow-workers, many of whom have since obtained distinction in the 

 medical profession. 



Einger was elected a Fellow of the Eoyal Society in 1885. 



His methods were of the simplest and were but little varied. For 

 registering the effects of salts and drugs upon the heart he employed Eoy's 

 tonometer ; their effects on skeletal muscle were recorded by the ordinary 

 student's myograph ; their effects on blood-vessels by adding some of the 

 drug to the fluid employed for perfusion and counting the drops which passed 

 through the vessels in a given time. He used for these investigations the 

 tissues of the frog, rarely, if ever, employing mammals. Even if he had 

 desired to carry out experiments on the higher animals, it would have been 

 difficult for him to find enough time. His scientific work was done between 

 breakfast and the commencement of his private practice, which could give 

 him at most a couple of hours a day ; this was sometimes supplemented by a 

 visit to the laboratory in the late afternoon. Clinical medicine was his 

 profession, scientific research was his recreation. As he himself would have 

 been the first to admit, in science he was an amateur. But, we may justly 

 add, the sort of amateur who produces better work than that of many a 

 professional ! 



His period of greatest activity is contained between the years 1875 to 

 1895. During this time he published — for the most part in the 1 Journal of 

 Physiology ' — a succession of papers on the various subjects which have been 

 above indicated. 



