vi 



Simon Flexner — Biography. 



in constitution, bacterial toxins and hemolytic sera, and have ex- 

 plained many facts concerning the mode of action of these com- 

 plex substances. 



Shortly after the close of the war with Spain, Dr. Flexner was 

 sent to the Philippine Islands by the Johns Hopkins University as a 

 member of a commission to study the diseases prevalent in these 

 islands. Especial attention was given by him to tropical dysentery 

 and its relation to the microorganism discovered by Shiga. Studies 

 by Dr. Flexner and his pupils, continued after his return to America, 

 have shown that the Shiga bacillus in one or the other of its types 

 is associated with dysentery of this country and also with infantile 

 diarrhea. Dr. Flexner was subsequently a member of the commis- 

 sion appointed by the National Government to determine if plague 

 existed in San Francisco and to suggest means for its eradication. 



In 1904 and 1905 an epidemic of cerebro-spinal meningitis 

 occurred in New York City and the Health Department of the 

 city appointed a commission to investigate the disease. As a 

 member of the commission, Dr. Flexner undertook a compre- 

 hensive study of the meningococcus of Weichselbaum, the 

 methods by which immunity might be produced in animals and 

 the possibilities of serum therapy. This work, begun with a con- 

 sideration of technical details with obvious interest only for the 

 bacteriologist, has had far-reaching influence upon medical practice. 

 It has pointed the way to the preparation of a curative serum 

 which has reduced the mortality of cerebro-spinal meningitis. 



In 1900 Dr. Flexner was called to the Professorship of Pathol- 

 ogy in the University of Pennsylvania where he remained during 

 four years. He was appointed to the directorship of the labor- 

 atories of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in 1904 

 and after a year spent in the study of similar institutions in Europe, 

 directed the establishment of the laboratories located in New York 

 City. Dr. Flexner is a member of the National Academy, of the 

 Philosophical Society and of the Association of American Physi- 

 cians, a director of the Russell Sage Institute of Pathology and 

 a member of the Advisory Board of the Hygienic Laboratory of 

 the United States Public Health and Marine Hospital Service. 



Dr. Flexner was a Vice-President of the American Association 

 for the Advancement of Science, and Chairman of its Section of 

 Physiology and Experimental Medicine, for the year I9o6-'o7. 



