12 



Memorial Number. 



entific work. As we walked very slowly and carefully back to 

 his hotel, he told briefly and rather casually of the bad attack he 

 had had the previous night, for which he had been obliged to call 

 in a local physician, and then went on to describe the excellence 

 of the meeting, the great field covered by the papers, and the 

 fine spirit which was prompting the research work done in this 

 country. This spirit, which he was so quick to see and appreciate 

 jn others, was, as a matter of fact, especially exemplified in his 

 own life and work, and one feels in looking over his career, that 

 it must have been the great driving force throughout his whole 

 life, which made him indifferent to obstacles, difficulties and 

 physical infirmities, great enough to daunt the ordinary man. 



It can be truly said of Meltzer that he was a man who loved 

 and pursued knowledge for its own sake. This was an inherent 

 characteristic. When he entered the University of Berlin in 1876, 

 it was the study of philosophy that attracted him particularly and 

 it is probable that had his financial prospects been more favorable, 

 he would have kept himself within this field, stimulated as he was 

 by such eminent teachers as Paulson and Erdman, and by his 

 quickly formed friendship with Steinthal. Moved by financial 

 considerations, however, he entered at this time into the study of 

 medicine. This was a day of great teachers and the University 

 of Berlin was unusually fortunate in this respect. It is not diffi- 

 cult to see how the eager mind of young Meltzer must have been 

 stimulated and indelibly impressed by contact with such masters 

 as Du Bois-Reymond, Virchow, Leyden and Frerichs. It was 

 at this time also that he began a friendship which influenced all 

 his later life, namely, that with Kronecker. With his attractive, 

 friendly personality, his thorough training in physiology under 

 Helmholtz and Ludwig, and in medicine under Traube, his de- 

 votion to experimental science, Kronecker was the ideal guide and 

 friend for the younger man just beginning a scientific career. 



Shortly after his graduation, Meltzer came to New York and 

 began the practice of medicine. He chose America, after careful 

 deliberation, because its democratic form of government especially 

 appealed to him. Previous to his settling in New York, he made 

 several trans-Atlantic trips as a ship's surgeon, and his determina- 

 tion is shown by the fact that, in spite of his being a poor sailor 



