Dr. Meltzer's Life and Services. 



i3 



and seasick during the greater part of each trip, he kept this posi- 

 tion and carried on its duties for some time. 



With the environment in which his medical education began, 

 it is small wonder that Meltzer's interest turned to research work. 

 What especially impressed him from the beginning was first, the 

 necessity of careful observation and thoroughness in work, and, 

 second, the importance of facts rather than theories. Those who 

 have heard Meltzer present experimental work will, I think, recall 

 numerous instances in which, when pressed for an explanation of 

 his results, he has replied that although he had a theory, it was 

 only the fact itself that he wished to bring out. 



He began his research work in Kronecker's laboratory while 

 yet a medical student. This work was on the swallowing mechan- 

 ism and he himself was the subject of experimentation. He 

 has given a graphic account of the discomforts endured during these 

 experiments, for he was obliged to sit for hours with two stomach 

 tubes, with rubber balloons attached to their ends, inserted into 

 his esophagus. There is an interesting side-light connected with 

 this work. While carrying on his experiment one day, the labora- 

 tory was unexpectedly visited by the Prussian Minister of Educa- 

 tion, who inspected the laboratory and Meltzer in particular. The 

 explanation of the visit came later. An anti-vivisection bill had 

 been proposed, backed by the statement that experimentalists 

 would not dream of inflicting on themselves the discomforts to 

 which they were subjecting animals. The Minister was able to 

 report that he himself had just witnessed a voluntary experiment 

 on a human being which was attended by the greatest discomfort 

 and he ventured the assertion that none of those who were so 

 earnestly advocating the bill would be willing to put themselves 

 in the place of the student in physiology. It may be added that 

 the bill was defeated. 



It was while engaged in this work that an idea was brought 

 out, upon which most of his subsequent work centered. This was 

 the phenomenon of inhibition. He had obtained a record of a 

 single swallowing movement, but found that with successive 

 repeated swallowings the record changed completely, in that the 

 contractions failed to appear. In his perplexity he appealed to 

 his friend Kronecker, who suggested the possibility of inhibition. 



