AmjJu°^f£arm-}    Development  of  the  Medical  Laboratories,  337 
tion  was  Dr.  S.  Weir  Mitchell,  who  then  had  one  or  two  rooms  in 
the  famous  Chance  Street  building,  the  subsequent  scene  of  the 
labors  of  Agnew,  Keen,  and  others,  and  who  was  then  engaged  in 
various  experimental  investigations  on  the  nervous  system.  It  was 
not  long  before  he  made  me  a  proposition  to  assist  him  in  his 
researches  and  to  publish  with  him  the  results  of  our  work.  This 
connection  would  have  been  formed  had  it  not  been  for  Dr.  George 
B.  Wood,  who,  by  the  greatness  of  his  renown,  the  force  ol  his 
character,  the  extent  of  his  pecuniary  resources,  and  his  lack  of 
direct  heirs,  dominated  at  that  time  the  College  of  Physicians,  the 
Philosophical  Society,  and  the  Medical  Department  of  the  University, 
much  more  his  struggling  nephew,  who,  he  insisted,  by  studying 
botany,  should  prepare  himself  for  a  career  in  materia  medica  and 
therapeutics :  and  so,  having  been  instructed  by  Dr.  Mitchell  how 
to  insert  a  canula  into  an  artery,  I  graduated  in  practical  physiology, 
and  took  up  actively  the  study  of  botany  and  materia  medica  until 
three  or  four  years  later,  when,  having  mastered  the  elements  of 
those  sciences,  it  was  possible  for  me  to  revert  to  the  study  of 
experimental  medicine. 
For  the  work  to  be  done  a  workshop  was  necessary.  The  private 
treasury  was  so  low  that  the  luxury  of  a  room  in  Chance  Street  was 
unthinkable.  By  this  time  Dr.  George  B.  Wood  had  so  advanced 
in  age  that  he  wanted  the  care  of  his  garden,  greenhouses  and 
stables  lifted  from  his  shoulders,  and  made  me  his  deputy.  Having 
this  authority,  with  his  consent  it  was  possible  for  me  to  use,  accord- 
ing to  the  different  stages  of  the  weather,  the  back  of  the  large 
yard,  the  stable,  or  the  greenhouses  as  an  experimental  laboratory. 
Fortunately,  at  that  time  antisepsis  had  not  been  heard  of. 
Instruments  were  very  few.  The  old  rifleman  on  the  shores  of 
Lake  Michigan  brought  down  unerringly  the  deer  or  the  Indian  with 
a  weapon  which  the  modern  sportsman  or  fighter  would  consider 
hopeless  ;  and  so  the  results  of  work  in  this  primitive  laboratory  were 
accurate  and  permanent,  although  my  young  physiological  hearers 
will  smile  at  the  statement  that,  with  the  aid  of  tin-  and  other  smiths, 
we  made  our  own  instruments.  Our  hsemadynomometers,  for 
instance,  were  obtained  by  boring  a  hole  in  the  iron  flasks  in  which 
mercury  is  ordinarily  stored,  inserting  a  U-shaped  glass  tube,  fast- 
ening on  a  home-made  scale,  and  then  measuring  blood-pressure  by 
the  eye.    Under  such  circumstances  was  finished  the  first  complete 
