An American Text-Book on Physiology (Classic Reprint)
(Excerpt from An American Text-Book on Physiology
The col...)
Excerpt from An American Text-Book on Physiology
The collaboration Of several teachers in the preparation Of an elementary text-book of physiology is unusual, the almost invariable rule heretofore having been for a Single author to write the entire book. It does not seem desirable to attempt a discussion Of the relative merits and demerits of the two plans, since the method Of collaboration is untried in the teaching of physi ology, and there is therefore no basis for a satisfactory comparison. It is a fact, however, that many teachers Of physiology in this country have not been altogether satisfied with the text-books at their disposal. Some of the more successful Older books have not kept pace with the rapid changes in modern physiology, while few, if any, of the newer books have been uniformly satis factory in their treatment Of all parts Of this many-sided science. Indeed, the literature Of experimental physiology is SO great that it would seem to be almost impossible for any one teacher to keep thoroughly informed on all topics. This fact undoubtedly accounts for some Of the defects Of our present text-books, and it is hoped that one Of the advantages derived from the col laboration method is that, owing to the less voluminous literature to be consulted, each author has been enabled to base his elementary account upon a comprehensive knowledge Of the part Of' the subject assigned to him. Those who are acquainted with the difficulty Of making a satisfactory elementary presentation Of the complex and oftentimes unsettled questions Of physiology must agree that authoritative statements and generalizations, such as are frs quently necessary in text-books if they are to leave any impression at all upon the student, are usually trustworthy in proportion to the fulness Of informa tion possessed by the writer.
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The Influence of Anaesthetics on the Vaso-Motor Centres (Classic Reprint)
(Excerpt from The Influence of Anaesthetics on the Vaso-Mo...)
Excerpt from The Influence of Anaesthetics on the Vaso-Motor Centres
Far more constant were the results obtained by the use of chloroform. Our experiments with this agent were not so numerous as those with ether, but the uniformity was sufficiently great to justify a conclusion as to its action. It was invariably found that, when an animal was under the influence of chloroform, irritation of the saphena nerve caused a much less marked rise of blood-tension than when the anaesthetic was not used. Sometimes there was absolutely no rise of tension to be observed, while at other times the rise was from one-third to one half that produced by the same irritation on an animal not subjected to the action of chloroform. This effect is shown by the figures 12 to 15 inclusive, which represent the results of irritations of the saphena nerve made alternately with and without chloroform.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
(This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)
This book was originally published prior to 1923, and represents a reproduction of an important historical work, maintaining the same format as the original work. While some publishers have opted to apply OCR (optical character recognition) technology to the process, we believe this leads to sub-optimal results (frequent typographical errors, strange characters and confusing formatting) and does not adequately preserve the historical character of the original artifact. We believe this work is culturally important in its original archival form. While we strive to adequately clean and digitally enhance the original work, there are occasionally instances where imperfections such as blurred or missing pages, poor pictures or errant marks may have been introduced due to either the quality of the original work or the scanning process itself. Despite these occasional imperfections, we have brought it back into print as part of our ongoing global book preservation commitment, providing customers with access to the best possible historical reprints. We appreciate your understanding of these occasional imperfections, and sincerely hope you enjoy seeing the book in a format as close as possible to that intended by the original publisher.
Reform in Medical Education: President's Address Delivered at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Naturalists, New York, December 29, 1898 (Classic Reprint)
(Excerpt from Reform in Medical Education: President's Add...)
Excerpt from Reform in Medical Education: President's Address Delivered at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Naturalists, New York, December 29, 1898
It would doubtless be found desirable in practice not to confine the possibility of taking elective courses to the year in which the required instruction is given, for a student may frequently in the latter part of his course become interested in a subject like mental diseases, for instance, and will then be glad of an Opportunity to take special instruction on the physiology of cerebral localization. The elective courses should, therefore, be so arranged that they may be taken in any part of the medical curriculum.
There is, in my opinion, no doubt that an arrange ment of instruction similar to that here suggested for physiology could be advantageously adopted in the departments of anatomy, histology, bacteriology, medical chemistry, pathology, surgery and in the courses of instruction in the various special diseases, such as dermatology. Opthalmology, etc. Whether the instruction in clinical medicine and clinical surgery can be thus modified is a question about which more doubt may be entertained, and which I prefer to leave to persons of greater experience than myself in methods of clinical instruction.
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This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
The Advancement of Medicine by Research (Classic Reprint)
(Excerpt from The Advancement of Medicine by Research
Tha...)
Excerpt from The Advancement of Medicine by Research
That the Legislature Of Massachusetts should be requested to restrict the right of physicians to study their profession, and of the higher educa tional institutions of the state to teach the sciences on which the practice of medicine rests, is a phe nemenou which surprises no one who has watched the progress of the so-called antivivisection agitation during the last quarter of a century. At various times within this period have the ef forts of misguided benevolence been directed to checking the progress of medical science by inter fering with one of the most important methods by which advances can be made. Fortunately for humanity these etforts have, in nearly all cases.
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Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
(Excerpt from Vision
Although each eye has its own supply...)
Excerpt from Vision
Although each eye has its own supply of muscles and nerves, yet the two eyes are not independent of each other in their movements. The nature of their connections with the nerve-centres is such that only those movements are, as a rule, possible in which both axes of vision remain in the same plane. This condition being fulfilled, the eyes may be together directed to any desired point above, below, or at either side of the observer. The axes may also be con verged, as is indeed necessary in looking at near objects, and to facilitate this convergence the internal recti muscles are inserted nearer to the cornea than the other muscles of the eye. Though in the ordinary use of the eyes there is never any occasion _to diverge the axes of vision, yet most persons are able to effect a divergence of about four degrees, as shown by their power to overcome the ten deney to double vision produced by holding a prism in front of one of the eyes. The nervous mechanism through which this remarkable cc-ordination of the muscles of the two eyes is effected, and their motions limited to those which are useful in binocular vision, is not completely understood, but it is supposed to have its seat in part in the tubercula quadrigemina, in connection with the nuclei of origin of the third, fourth, and sixth cranial nerves. Its disturbance by disease, alcoholic intoxication, etc. Causes strabismus, confusion, dizziness, and double vision.
A nerve termination sensitive to light, and so arranged that it can be turned in different directions, is sufficient to give information of the direction from which the light comes, for the contraction of the various eye-muscles indicates, through the nerves of muscular sense, the position into which the eye is nor mally brought in order to best receive the luminous rays, or, in other words, the direction of the luminous body. The eye, however, informs us not only of the direction, but of the form of the object from which the light proceeds; and to understand how this is effected it will be necessary to consider the refracting media of the eye by means of which an optical image of the luminous object is thrown upon the expanded termination of the optic nerve - viz. The retina.
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Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
(This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)
This book was originally published prior to 1923, and represents a reproduction of an important historical work, maintaining the same format as the original work. While some publishers have opted to apply OCR (optical character recognition) technology to the process, we believe this leads to sub-optimal results (frequent typographical errors, strange characters and confusing formatting) and does not adequately preserve the historical character of the original artifact. We believe this work is culturally important in its original archival form. While we strive to adequately clean and digitally enhance the original work, there are occasionally instances where imperfections such as blurred or missing pages, poor pictures or errant marks may have been introduced due to either the quality of the original work or the scanning process itself. Despite these occasional imperfections, we have brought it back into print as part of our ongoing global book preservation commitment, providing customers with access to the best possible historical reprints. We appreciate your understanding of these occasional imperfections, and sincerely hope you enjoy seeing the book in a format as close as possible to that intended by the original publisher.
Are Composite Photographs Typical Pictures? (Classic Reprint)
(Excerpt from Are Composite Photographs Typical Pictures?
...)
Excerpt from Are Composite Photographs Typical Pictures?
In determining, for instance, whether two allied groups of animals are to be regarded as varieties, or as distinct species, the naturalist will compare together not two individuals selected at random from each group, but two individuals carefully chosen for their conformity to what may be regarded as the average size, proportions, and general appearance of the group to which they belong.
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This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
(This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curat...)
This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. This text refers to the Bibliobazaar edition.
(This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)
This book was originally published prior to 1923, and represents a reproduction of an important historical work, maintaining the same format as the original work. While some publishers have opted to apply OCR (optical character recognition) technology to the process, we believe this leads to sub-optimal results (frequent typographical errors, strange characters and confusing formatting) and does not adequately preserve the historical character of the original artifact. We believe this work is culturally important in its original archival form. While we strive to adequately clean and digitally enhance the original work, there are occasionally instances where imperfections such as blurred or missing pages, poor pictures or errant marks may have been introduced due to either the quality of the original work or the scanning process itself. Despite these occasional imperfections, we have brought it back into print as part of our ongoing global book preservation commitment, providing customers with access to the best possible historical reprints. We appreciate your understanding of these occasional imperfections, and sincerely hope you enjoy seeing the book in a format as close as possible to that intended by the original publisher.
Henry Pickering Bowditch was an American soldier, physician, physiologist. He is distinguished for his service as a Dean of Harvard Medical School in which capacity he toiled for 35 years. He was also a promoter of the training of medical practitioners in regards to physiological research.
Background
Henry Pickering Bowditch was born on April 4, 1840 and came of Massachusetts families remarkable for scientific ability. His father, Jonathan Ingersoll Bowditch, a Boston merchant, who wrote on navigation and published nautical tables, was the son of the famous Nathaniel Bowditch, the translator of Laplace and author of the New American Practical Navigator (1802).
His mother, Lucy Orne Nichols, a granddaughter of Colonel Timothy Pickering (Washington's secretary of state), was related to John Pickering, an authority on Indian languages; to the astronomers, Edward and William Pickering; and to the mathematician, Benjamin Pierce a group of intellectuals who might have found a place in Francis Galton's "Noteworthy Families. "
Born in Boston, young Henry Bowditch was raised in the austere fashion of the place and period, but like other boys played on the Common and skated on the Frog Pond, and after the removal of his family to an estate at West Roxbury (1853) became expert in swimming, diving, sailing, and boat-building, through the attractions of Jamaica Pond nearby.
Education
Henry Bowditch was prepared for college at the school of Epes S. Dixwell and entered Harvard in 1857, having already evinced an aptitude for medicine by setting up a complete articulated skeleton from the cadaver of one of his father's horses.
Upon his graduation (1861), he entered the Lawrence Scientific School (Cambridge), where his studies in chemistry and natural history were interrupted by the Civil War.
Directly upon leaving the army, he resumed his studies at the Lawrence School, this time under the stimulating influence of the eminent comparative anatomist, Jeffries Wyman. While pursuing this course, he fulfilled the requirements of the Harvard Medical School, from which he was graduated M. D. in 1868.
He received honorary doctorate degrees from the Universities of Cambridge (1898), Edinburgh (1898), Pennsylvania (1904), and Harvard (1906).
Career
In November 1861, Henry Bowditch was commissioned second lieutenant in Company G, 2nd Battalion, 1st Massachusetts Cavalry. He participated in a number of raids and engagements, was wounded in the right forearm while leading a charge at New Hope Church, entered Richmond with Weitzel as a major of the 5th Massachusetts Cavalry, and was honorably discharged from his command on June 3, 1865.
In the late summer of the same year, he proceeded to Paris, to follow physiology under Claude Bernard, histology under Ranvier, and neurology under Charcot. A chance meeting with the physiologist, Willy Kühne, in March 1869, led Bowditch to enter the laboratory of Carl Ludwig (Leipzig) in September.
Ludwig was the greatest trainer of physiologists who ever lived, in Heidenhain's view, "the only physiologist who ever did anything. " Under such a leader, Bowditch acquired the formative and directive stimuli which were to determine his subsequent career.
Upon entering the Leipzig laboratory he delighted the old master by promptly inventing an automatic contrivance for registering the time relations of the blood-pressure tracings made on the revolving smoked drum attached to Ludwig's kymograph (1869). Under Ludwig, Bowditch made two investigations which are now classical.
The first (1871) demonstrated the Treppe or a stepwise increase of contraction of cardiac muscle under successive uniform stimuli, and the fact that, independently of the strength of the stimulus, it will either contract to the maximal limit or not at all.
The second demonstrated that Delphine will make the apex of an isolated heart beat rhythmically (1871), a discovery ten years in advance of the introduction of Ringer's solution (1880).
A third paper, on the effect of variations of arterial blood-pressure upon the accelerator and inhibitory nerves of the heart, followed in 1872.
Meanwhile, Charles W. Eliot, the new president of Harvard, had proposed that Bowditch give a course of university lectures on physiology in the second Harvard term (1871). This proposition Bowditch declined, as interrupting his studies, but Eliot's subsequent invitation "to take part in the good work of reforming medical education, " with the offer of an assistant professorship of physiology, was accepted, and Bowditch took a ship from Liverpool on September 14.
Bowditch came to his Harvard chair with a complete outfit of novel apparatus, purchased abroad at his own expense, but could only get the use of two small attic rooms in the old Medical School building on North Grove Street.
Here, however, the first physiological laboratory in our country was started (1871), and Bowditch soon made it a going concern, imbued with the spirit of his great teacher. He invented new apparatus and gathered around him, as pupils, some of the best experimenters of his time, notably: C. S. Minot, W. P. Lombard, J. J. Putnam, William James (physiology), Isaac Ott and R. W. Lovett (experimental pharmacology), Stanley Hall and E. E. Southard (psychology), J. W. Warren (experimental pathology) and O. K. Newall (experimental surgery).
With Minot, he showed the superiority of chloroform over ether in depressing vaso-motor reflexes (1874); with G. M. Garland, the effect of respiratory movements on the pulmonary circulation (1879 - 80); with Southard, the relative accuracy of sight and touch in estimating spatial relations (1880 - 82); with Stanley Hall, various optical illusions relative to moving objects (1880 - 82); with Warren, the effect of varying stimuli upon contraction and relaxation of blood vessels (1883 - 86), and the effect of voluntary effort and external stimuli in reinforcing and depressing the knee-jerk (1890).
With Bowditch's appointment to the Harvard chair, physiological teaching came into its own, and ceased to be a subordinated subject in the medical curriculum.
Five years before, the few lectures given were delivered by the Parkman professor, as part of his anatomical course. Five years later, Newell Martin brought the methods of Huxley and Michael Foster to Johns Hopkins University (1876).
Bowditch taught the subject for thirty-five years, was appointed full professor in 1876 and George Higginson professor in 1903, and resigned this chair in 1906.
During the decade 1883-93, he was dean of the Harvard Medical Faculty, introduced a four-year course and a chair of bacteriology (H. C. Ernst), was a prime mover in the planning of the new school in Boylston St. (1881) and of the splendid later units which he lived to see completed in 1906.
In 1896, he filed a strong brief against the anti-vivisectionists and did important public service through his reports on the alcohol problem in 1872, 1894, and 1903 (Committee of Fifty).
Before his resignation from his chair (1906), he had become afflicted with a hopeless form of paralysis agitans.
He quietly passed away on March 13, 1911.
Achievements
Among his numerous achievements it worth to mention that Henry Bowditch was the inventor of the Bowditch clock, the comfortable "Bowditch chair, " a new induction coil, a new plethysmograph, and many other ingenious devices used in the Harvard Laboratory. He is considered to be a pioneer in composite photography, to which he contributed a memorable early paper (McClure's Magazine) in 1894.
Perhaps his most important work, apart from physiological experimentation, was his study of the rate of growth in schoolchildren (1872 - 91). In anthropometry, a Chinese invention, Bowditch was a pioneer.
Bowditch, along with William James, Charles Pickering Putnam, and James Jackson Putnam, founded the Putnam Camp at St. Huberts, Essex County, New York in 1875–1876.
His other significant achievement was in founding of the American Physiological Society (1887), succeeded Weir Mitchell as its second president (1888), and was re-elected during 1891-95.
In 1877, he became a coeditor of Sir Michael Foster's Journal of Physiology, in which the investigations of the Harvard Laboratory were published up to 1898 when the American Journal of Physiology was established and financed by Bowditch's assistant, W. T. Porter. Bowditch was elected to membership in most of the leading scientific societies.
In his particular period, Bowditch was unquestionably the foremost American physiologist after Beaumont. His findings on the Treppe, the "All or None" principle and the indefatigability of nerve are truly classical. Such features of conduction anesthesia as shockless surgery or auto-surgery (operating upon oneself before a mirror) really derive from his nerve-blocking experiment of 1890.
The rationale of school lunches and of the "Watch me grow" cards of school inspectors is to be found in his acute reasoning from the data of juvenile anthropometry.
(This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curat...)
Views
In 1885, Bowditch made an investigation of the utmost practical importance, viz. , his conclusive proof that nerve fibre cannot be tired out. Bernstein (1877) had concluded that the nerve in a nerve-muscle preparation can be tetanized (exhausted) by 5-15 minutes' stimulation, but Wedensky (1884) and Maschek (1887) had gotten response after 1-9 hours' stimulation by blocking the nerve by means of a galvanic current applied between the point of stimulation and the muscle (Wedensky) or by etherizing the same area (Maschek).
Bowditch completed the proof by producing a functional nerve-block with curare and got muscular twitchings after 1-4 hours' stimulation in warm-blooded animals. He concluded that a nerve is like a telegraph wire and the passage of a nerve-current analogous to that of light or electricity. This method of proof was the rationale of the conduction anesthesia (nerve-blocking) subsequently introduced into surgery by Halsted, Cushing, and Crile.
A minor experiment of 1876 illustrates Bowditch's originality of approach, namely his proof that ciliated epithelial cells can move weights up an inclined plane in one minute (unit) time with a force equal to the amount of work required to lift their own weight 4. 25 metres.
In anthropometry, his measurements showed, in opposition to Quetelet's findings, that up to 11-12, boys are heavier and taller than girls, girls larger at 13-14, after which boys are again larger up to manhood; that large children begin to grow earlier than small children, that growth is more dependent upon the environment (optimum nutrition) than upon race; and that loss of weight in growing children is a warning signal of approaching illness or decline in health.
These data, in which Galton's percentile grades were utilized, are but little known apart from school hygiene, in which they are of paramount importance.
As early as 1900, he saw clearly that, apart from base-line instruction in the fundamental disciplines, elective courses would become a necessity in the crowded medical curriculum of the future.
Bowditch's mechanical ability ranged from prompt insight into the workings of complex apparatus to such modes of handicraft as glassblowing, turning the lathe, kite-flying, photography, and the making and repairing of furniture.
Quotations:
"A good teacher with a bad method is more effective than a bad teacher with a good method. "
Membership
Bowditch became a member of the American Physiological Society in 1887.
Personality
At the period of his military career, Bowditch was described by Major H. L. Higginson as handsome, refined, homegrown, "with a fondness for keeping the face clean and clothing neat when those attributes were a rarity, " reserved and unbending in manner, of unequivocal loyalty and courage, yet with no particular liking for army life.
In person, he was a sturdy, gallant, well-set-up figure of medium height, with aquiline features, pointed beard, cavalry mustache, and shrewd, penetrating, humorous glance; serious and austere au fond rather than witty, yet full of fun and fond of a hearty laugh.
Recalling his visits to the Surgeon General's Library with his charming wife, it was a pleasure to see him enter an office room. He seemed to light up the musty atmosphere, as Osler may be said to have warmed it. His blithe, buoyant personality radiated joy of life and good will toward his fellow men.
Interests
The athletic habits of Bowditch's boyhood were maintained and at his summer camp in the Adirondacks, where he entertained the leading physiologists of Europe for twenty years, he knew how to play.
Connections
Henry Pickering Bowditch was married to Selma Knauth, the daughter of a hospitable Leipzig banker. He was happy in his married life and left a family of two sons, five daughters, and ten grandchildren.
