Background
John Auer was born on March 30, 1875 in Rochester, New York, United States. He was the son of Henry Auer and Luise (Hummel) Auer. Henry Auer, a native of Germany, was a brewer.
John Auer was born on March 30, 1875 in Rochester, New York, United States. He was the son of Henry Auer and Luise (Hummel) Auer. Henry Auer, a native of Germany, was a brewer.
Auer received the degree of bachelor of science from the University of Michigan in 1898. He studied medicine at the Johns Hopkins University, taking the M. D. degree in 1902.
After the university Auer joined the recently established Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research (now Rockefeller University) in New York City, first as fellow, then on the permanent roll as assistant in the laboratory of the physiologist Samuel J. Meltzer.
During the eighteen years of his connection with the institute the two men were closely associated personally and in research.
In 1906 the Rockefeller Institute sent Auer to Harvard University for a year to gain experience in physiological methods.
Most of his scientific contributions were published jointly with his father-in-law, to whose imaginative program of research Auer brought experimental skill of high order.
They collaborated on twenty-five papers dealing with the anesthetic and relaxative effects of magnesium sulphate, administered intravenously, with findings that were widely used in the treatment of tetanus, eclampsia, and other spasmodic conditions.
In 1906 the Rockefeller Institute sent Auer to Harvard University for a year to gain experience in physiological methods. In 1900-1910 Meltzer and Auer, seeking ways to counteract a side effect of magnesium anesthesia which made it dangerous for use in surgery, namely inhibition of the respiratory center in the brain, hit upon the method of ventilating the lungs by a stream of air blown into them through the trachea. By this means the blood can be aerated without breathing movements of the chest, and, by including ether or some other anesthetic vapor into the airstream, an animal or a human patient can be kept under surgical anesthesia, even after the chest is opened. This invention promptly found worldwide use in thoracic surgery.
Other joint investigations by Meltzer and Auer dealt with absorption from muscle, and with movements of the stomach and intestines and their control by the vagus and splanchnic nerves. This observation led Meltzer to propose the hypothesis, now universally accepted, that bronchial asthma results from anaphylactic sensitivity to foreign proteins. He studied the effects of poison gases, but with little or no practical results.
He was absorbed in organizing his courses and published nothing for eleven years. John then resumed work in the laboratory mostly with the assistance of his junior staff, studying the motor functions of the digestive and urinary systems.
In these later years he remained a devoted and unselfish teacher, deeply concerned with the interests of his students, and an example to them of the humane physician-scientist.
Auer was a tall man of studious appearance and broad intellectual interests, outgoing, and fond of argument. He would often linger at the Rockefeller Institute's lunch table to talk with the younger men, frequently espousing unpopular causes.
On October 1, 1903, Auer married Meltzer's daughter Clara. They had three children.