It is with great pleasure that I accede to the request of the MEDICAL REVIEW OF REVIEWS to write a brief curriculum vitae of Dr. S. J. Meltzer for its Department of Notable Figures in Present Day Medicine, for among the notable figures in the medical world of to-day, Dr. Meltzer ranks among the very foremost. His achievements are genuine, solid, and form a permanent acquisition to scientific medicine. There are so many great men in medicine who, when closely examined, prove to possess feet of clay, and whose medical achieve ments are but ephemeral foam which quickly disappears on close analysis, that it is a great satisfaction to deal with a practical physician who is at the same time a true scientist, who is a thoro master of the scientific method, and who does not come out with statements which have to be retracted next week or next year.

Dr. Samuel James Meltzer was born in the town of Troup in the Government of Kovno, Russia, on March 22, 1851. He is consequently now sixtyone years old. He attended school in his native town, and later in Koenigsberg, Prussia. He entered the University of Berlin in 1876. At first he devoted himself to the study of philosophy under Paulsen, Erdmann and Steinthal. He then studied medicine, and he had among his teachers Helmholtz, Du-Bois Raymond, Virchow, Leyden, Frerichs, Kronecker and others. He was graduated in medicine in Berlin in 1882.

In 1883 he moved over to New York, where he soon acquired a very lucrative practice.

A person's early training leaves indelible marks in his brain and in his total makeup, and tho he may be temporarily torn away from his chosen work he will often go back to it as soon as conditions and circumstances permit. Tho for twenty years Dr. Meltzer was a busy general practitioner he did not lose his interest in research medicine, for which he acquired a taste while working on physiological subjects in the Physiological Institute of Berlin. And he lost no opportunity to carry on experimental work. work. While still engaged in active practice, he worked in the pathological laboratories of Bellevue Hospital Medical College, in the pathological, physiological and physiologico-chemical laboratories of Columbia University and in his private laboratory.

He gradually withdrew more and more from private practice, devoting more and more time to research work, and now, since his connection with the Rockefeller Institute, he does only occasional consultation work, devoting his entire time to research.

Dr. Meltzer is now the head of the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research. This is the highest attainable position there and is a permanent one.

He is the founder and was the first President of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine. He is President of the American Physiological Society, and also President of the Harvey Society. He is one of the founders and was the first President of the American Association for the Advancement of Clinical Research;

this society, composed of the progressive element of the younger generation of physicians is an effective factor in the present transitional stage of American medicine. He is an ex-president of the American Gastro-Enterological Association. He is a member of the Council of the Association of American Physicians; and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Academy of Sciences of New York, the Association of American Pathologists and Bacteriologists. Last year he was honored by election to membership in the old German Academy of Natural Sciences.

To give a complete list of the scientific achievements and publications of Dr. Meltzer would occupy many pages. The papers published by him run up into the hundreds. We must therefore limit ourselves to the mention of but a few, and we believe that we are correct in stating that the following are Dr. Meltzer's greatest contributions to scientific and practical medicine.

First: His discovery of the principle and development of the method of intratracheal insufflation. This method has a great future in practical surgery.

Are you a better man to-day than when you began the practice of medicine? Are you more interested in medical problems than ever? Are you doing vastly better work than you did five years ago? Have you a more rational sympathy for the sick, particu. larly if they be in more or less financial straits? Are you thinking a good deal about the sociological aspects of disease? Have you a very clear idea

Second: His experimental studies on magnesium salts, which among other things led to the introduction into practical medicine of the use of magnesium sulphate in tetanus. The miraculous antagonistic action of calcium salts upon poisoning by magnesium salts is at the present more of scientific interest, but we cannot predict what applications it may have.

His third contribution, which is pregnant with wonderful possibilities is his discovery of the peripheral mechanism of the circulation in cardiectomized animals.

Of his more popular lectures, which exerted a wholesome influence both on the profession of medicine and on the practice of medicine, we will mention his "The Factors of Safety in Animal Structure and Animal Economy," and his address on "The Science of Clinical Medicine: What It Ought to Be and the Men to Uphold It."

I am aware that this sketch of Dr. Meltzer and his work is but brief and inadequate, but I believe it will give the readers of the REVIEW a good idea of the great and important work which this man has done for Scientific Medicine. W. J. R.

as to the meaning and objects of the medical drama and no hazy notions. as to your part in it? If not, what have you been doing? If not, what makes you think you are a member of the medical profession? Graduation from a medical school, keeping a shingle on your house, going out to see sick people and having them come in to see you doesn't make you a member of the profession—or rather, it should not.