Austin Flint, Jr., M.D.

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American physiologist, 1836-1915

Austin Flint, Jr. was the son of the physician Austin Flint (1812-1886). He was a physiologist and educator who founded the Bellevue Hospital Medical College, where he was professor and chair of the Department of Physiology and Microbiology from 1861 to 1897. He was also the surgeon general for the state of New York.

Austin Flint, Jr., physician, born in Northampton, Massachusetts, 28 March 1836, accompanied his parents to Buffalo, where he received his early education. He entered Harvard in 1852, but left at the end of his first year, and spent some time in the study of civil engineering. In 1854 he began his medical studies in Buffalo, continued them in Louisville, and was graduated at the Jefferson medical College, in Philadelphia, in 1857. Subsequently, until 1860, he edited the " Buffalo Medical Journal," which afterward was transferred to New York and merged in the " American Medical Monthly." In 1858 he was appointed one of the attending surgeons of the Buffalo City hospital, and during the same year was appointed professor of physiology in the Buffalo medical College. He came to New York in 1859, was elected to the chair of physiology in the New York medical College, and to a similar chair in the New Orleans school of medicine in 1860, but resigned the latter at the beginning of the civil war.

As a student in Louisville, he had developed a special taste for physiology, mid had experimented on living animals with Professor Lunsford P. Yandell. While in New Orleans he experimented on alligators, and developed some important points with reference to the influence of the pneumogastrie nerves upon the heart. Dr. Flint was the first physiolgist in the United States to operate on the spinal cord and the spinal nerves in living animals, arm early in 1861 spent several months studying in Paris under Charles Robin and Claude Bernard.

On the organization of the Bellevue hospital medical College, in 1861, he became professor of physiology and microscopic anatomy, and also secretary and treasurer of the faculty. For eight years he delivered lectures on physiology in the Long Island College hospital.

In 1874 he became surgeon general of New York state, His experimental work has received high praise. In 1862 his investigations on "A New Excretory Function of the Liver" was presented to the French academy of sciences for the Monthyon prize, and in 1869 it received honorable mention and 1,500 francs. He published in 1869 an elaborate review of the history of the discovery of the motor and sensory properties of the roots of the spinal nerves, in which the discovery was ascribed to Francois Magendie instead of to Sir Charles Bell, who has generally been regarded as its author. During the same year he conducted a series of experiments upon the glyeogenic function of the liver, in which he endeavored to harmonize various conflicting observations, and is considered to have settled the question. Dr. Flint is a member of medical and scientific societies, has been a large contributor to medical journals, and has published numerous monographs, he was the author of articles in the "American Cyclopaedia," and his works include "The Physiology of Man" (New York, 1866'74);" Manual of Chemical Examination of the Urine in Disease" (1870; 6th ed., 1884); "Textbook of Human Physiology" (1876: 3d ed., 1881); "' On the Source of Muscular Power" (1878); and "On the Physiological Effects of Severe and Protracted Muscular Exercise" (1871).

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From Bellevue Hospital:

1869 Flint, Austin, Jr., 1874.

M. D., Jefferson, 1857; LL. D., 1885; Surg., Buffalo Gen. Hosp., 1858; U. S. (Ladies' Home) Gen. Hosp., N. Y. City, 1862-66; Surg.-Gen., State N. Y., 1874-78; Prof. Physiol., Univ. of Buffalo, 1858-59; N. Y. Med. Coll., 1859-60; New Orleans School Med., 1860-61; Bell. Hosp. Med. Coll. since 1861 ; L. I. Coll. Hosp., 1869-74. Editor "Buffalo Med. Jour.," 1857-60. Author of "Physiol. of Man," 5 vols., 8°, pp. 500 (Appleton, 1866-74; 2d ed., 1875); " Chemical Examination of Urine in Disease," pp. 76, N. Y., 1870 (6th ed., 1884); "Physiological Effects of Severe & Protracted Muscular Exercise," pp. 91, N. Y., 1871 (idem, with supplementary remarks, London, 1876); "Text- Book of Human Physiology, pp.978, 8°,N.Y., 1875 (4th ed., 1888) ; " Source of Muscular Power," pp. 103, N. Y., 1878; and articles: " Phenomena of the Capillary Circulation," inaug. thesis, Phila., 1857; "Experiments on the Recurrent Sensibility of the Anterior Roots of the Spinal Nerves," New Orleans, 1861 ; " New Function of the Liver," Phila., 1862; "The Organic Nitrogenized Principles of the Body, with a New Method for their Estimation in the Blood," Phila., 1863 ; " Reports on Diet for the Institutions under the Charge of the Commissioners of Public Charities and Correction," N. Y., 1867; " Historical Considerations Concerning the Properties of the Roots of the Spinal Nerves," N. Y., 1868; " Recherches Experimentales sur une Nouvelle Fonction du Foie," Paris, 1848; received "Honorable Mention," with a recompense of 1500 francs, from the Institute of France (Academic des Sciences) in 1869 (Concours Mon- tyon Medicine et Chirurgie); " Glycogenic Function of the Liver," N. Y., 1869; "Prolonged Muscular Exercise and the Elimination of Nitrogen," N. Y., 1870 (idem, 2d memoir, 1871); " Reflex Nervous Action in Normal Respiration,"Chicago,1874; "Source of MuscularPower,"London, 1876;"Excretory Function of the Liver," Phila., 1877 ; " Memoir of Claude Bernard," Phila., 1878; "Experiments & Reflections on Animal Heat," Phila., 1879; "Is the Action of the Medulla Oblongata in Normal Respiration Reflex?" Phila., 1880; " Cause of the Movements of Ordinary Respiration," London, 1881 ; " Treatment of Diabetes Mellitus," Chicago, 1884; "Relations of Physiology to the Practice of Medicine," N. Y., 1886; "Mechanism of the Singing Voice," N. Y., 1888; American Medical Students," Phila., 1888; " A Possible Revolution in Medicine,"N.Y., 1888; "Fever" (Address in behalf of the U. S. deliv. in Gen. Sess. 9th Intern. Med. Cong., Wash., 1887); "Late Theories Concerning Fever," N. Y., 1889; "The Open Door of Quackery," N. Y., 1889; "The Revolution in Medicine," N. Y., 1890,
etc. Son of Austin Flint (1861-86), and father of Austin Flint, Jr. (1890, II).