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Buffalo, where, as editor of the "Buffalo Medical Journal" which he started and subsequently as one of the founders of the Buffalo Medical College, he began by the ability of his writings and teach- ings to attract general attention and was very soon called to the chair of theory and practice of medicine in the University of Louisville with S. D. Gross as associate. Gross says of Flint in his "Autobiography:" "Tall, handsome, with a well modulated voice of great compass, he is as a lecturer at once clear, distinct and inspiring. Dur- ing his hour no student ever falls asleep. He ranks specially high as a clinical instructor and as a diagnostician in diseases of the chest he has few equals. I know of no one who is so well entitled to be regarded as the American Laennec."
When in 1859 he settled in New York his success was very striking. Moreover, his active pen was not only recording the fruit of his studies but all the time sending forth valuable essays and monographs. His records, begun in 1833, filled 16,922 folio pages. Ad- vancing years did not hinder his open- mindedness towards new ideas; and this was strikingly shown in his advo- cation of the bacterial theory of disease. Also he did more than any one to bring the biaural stethoscope into general use. He said: "Much is to be expected from the use of instruments in detect- ing abnormal action within the body. It seems to me certain that the princi- ple of the telephone will by and by be applied to intrathoracic respiratory and heart sounds to transmit them with more distinctness." "With im- provement in instruments we may be able to study normal and abnormal conditions of the circulation in all the natural organs of the body by the sounds they make in the processes of secretion and excretion of nutrition and of morbid growths."
The terms "cavernous respiration" and " broncho-vesicular respiration " were proposed by him. His influence in
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offsetting the reactionary influence of Niemeyer, the latter discarding the doctrines of Laennec, that phthisis was dependent on tubercles. Against this Flint threw the whole weight of his ex- perience, analyzing 670 cases and de- ducing evidence in support of Laennec and Louis. The book is a mine of clinical experience in consumption.
Among his noteworthy writings were: " Variations of Pitch in Percussion and Respiratory Sounds," 1852; the sepa- rate pamphlets on "Chronic Pleurisy," "Dysentery," and "Continued Fever" were published in French in one volume, Paris, 1854; "Compendium of Percus- sion and Auscultation," four editions, 1865; "On Diseaseof the Heart, "several editions, 1852; "On Phthisis," 1875; essays on " Conservative Medicine, " 1S74; Treatise on the "Principles and Practice of Medicine," seven editions, 1866. This work is the one by which he is best known, and the "London Lancet" (March 12, 1887), reviewing it, said: "America may well be proud of having produced a man whose in- defatigable industry and gifts of genius have done so much to advance medi- cine, and all English-reading students must be grateful for the work he has left behind him."
And some of his positions and honors were:
The chair of the institutes and practice of medicine, Rush Medical College, Chicago; professor of the prin- ciples and practice of medicine, Buffalo Medical College; professor of theory and practice of Medicine, University of Louisville; professor of clinical medicine in the New Orleans School of Medicine; physician to the Bcllevue Hospital, New York, also professor of the principles and practice of medicine there; presi- dent of American Medical Association; fellow of the Pennsylvania College of Physicians; honorary member of the Medical Society of London, of the Clin- ical Society of London; LL. D. of Yale, and preeidenl of the New York Academy of Medicine.
