FLINT 395 FLINT he started, and subsequently as one of the founders of the Buffalo Medical College, he began to attract general attention by the ability of his writings and teachings and was very soon called to the chair of theory and prac- tice of medicine in the University of Louis- ville 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. During his hour no student ever falls asleep. He ranks specially high as a clinical instructor, and as a diag- nostician in diseases of the chest he has few equals. I know of no one who is so well en- titled to be regarded as the American Laennec." When in 18S9 he settled in New York his s"uccess was very striking. Moreover, his ac- tive pen was not only recording the fruit of his studies but all the time sending forth valuable essays and monographs. His rec- ords, begun in 1833, filled 16,922 folio pages. Advancing years did not hinder his open- mindedness towards new ideas ; and this was strikingly shown in his advocacy of the bac- terial theory of disease. Also he did more than any one to bring the binaural stetho- scope into general use. He said: "Much is to be expected from the use of instruments in detecting abnormal action within the body. It seems to me certain that the principle of the telephone will by and by be applied to intra- thoracic respiratory and heart sounds to trans- mit 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 "bronco-vesicular respiration" were proposed by him. His influence was used in offsetting the reactionary influence of Niemeyer, the lat- ter discarding the doctrines of Laennec, that phthisis was dependent on tubercles. Against this Flint threw the whole weight of his expe- rience, analyzing 670 cases and deducing evi- dence in support of Laennec and Louis. Among his noteworthy writings were : "Variations of Pitch in Percussion and Res- piratory Sounds," 1852; the separate pamphlets on "Chronic Pleurisy," "Dysentery," and "Continued Fever" were published in French in one volume, Paris, 1854; "Compendium of Percussion and Auscultation," four editions, 1865; "On Disease of the Heart," several edi- tions, 1852; "On Phthisis," 1875; essays on "Conservative Medicine," 1874; 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 pro- duced a man whose indefatigable industry and gifts of genius have done so much to advance medicine, and all English-reading students must be grateful for the work he has left be- hind him." Some of his positions and honors were : Professor of medical theory and practice, Buffalo Medical College, 1836-1844, 1846-1852: professor medical theory and practice. Rush Medical College, 1844-1845; professor of the same in the University of Louisville, 1852- 1856; professor of clinical medicine in the New Orleans School of Medicine, 1859-1861 ; physician to the Bellevue Hospital, New York, also professor of the principles and practice of medicine there, 1861-1886; professor of path- ology and practical medicine. Long Island College Hospital, 1861-1868; president of American Medical Association; fellow of the Pennsylvania College of Physicians; honorary member of the Medical Society of London, of the Clinical Society of London; LL. D. of Yale, and president of the New York Acad- emy of Medicine. Dr. Flint died of apoplexy, March 13, 1886, when seventy-three years old. He married, in 1835, a daughter of Mr. N. W. Skillings of Boston. In Memoriam, W. N. Carpenter, New York, 1886. Brit. Med. Jour., London, 1886, vol. i. Jour. Amer. Med. Assoc, Chicago, 1886, vol. vi. Lancet, London, 1886, vol. i, Med. News, Philadelphia. 1886, vol. xlviii Med. Rec, New York, 1886, vol. xxix, A. Tacobi. New York Med. Jour., 1886, vol. xliii. Gaillard's Med. Jour., New York, 1886, vol. xli. Flint, Austin (1836-1915). Austin Flint, physiologist and alienist, was born at Northampton, Massachusetts, March 28, 1836, and died in New York City, of cere- bral hemorrhage, September 21, 1915. He was the son of Austin Flint (q. v.), one of the most distinguished physicians of his time, and one of the great men in American medicine. The son, who was to become so widely known as a physiologist, was a student at Harvard in 1852 and 1853, and received his professional education in the medical department of the University of Louisville and in the Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, where he graduated in 1857, and in 1885 received the honorary degree of LL. D. He began practice with his father in Buf- falo in 1857, and became editor of the Buffalo Medical Journal, founded by his father.
