Austin Flint, 2nd

Austin Flint (1836-1915) was an American physician, born at Northampton, Mass., son of Austin Flint. He attended medical lectures at the University of Louisville from 1854 to 1856 and in 1856 and 1857 at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia. From 1857 to 1859 he was editor of the Buffalo Medical Journal, surgeon of Buffalo City Hospital, and professor of physiology and microscopical anatomy in the University of Buffalo. In 1859 he removed to New York with his father and was appointed professor of physiology in New York Medical College. He was professor of physiology in the New Orleans Medical College in 1860 and studied in Europe in 1860 and 1861. He was professor of physiology and microscopic anatomy in Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New York City, from 1861 till that institution was consolidated with the medical department of New York University in 1898, when he was appointed professor of physiology in Cornell University Medical College. He was, in 1874, Surgeon-General of New York State. He carried out extensive experimental investigations in human physiology and made several important discoveries. He assisted in establishing the glycogenic function of the liver; showed that one of the functions of the liver is to separate from the blood the cholesterin, which is a product of the nervous system. and which, becoming a constituent of the bile, is afterward converted into what he named "stercorin," the odorous principle of the fæces. His principal works are:

• The Physiology of Man (fourth edition, 1888)
• Chemical Examinations of Urine in Diseases (six editions, 1870-84)
• Effects of Severe and Protracted Muscular Exercises (1871)
• Source of Muscular Power (1878)
• Text-Book of Human Physiology (1875)
• Experiments Regarding a New Function of the Liver, Separating the Cholesterin of the Blood and Eliminating it as Stercorin (1862)
• The Physiology of the Nervous System (1872)
• Mechanism of Reflex Nervous Action in Normal Respiration (1874)
• The Treatment of Diabetes Mellitus (1884)
• Chemical Examination of the Urine in Disease (1893)
• Stercorin and Cholesterœmia (1897)
• Handbook of Physiology (1905)

Additional recommended knowledge

Daily Sensitivity Test

Essential Laboratory Skills Guide

How to quickly check pipettes?

Terms

• Flint's arcade — an arteriovenous arch at the base of the renal pyramids.

Dorland's Medical Dictionary (1938)

• This article incorporates text from an edition of the New International Encyclopedia that is in the public domain.