33
STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN.
Carolin Institute, Department of Pharmacology.
Professor 0. Liljestrand.
Since the retirement of Professor Johansson, my interest in
Stockholm has centered in large part about my dear good friend,
Professor Liljestrand. The fact that he had been but a relatively
short time before in Boston and we had been in intimate touch with
him made a visit to his laboratory most important. We were ex¬
tremely fortunate in being with him a good part of our time in
Stockholm. As a member of the Nobel commission he talked rather
freely in relation to Rubner and the Nobel prize, stating that
Rubner never had a_ chance at the Nobel prize as his work was old
when the Nobel prize was founded and in spite of Lusk’s statement
in the necrology of Rubner he, Rubner, did not step on Professor
"X’s" toes. He also said that it was quite impossible for him to
agree that Rubner was anything like the greatest man he ever met.
He considered that his isodynamic replacement of the nutrients was
Rubner’s most important work. Liljestrand is as stimulating as
ever, with a great variety of interests, with a wide personal ac¬
quaintance with European scientists, and one of the finest minds
I have ever met. He is at present very much interested in alcohol
and the rate of loss by ventilation when the subject breathes 5 per
cent carbon dioxide and 95 per cent oxygen. He was interested in
the problem as to whether you can sweep out methyl alcohol by over¬
ventilation. If so, one may possibly off-set its cumulative ten¬
dency.
One problem in connection with the snake investigation was
interesting to Liljestrand in that he thought perhaps one should
keep cold-blooded animals at a high temperature and see if there
was any tendency to develop an increased blood distribution or does
it take ages. Lfy feeling is that it would take a very long time.
He thinks that the theory that the absence of blood circulation is
the difference between cold-blooded and warm-blooded is very plaus¬
ible. While Liljestrand is primarily a pharmacologist he can se¬
lect his own problems and probably they are fully as much of a
physiological as a pharmacological nature. Ity own feeling is that
Liljestrand is the keenest among men in physiology in Europe. I
know of no one who has the breadth of view that he has, with re¬
markably good powers of assessment and analysis. It is no wonder
that I purposely arranged to be in contact with him as much as
possible during my stay in Stockholm.