2The Atlantic Seaboard


  Bright spots in Welch's medical course were the winning of a micro-
scope as a prize for the best report of Sequin's lectures on diseases of
the nervous system and in the final year the thesis prize for an essay on
goiter. Welch's indecision seems now to have left him, and he stood
out in his classes both as a student and as a leader. After graduation in
February, 1875, Welch received an appointment as intern at Bellevue
Hospital where in addition to other facilities he came in contact with
Delafield, the pathologist, and had more experience in post-mortems.
Again at loose ends at the end of his internship and with no positions
whatever in New York and a dislike of the practice of medicine, Welch
persuaded his father that a period of study in the active laboratories of
Germany was necessary for his further advance.
  In April, 1876, he sailed for Europe for the first, the longest, and the
most eye-opening of the many trips to the older countries that he was
to make during his long life. He knew little German and had never
had laboratory courses in normal histology or in physiological chemis-
try, so he spent a portion of the year taking courses that the present-day
student completes in his first year in medical school. He enjoyed his-
tology with Waldeyer, physiological chemistry with Hoppe-Seyler at
Strasbourg, then went to Leipzig where his most valued opportunity
was working under Ludwig in the physiology laboratory. He was as-
tounded at the high level of the courses and the quality of investigation
in all the laboratories, "nothing like it in America." In Breslau
he
worked in pathology with Cohnheim, then back to Strasbourg to study
under von Recklinghausen, previously denied to him because of his
lack of preparation. With Cohnheim he did one of his best experimental
pathological studies showing that pulmonary edema is caused by dis-
proportion (Missverhailtnis) in the action of the two cardiac ventricles.
  The excitement over Koch's experimental production of anthrax with
pure cultures of Bacillus anthracis ran through the laboratories, but did
not at this time impress Welch, although he must have been aware of
the demonstration in Cohnheim's laboratory. He did not refer to bac-
teria in his letters until von Recklinghausen called his attention to their
probable importance. Then he wrote to his father that "for the last
six
or eight years there has been strong and increasing evidence that in-
fectious diseases are due to the presence in the blood or body of micro-
scopical organisms."3 The active minds and laboratories of the German
leaders of the period convinced him that he must have another year in
Europe, and in spite of some financial difficulties, it was finally arranged.
Meantime he was absorbing the delights of life in Europe through each


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