[1][2] He carried out extensive experimental investigations in human physiology and made several important discoveries.

and which, becoming a constituent of the bile, is afterward converted into what he named "stercorin" (better known as coprosterol), the odorous principle of feces.

He was born on March 28, 1836, in Northampton, Massachusetts, to Austin Flint I (1812–1886), who helped found Bellevue Hospital,[3] and Anne Balch Skillings (1814–1894).

[4] His younger sister was Susan Willard Flint (1838–1869), who married Brevet Major C.

[5] His aunts included Mrs. Susan Willard Jewett and Mrs. Elizabeth Henshaw Thiverick.