[6] During WWI he was a Major in the Army Reserve Corps and contributed to wartime research conducted at the Rockefeller Institute.

[10] In response to his death, the Administrative Board of the St. Louis School of Medicine published a resolution stating he was "a scholar of the broadest interests and a human being of the highest nobility.

[1] In 1903 while working in Osler's ward at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, Auer noticed a 21 year old man with a severe nose bleed, throat infection, anemia, and splenomegaly.

Upon examination of the young man's blood, Auer noticed needle-like rod forms in some cells, which he believed were lymphocytes.

It has since been shown that Auer rods are found in myeloid cells, and it is now thought that they are formed from fused lysosomes.

[2] Auer rods are found only in neoplastic cells and are used in the diagnosis of acute promyelocytic leukemia, though they do not indicate the prognosis of a patient.

[14] In Meltzer's laboratory at the Rockefeller Institute, John Auer and Paul Lewis were the first to recognize asphyxiation as the cause of death in anaphylaxis.

In pithing the guinea pigs used in their study, Auer and Lewis were able to show that the peripheral nervous system was responsible for the onset of anaphylaxis.

Coupled with the continuous inflation of the lungs via an endotracheal tube, one could maintain ventilation of the body while immobilizing the chest.

[5] Conducting such research, Auer was the first to establish intravenous magnesium sulfate as a treatment for the convulsions of tetanus.

[5] Auer was the first to describe swelling as an allergic reaction caused by xylene, which he observed by experimenting on rabbits.