Kulchitsky

Kulchitsky Nikolai Konstantinovich (1856-1925), known Russian histologist. Graduated from the medical faculty of Kharkov University in 1879 and was retained at the department of histology. After defending his doctoral dissertation (1883), he was a privat-docent and prosector of histology at Kharkov University, and from 1889 a professor at the same department. In 1912 he was appointed trustee of the Kazan educational district, from where he was transferred to Petersburg in the same position. After the resignation of the 'liberal' Count P. Ignatiev for 'straightening' the policy of the Ministry of Public Education in the direction of reaction, K. was appointed Minister of Public Education. After the October Revolution, he emigrated from Russia and in his final years lived in London, where he again began scientific work and where he died in an accident. K. was a great expert in the microscope and microscopic techniques; he introduced a number of new methods into histological practice. K. published a number of major works: 'On the structure of the endings of the motor nerve in the muscles of voluntary movement of lower vertebrates' (Kharkov, 1881); 'On the structure of the mucous membrane of the small intestine and the mechanism of absorption' (Kharkov, 1882); in this work K. pointed to a special type of cell, which later received the name 'Kulchitsky cells'; 'On the structure of Grandy corpuscles' (Kharkov, 1882); 'Zur Lehre vom feineren Bau der Speicheldriisen' (Zeitschr. f. wissensch. Zoologie, B. XLI, 1885); 'Caryocinesis in farblosen Blutkorperchen' (Medic. Centralblatt, 1887, № 6); 'Uber die Art der Verbindung der glatten Muskelfasern miteinander' (Biol. Centralbl., B. VII, 1887, № 18); 'Die Befruchtungsvorgange bei Ascaris megalocephala' (Arch. f. mikr. Anatomie, B. XXXI, 1887). In addition K. wrote the textbook 'Fundamentals of histology of animals and humans' (Kharkov, 1900), which went through 5 editions, and 'The doctrine of the microscope and the technique of microscopic research' (Kharkov, 1895), also reprinted several times.