Lavrov

LAVROV David Melitonovich (1867-1929), noted Russian pharmacologist; graduated from Moscow University first from the natural sciences division of the physics-mathematics faculty, and then also from the medical faculty. For a long time he was a professor of pharmacology at the University of Yuryev. In his final years he worked in Odessa, where he died. In the works of L. much attention was devoted to the chemistry of protein digestion ("On the chemistry of peptic and tryptic digestion of proteins," dissertation, 1897). In this work, as in a number of subsequent ones, L. demonstrated the complete analogy between the processes of natural and artificial digestion of proteins. He also established the identity of hydrolytic cleavage of proteins under the influence of weak acids and enzymatic cleavage. Finally, L. authored a number of interesting pharmacological studies on the role of lecithin in the mechanism of action of various medicinal substances. A number of articles by L. were published in the "Zeitschrift für physiologische Chemie" (1898-1909).