Merezhkovsky

MEREZHKOVSKY Sergei Sergeevich (1862-1930), prominent bacteriologist who dedicated his life to combating harmful rodents. He graduated from the Military Medical Academy in 1893. While still at the academy, he discovered a microbe named after him (Bac. typhi spermophilorum). He traveled to America and Japan to verify the effectiveness of the bacterial method for combating locusts proposed by d'Herelle and proved the inadequacy of this method. After returning from America, M. worked for some time at the plague fortress in Kronstadt, and then in the laboratory of the Ministry of Agriculture, where he remained until the revolution, heading the department for combating harmful rodents by bacteriological methods. After the revolution, he organized a similar department at the Institute of Experimental Agronomy. M. worked almost exclusively in the field of applying the bacterial method to the extermination of mice and rats. His services in this field were extremely great. The microbe of suslik typhus discovered by him proved to be a reliable and harmless means for destroying urban and field mice. It found universal application under the name of mouse typhus (see). No less important were M.'s studies in relation to rat typhus (see). Having chosen the bacillus discovered by Danysz for the bacterial fight against rats, M. found the conditions under which this bacillus proves effective for exterminating rats and harmless to humans and animals. On these issues, M. had to carry out enormous work to clarify why rat typhus is often harmless to rats but dangerous to domestic animals and humans. Then M. discovered a medium in which Danysz's bacillus invariably retains its effectiveness and harmlessness after more than 1,200 generations for many years. M.'s last major work ('Results of mass application of Danysz's bacillus cultures for exterminating rats', Petrograd, 1923) once again confirmed the important practical significance of the methods developed by M.