Nikolay Melnikov-Razvedenkov

MELNIKOV-RAZVEDENKOV, Nikolay Fedotovich (born 1866), prominent pathologist, academician. Graduated from the medical faculty of Moscow University in 1889 and was retained there for advanced training at the Department of Pathological Anatomy. From 1895, Doctor of Medicine. From 1896, privat-docent in pathological anatomy; from 1898 to 1900, on a scientific assignment abroad, working in Orenburg (Baden). From 1890 to 1902, he served as an assistant at the Department of Pathological Anatomy of Moscow University. From 1902 to 1920, Melnikov-Razvedenkov was professor of pathological anatomy at Kharkov University. In 1920, he moved to Krasnodar, where he was one of the organizers of the Kuban University; from 1920 to 1925, he held the chairs of pathological anatomy and forensic medicine there. In 1925, he returned to Kharkov and assumed the position of director of the Ukrainian Institute of Pathological Anatomy of Ukrnauka founded by him (from 1925 to 1930). From 1927, full member of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR. From 1930, head of the patho-morphological department of the Ukrainian Institute of Experimental Medicine (Kharkov). Melnikov-Razvedenkov is an outstanding public organizer; in 1892, he organized a pathological-anatomical circle in Moscow, which later developed into the Society of Pathologists; in Kharkov, he participated in the founding (1906) of the Kharkov Medical Journal, and in 1918 of Vrachebnoe Delo (Medical Practice), and served as their editor. In 1921–25, he served as rector of the Kuban Medical Institute; in Krasnodar, he participated in the founding of the Kuban Military Medical Journal, the Kuban Scientific Medical Bulletin, and the Kuban Physical-Medical Society (serving as its chairman). Since his return to Kharkov, he has been a member of the Presidium of Glavnauka of the Ukrainian SSR, chairman of the pathological commission of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences; in 1926, he founded the Ukrainian Society of Pathologists with 4 branches (Kharkov, Kiev, Odessa, Dnepropetrovsk) and is its permanent chairman. Melnikov-Razvedenkov is a member of the Presidium of the Academic Council of the People's Commissariat of Health of the Ukrainian SSR and co-editor of the Great Medical Encyclopedia. Among Melnikov-Razvedenkov's numerous published scientific works, the most well-known are: On the Question of Artificial Immunity to Anthrax (dissertation, Moscow, 1895; an experimental study); Alveolar Echinococcus in Humans and Animals (Kharkov, 1902; also in Beitr. z. path. Anatomie, Suppl. 4, 1901)—a major monograph published in Russian and German, which for the first time systematized all data on alveolar echinococcus and established the possibility of reproduction for this parasite without an intermediate host. In 1921, Melnikov-Razvedenkov published significant works on the pathological anatomy of scurvy and, in 1929, on Kussmaul's nodular periarteritis in the USSR. He authored the Practical Course in Pathological Histology (Kharkov, 1909; 3rd ed., 1916). Furthermore: Actinomycosis of the Central Nervous System (1930), Pathohistology of Edema (1934), Pathomorphology of Allergic Processes (1936), and many others. Melnikov-Razvedenkov discovered a method for preserving preparations while retaining their natural coloration ("A New Method of Preparing Anatomical Preparations with Preservation of Normal Coloration," Meditsinskoe Obozrenie, 1896, nos. 1 and 6); all other methods (Kaiserling, Pick, Jores, etc.) published later are built on the principle first established by Melnikov-Razvedenkov. Incidentally, Melnikov-Razvedenkov's method formed the basis of the embalming of V. I. Lenin's body, carried out by V. P. Vorobyov. In addition, Melnikov-Razvedenkov authored works on the past and present of the Department of Pathological Anatomy at Moscow University (Med. obozr., 1892, no. 10), on the history of scientific and public association among Russian pathologists (Vrach. delo, 1926, nos. 10–11), on the development of pathology in Ukraine (Ukr. med. arkh., 1927, no. 1; in Ukrainian), on the organization of research work in the field of medicine under Soviet power in the Ukrainian SSR (Vrach. delo, 1927, nos. 23–24), and others.