Orbeli

ORBELEI Leon Abgarovich (born in 1882), one of the leading physiologists of the USSR. As a student, he began his scientific activity under the guidance of I. P. Pavlov. Orbeli's first work (on the activity of the pepsin glands after cutting the vagus nerves) was awarded a gold medal. After graduating from the Military Medical Academy from 1904 to 1908, Orbeli served as a doctor in the Baltic Fleet, continuing his scientific work at the Institute of Experimental Medicine. In 1908, he published his dissertation: "Conditional reflexes from the eye in dogs" (St. Petersburg). In 1909, Orbeli worked abroad under Hering, Herten and Langley and others. After returning from a foreign business trip, he received the title of associate professor, and in 1913 - professor of the higher courses named after Lesgaft. Since 1920, he has been a professor at the Medical Institute. In 1925, after the departure of I. P. Pavlov, he was elected to the chair of physiology at the Military Medical Academy, which he still holds. In addition, since the reorganization of the Scientific Institute named after Lesgaft, he has been deputy director of the institute until recently. From 1925 to 1931, Orbeli was chairman of the Society of Russian Physiologists named after Sechenov. At international congresses, Orbeli presented scientific reports in London (1926), Stockholm (1929) and other cities. Orbeli's scientific research covers various areas of physiology. The most interesting are Orbeli's works in the field of physiology of the autonomic nervous system. The works of Orbeli's school on the study of the influence of the sympathetic nervous system on striated muscles and the central nervous system have become widely known. In this area, Orbeli managed to establish the regulatory role of the sympathetic nervous system on all excitable tissues. From these works it follows that the preparedness (adaptation) of the reflex apparatus to perform its functions is under the influence of the sympathetic nervous system. Other works of Orbeli in the field of the mechanism of coordination, kidney physiology and digestive enzymes are also significant. Orbeli's works and his employees were published in the "Russian Physiological Journal", "News of the Lesgaft Institute", "Medical-Biological Journal", "Z. f. d. ges. exp. Med.", "Biochem. Z.", "Pflugers Arch. f. Physiologies" and other publications. Belonging to the old guard of specialists, Orbeli did not sufficiently distance himself from the remnants of the bourgeois intelligentsia, which repeatedly caused an unfriendly attitude towards him from the Soviet scientific community. Recently, in connection with the general turn of most intellectuals towards the Soviet power, a certain shift is also noticeable in Orbeli.