Polunin

Polunin Alexey Ivanovich (1820-1888), a prominent pathologist of his time, founder and organizer of the department of pathological anatomy at Moscow University. Born into a poor family of a teacher in the city of Bezhetsk, in 1842 he graduated from the medical faculty of Moscow University, after which he was sent abroad, where he stayed for 4^1/2 years. During his work abroad, he became very interested in pathological anatomy, which at that time was developing particularly intensively under the influence of Virchow, who was beginning his activities. Upon returning from abroad, P. worked for a year in the hospital therapeutic clinic of Varvinsky, and in 1848 he took up the newly established department of pathological anatomy at Moscow University. As the first professor of pathological anatomy, P. organized the teaching of this discipline, began the practice of dissection in Moscow, and created the first museum of pathological-anatomical specimens. Among Polunin's scientific works, the most famous are those concerning the pathological anatomy of inflammation and infectious diseases, especially cholera, to which Polunin's dissertation (Moscow, 1848) is also dedicated. A great merit of Polunin was that he was the first to translate into Russian and publish in extracts the famous lectures by Virchow on cellular pathology (Moscow, 1859). From 1851 to 1859, Polunin at his own expense published the "Moscow Medical Journal". For more than 10 years, Polunin served as dean of the medical faculty, and upon his retirement in 1879 he was elected an honorary member of the university. Although initially very popular among the students and in the medical world of Moscow, Polunin in the late sixties compromised himself in the notorious "Polunin affair", which consisted in the fact that when Zakharyin went abroad, P. took over the course of clinical lectures, not being a clinician. This caused protests among doctors and unrest among the students with a boycott of Polunin's lectures; however, Polunin did not yield, was supported by the university administration, and some of the protesting students were expelled from the university and exiled from Moscow.