Rossolimo, Grigory Ivanovich

ROSSOLIMO, Grigory Ivanovich (1860–1928), a well-known Russian neuropathologist and professor at Moscow University. The Rossolimo family was of Greek nationality. He graduated from Moscow University in 1884. His entire career took place almost exclusively in Moscow and was dedicated to Moscow

University (serving as an intern, assistant, privat-docent, head of an independent clinical department, professor, and director of the Clinic for Nervous Diseases and the Neurological Institute). His work at the university was interrupted only during the period 1911–1917 (he resigned demonstratively in protest against the decree of Kasso). A student of professors A. Ya. Kozhevnikov, A. B. Vogt, and I. F. Klein, Rossolimo belonged to the second generation of the Moscow school of neuropathologists and psychiatrists. During the years of his forced removal from the university, he organized and funded, with his own earnings, the "Institute of Child Neurology and Psychology," which he later donated to Moscow University. He contributed to the establishment of the Society of Neuropathologists and Psychiatrists, the Psychological Society, and the Society of Experimental Psychology; he organized the "Korsakov Journal of Neuropathology and Psychiatry" (Moscow, since 1901), and with his active assistance, the "Transactions of the Clinic for Nervous Diseases of Moscow University" (Moscow, since 1916) began publication. In addition to neuropathology and psychiatry, he worked extensively in the fields of experimental psychology (psychotechnics), pathological pedology, psycho-physiological studies of schoolchildren, defective children, and aviators, as well as mass psychological experiments on various population groups, etc.

Rossolimo left 107 scientific works in various languages on neuropathology and psychology. In 1887, he defended his dissertation, "Experimental Research on the Question of the Pathways Conducting Sensitivity and Movement in the Spinal Cord" (Moscow, 1887). Rossolimo was the first to trace the course of the Gowers' tract in the cerebral direction, and he also developed the zones of blood circulation in the medulla oblongata. From his laboratory came several new methods of microscopic processing (Busch's method, formol-methylene). Rossolimo proposed a new surgical-toxicological method for studying brain functions, created the experimental-psychological method of the "psychological profile," and invented a whole series of new instruments for clinical examination: an individual dynamometer, clonograph, brain topograph, diadochokinesigraph, orthokinometer, dermatographometer, prosopometer, and others. Among his clinical achievements, the Rossolimo finger reflex gained the greatest fame; he also developed the syndrome of dissociated sensory disturbances in lesions of the brainstem. Rossolimo worked extensively on questions of constitution, and especially the tubercular constitution (the ear of the tuberculous). He was also one of the first neuropathologists to decide to use surgical methods for the treatment of nervous patients. Possessing psychological and literary talent, Rossolimo was a brilliant lecturer, often gave public lectures, and provided a whole series of interesting characterizations (Korsakov, Chekhov, Kozhevnikov) and memoirs. Literature: Neurology, Neuropathology, Psychology, Psychiatry, collection for the 40th anniversary of the scientific activity of G. I. Rossolimo, Moscow, 1925; Korsakov Journal of Neuropathology and Psychiatry, 1929, No. 3–4 (list of works).