Valerian Podvysotsky

PODVYSOTSKY, Valerian Osipovich (1822–1892), a well-known pharmacologist and specialist in pharmaceutical chemistry, professor of pharmacognosy and pharmacy at Kazan University. He graduated from the Faculty of Law in Kharkov with the degree of Candidate of Law and entered state service. At the age of 50, upon retiring, he entered the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Dorpat, upon graduation from which he defended his dissertation «Anatomische Untersuchung über die Zungendrüsen des Menschen u. der Säugethiere» (Dorpat, 1878). Even while still a student, Podvysotsky intensively studied pharmaceutical chemistry at Dragendorff's institute and in the work «Über die wirksamen und einige andere Bestandtheile des Mutterkornes» (Arch. f. exp. Pathol. u. Pharmakol., B. VI, Heft 3–4, 1876), jointly with Dragendorff, he described the methods of obtaining and the physicochemical properties of sclererythrin, scleroyodin, scleroxanthin, sclerocrystallin, sclerotinic acid, and scleromucin. Continuing to specialize in the study of medicinal substances, Podvysotsky investigated their action on animals, placing at the basis of his study the extraction and investigation of the pure active components of the preparation being studied. The works «Beiträge zur Kenntnis des Emetins» (Arch. f. exp. Pathol., B. XI, Heft 3–4, 1879) and «Pharmakologische und chemische Studien über Podophyllum peltatum» (ibid., B. XIII, Heft 1–2, 1880) advanced Podvysotsky into the ranks of internationally known specialist pharmacologists. Having received his pharmacological education in Dorpat under the guidance of Böhm, in whose institute Podvysotsky served as an assistant, Podvysotsky worked for another two years abroad in various European pharmacological institutes (1883, 1884). With the rank of privatdocent (from 1879), Podvysotsky in 1881 and 1885 held the position of professor of pharmacology, dietetics, and the history of medicine in Dorpat, and on July 1, 1885, was appointed ordinary professor of pharmacognosy and pharmacy at Kazan University. Here Podvysotsky organized a pharmaceutical laboratory with a pharmacognostic museum and a well-compiled specialized library. As a teacher, Podvysotsky knew how to interest his listeners and thus prepared students for the further study of medicinal substances in a pharmacological respect. In addition to those named above, a number of Podvysotsky's works appeared in the «Military-Medical Journal» (1879–82) and in «Vrach» (1885). For medical students, Podvysotsky published as a manual the booklet «Pharmacognosy of Plant Substances Adopted by the Russian Pharmacopoeia» (Kazan, 1886). Under Podvysotsky's editorship, the 4th (posthumous) edition was published of Dybkovsky's lectures on pharmacology, which are still

read with interest to this day (Kiev, 1884).