Vol 27, No 4-5 (1931)

Я впервые в жизни встретился с Александром Филипповичем в Институте Экспериментальной Медицины, когда он, кончивши курс медицинского факультета в Юрьеве, явился в мою лабораторию с желанием практиковаться в физиологии.

I do not set myself the task of giving an exhaustive overview of all the extensive multilateral scientific activities of the late A. F. Samoilov. And it is impossible to do it now, at his fresh grave, when you are under the charm of his ebullient and exciting work, which he has been deploying with such success lately, about which he reported so fascinatingly 2 months before his unexpected death at the IV All-Union Congress of Physiologists, outlining tempting prospects for electrophysiological research in the field of the central nervous system. I will confine myself to the most general overview of his research in the field of neuromuscular physiology, where his main scientific work took place.

The electric changes which occur in living cells have been asso ciated with some of the most distinguished names in physiology and in the last fifteen years we have lost four workers in this field all of whom have made outstanding contributions to their subject. They are, in the order of their loss, Keith Lucas, Garten, Einthoven and now Samojlow. These four may be fitly grouped together because their technique, their published records and their method of attack on their problems shows throughout a quality all too rare in scientific work, a quality which is best described as „elegance“. Photographs fof the mo ving lights and shadows which record an action current may be ugly and unsatisfying or they may be well arranged and clear, exact demon strations of the point which their author wishes to bring out—satis fying both intellectually and aesthetically. No one who studies the re cords of these men can doubt that they had some of the qualities of the artist as well as those of the scientist and so their work is not only convincing but beautiful as well.

A. F. Samoilov's research on the physiology of the central nervous system belongs to the last period of his activity, covering the period from 1924 to 1930.

Das Endothel der Blut-und Lymphgefässe besitzt im frühen fötalen Leben die vollen Entwicklungsmöglichkeiten des übrigen embryonalen Mesenchyms. Im Laufe der Ontogenese wird diese Multipotenz der Ge fässwandzellen indessen immer mehr beschränkt; es folgt hier, wie im übrigen Mesenchym, allmählich eine Differenzierung und Spezialisierung in verschiedenen Richtungen.

The author performed experiments with decerebrumized by Sher rington’s method cats. 

If you irritate the motor nerve, which carries excitation to a locally damaged skeletal muscle, then, as is known, its resting current decreases; a negative oscillation of the resting current occurs. The situation is different when the inhibitory nerve of the heart is irritated. In this case, Gaskell received an increase in the quiescent current. His classic experiment was conducted on the atria of the turtle heart, which are in a state of prolonged arrest. The latter circumstance is very important, since by itself stopping 1) or even slowing down the rhythm of cardiac contractions already changes the magnitude of the resting current. Gaskell achieved a prolonged stop of the atria by making an incision between the sinus and the atria, while sparing the connective tissue cord that runs along the posterior surface of the heart and contains the cardiac branch of the vagus nerve among the vessels. Thus, the atria, deprived of the sinus pulse, naturally retain a connection with the vagus nerves. If now the tip of the atria is damaged and the vagus nerve is torn apart, then the resting current increases. Gotch could not confirm Gaskell's observations, which, according to Bourdon Sanderson, depended on the low sensitivity of the capillary electrometer used by Gotch in his experiments. Soon after the string galvanometer was introduced into the physiological methodology, a number of authors (Meck U. Eyste, Samoylov2) together with Sergeyev) examined in more detail the oscillation of the resting current on the turtle's heart, I fully confirmed, at least from the factual side, everything that was described by Gaskel Ten at the time, the work of Einthoven and Rademake on this issue has recently appeared. These authors come to the conclusion that when the vagus nerve is irritated, the increase in the resting current depends solely on the contraction of the lungs, which, dragging the suspended atria with them, stretch them; stretching of the heart muscle, as well as stretching of muscle tissue in general, gives an increase in the resting current. This work forced A. F. Samoilov to return once again to the Gaskelian phenomenon. In 1917 A. F. Samoilov confirmed the existence of the contractile capacity of the turtle lungs under the influence of the vagus nerve; in fact, the lever connected to the lungs rises upwards in response to the irritation of the vagus nerve, but it is absolutely clear from the curves given that there is no parallelism between this movement of the lever and the deviation of the galvanometer string caused by the oscillation of the atrial resting current. The contraction of the lung may distort the picture of the Gaskell phenomenon, but the existence of the latter, as it appears from the cited work, is beyond any doubt. The experience put forward by A. F. finally convinces us of this. Samoilov on a turtle heart isolated from the lungs with the preservation of both vagus nerves. This experience clearly shows "that Haskel at one time correctly observed and correctly concluded: the vagus nerve, when it is decompressed, causes such a change in the heart muscle of the resting atrium of the turtle, which is accompanied by an increase in the initial electric current of rest"4).

A survey is given of the recent advances in the study of the chemistry and physilogy of thyroxin and the follicular hormone, and future problems of endocrinology are discussed concerning the metabolism and mutual interactions of hormones.

The secretory activity of the digestive glands — gastric and pancreatic-is currently explained in physiology by two mechanisms—nervous and humoral. At the same time, it is believed that there is no mutual connection between the nervous and humoral mechanisms and that they act independently, independently of each other. From the point of view of the nervous mechanism, secretion is the direct result of the excitation of nerves as specific secretory agents and occurs independently of any other physiological conditions.

Der Einfluss des vegetativen Nervensystems auf ein bestimmtes Organ hängt ab von der Gesamtheit der Bedingungen, unter denen das Organ sich befindet.

Die Verfasser darstellen die Grundlagen der eleklrokardiographischen Untersuchung der Koronarthrom

Die Versuche führen zum Schluss

Die Hemmungen, welche sich beim Hungern beobachten lassen.

Проблема сердечного блока сосредоточила на себе в последнее время с разных сторон внимание многих исследователей. Помимо непосредственной практической значимости этой проблемы, лежащей в основе обширного раздела патологии сердца, сердечный блок представляет собой весьма подходящий объект для разрешения ряда основных теоретических вопросов, связанных с явлениями проведения, суммирования и торможения в комплексной системе возбудимых тканей.