Elton

ELTON, a balneological and mud-cure resort in the Stalingrad Krai, located on the shore of the saltwater Lake Elton, along the Saratov-Astrakhan railway line, 320 km from Saratov and 348 km from Astrakhan. Lake Elton is one of the largest self-depositing salt lakes in the USSR. The shape of the lake is oval, and its area is approximately 230 km². The lake brine is extremely saturated; its specific gravity is 1.210, and its mineralization is composed predominantly of sodium chloride, with admixtures of calcium and magnesium; the sulfate ion is present in lesser amounts than in other similar lakes. The lake contains the richest deposits of excellent therapeutic mud. This mud lies predominantly along the shores of the lake. The resort is situated in the Trans-Volga steppes. Against the background of the deserted, saline steppes, the resort area stands out with its quite significant park and arboreal vegetation. The climate of the resort is sharply continental with hot, sultry summers, early spring, and a severe winter with little snow. Air temperatures during the season are: in May +17.3°, in June +22.7°, in July +25.4°, in August +22.7°, and in September +16.0°. Precipitation is low: in May 34 mm, in June 38 mm, in July 24 mm, in August 20 mm, and in September 26 mm. The weather is predominantly sunny, with an average summer air humidity of 50-55%. Constantly blowing winds, which are relatively mild in summer, moderate the heat. The therapeutic agents used at the resort are the brine and mud of Lake Elton, as well as heliotherapy. In the vicinity of the resort, there are many mineral springs that have still been little studied; some of them, for instance, the spring near the mouth of the Bolshaya Smorogda River (saline-ferruginous with a high content of magnesium and sodium sulfates), are used for drinking. The resort has a large mud-bath establishment located directly on the lake and connected to the resort settlement by a special railway branch (4 km). The mud-bath establishment can provide about 1,000 procedures in 8 hours. The resort has a polyclinic, a well-equipped laboratory, an X-ray room, a pharmacy, a physiotherapy department, and therapeutic physical culture is conducted.

Accommodations for sanatorium patients are located in the resort settlement, while outpatient patients are accommodated in neighboring settlements. The capacity of the resort is up to 1,500 people per season. The season runs from May to September. Indications are general for mud-cure resorts. The resort has been functioning since 1910. Lake Elton mud was one of the first to be used for off-resort mud therapy due to its significant density, which facilitates transportation.

G. Neurahov.

EMBDEN, Gustav (Gustav Embden, 1874–1933), an eminent German biochemist. He studied at the universities of Freiburg, Munich, Berlin, and Strasbourg; from 1899–1903 he worked in Hofmeister's laboratory. From 1904 Embden headed a clinical laboratory in Frankfurt, and in 1907 he converted this small laboratory into the Institute of Physiology and Chemistry. In 1907 Embden became a privatdozent, in 1909 an extraordinary professor, and from 1914 until his death he was an ordinary professor and head of the Department of Biological Chemistry at the University of Frankfurt. Embden's works belong to the field of intermediary metabolism of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. He studied the formation of lactic acid and a number of intermediate products during glycolysis, the formation of sugar in the liver from amino acids and trioses, the role of the liver in the formation of amino acids from keto and oxy acids and ammonium salts, and the sources and site of formation of ketone bodies in the organism. Much was done by Embden in the chemistry of muscle contraction: he isolated hexose monophosphoric acid and adenosine phosphoric (adenylic) acid, established the elimination of ammonia during muscular work, and studied the role of lactic acid and phosphorus in the process of muscle contraction. In 1933 he proposed a new scheme for carbohydrate breakdown, according to which the path to the end products does not lie through methylglyoxal (see), as was previously assumed, but through three-carbon phosphorylated products—phosphotrioses, phosphoglyceric acid, and pyruvic acid. This discovery by Embden played an outstanding role in the development of modern concepts of the chemistry of carbohydrate breakdown both in glycolysis (see) in the animal cell and in fermentations. Embden's works were published predominantly in Hoppe-Seyler's Zeitschrift für physiologische Chemie and in Pflügers Archiv. Embden was a co-editor of the major Handbuch der normalen und pathologischen Physiologie (Berlin, vols. I–XVIII, from 1925).