Muratov, Vladimir Alexandrovich

MURATOV, Vladimir Alexandrovich (1865–1916), a well-known neuropathologist. He graduated from the medical faculty of Moscow University in 1889, completed his residency in the clinic of A. Ya. Kozhevnikov, and subsequently served as a prosector at the Bakhrushin, Preobrazhenskaya, and Vladimir hospitals while simultaneously (from 1894) working as a privat-docent at Moscow University. From 1906 he was the director of the Tambov and later the Saratov psychiatric hospitals, from 1910 a professor at Tomsk University, and from 1911 to 1916 a professor at Moscow University. In his political convictions, Muratov belonged to the reactionary tsensura [censorship/nobility qualification].

Of Muratov's numerous (about 100) works, special attention is deserved by: «Secondary Degenerations in Focal Disorders of the Motor Sphere of the Cerebral Cortex» (dissertation, Moscow, 1893); «Clinical Lectures on Nervous Diseases of Childhood» (Moscow, 1898); and «Guide to the Study of Diseases of the Nervous System» (Moscow, 1916). Further interest is presented by: his theory of the origin of involuntary movements, the occurrence of which Muratov associated with damage to the system of the brachia conjunctiva (nucleus dentatus -> nucleus ruber) («New Data on the Pathology of Involuntary Movements in Focal Brain Diseases», Meditsinskoe Obozrenie, vol. IX, 1903); the subcallosal bundle (fasciculus subcallosus) subsequently isolated by Muratov; the doctrine of the post-infectious origin of encephalitis; and an original conception of the pathophysiology of epileptic seizures.