Resins and Snegirev, Vladimir Fedorovich

RESINS, a name uniting peculiar products of the secretions of many plants that possess certain common properties; they are formed in plants as either normal physiological or, not infrequently, pathological products. While not representing a pure, homogeneous chemical product nor a mixture of similar compounds, as is the case, for example, in the class of fats, resins will nevertheless seemingly retain for a long time in medicine, chemical technology, commodity science, pharmacognosy, etc., the significance of a class name, thanks to the similarity of their origin and the presence of very many characteristic properties that bring individual representatives together. Resins generally appear in the form of amorphous masses, more rarely crystalline, sometimes liquid, often possess stickiness, almost all burn with a sooty flame, are almost or completely insoluble in water, do not leave any characteristic spot on paper, in contrast to fats and fatty oils, do not turn rancid, are saponifiable, and represent mixtures of various colorless or colored, fragrant or odorless substances. They are rich in carbon and hydrogen, poor in oxygen, do not contain nitrogen, and only very rarely contain small amounts of sulfur. Among the most important constituent parts of natural resins, one must first point to the gum that is quite frequently encountered in them; such resins are separated into a special group of gum-resins (Gummi-resinae); in medicine, the following are used: gamboge (see), euphorbium, lactucarium (see), and others. The second essential constituent part of resins is essential oils; if they are mixed with gum-resins, such resins are called oleo-gum-resins (Gummiresinae oleosae); in medicine, the following are used: Asa foetida (see), ammoniacum (see), galbanum (see), myrrh (see), frankincense (see Benzoin), and others; if gum is absent, and there is only a mixture of oil and resins, then they are called oleo-resins (Oleo-resinae); the more liquid of these are called balsams (Balsamum); in medicine, the following are used: copaiba balsam, turpentine, Venetian turpentine, elemi, styrax, Canada balsam, and others. Furthermore, if there is a pure resin, i.e., a mixture of complex, in most cases still insufficiently studied alcohols, esters, acids, etc., then according to the character of the acids contained in the resin, it is most convenient to divide them into resins proper (not possessing an odor) (Resinae), of which the following are used in medicine: guaiac resin, podophyllin, jalap resin, rosin, dammar, and others, and resins with aromatic acids, possessing a pleasant odor from the presence in them of fragrant benzoic, cinnamic acids, etc. (Resinae cum acidis aromaticis); in medicine, the following are used: benzoin, or gum benzoin, Peruvian balsam, Tolu balsam, styrax, and others. In terms of appearance and properties, resins present a great variety depending on consistency and the method of obtaining them; there are solid, thick, and liquid ones. The color is diverse, characteristic for many resins; for example, yellow-orange for gamboge, white for Siamese benzoin, black for some types of rosin, etc.; in most cases, it is yellow to brownish-brown; some resins are completely colorless. Resins, being mixtures of various constituent parts, are far from always equally soluble in different solvents and are usually only partially so. In most cases, resins are relatively easily soluble in alcohol, ether, carbon disulfide, turpentine, benzene, petroleum ether, boiling linseed oil, etc.; gum-resins do not dissolve completely in the listed liquids, as the gums are insoluble in them, but they do dissolve completely in a 60% aqueous solution of chloral hydrate. At the present time, according to the system of Tschirch, the main general constituent parts of resins are considered to be the following classes of compounds: a) resinous complex esters (resins) and products of their decomposition; b) resinous alcohols (resinols—colorless alcohols that do not reproduce the reactions of tannins, and resinotannols—colored alcohols that reproduce the reactions of tannins); c) resinous acids (resinolic acids or others); d) indifferent bodies (resenes). Representatives of all the listed classes are relatively rarely found in resins; more often, resins are predominantly complex ester resins (resin resins), resinol-acid resins, or resene resins. If resins possess an odor, it is caused either by an essential oil or by aldehydes or liquid esters of cinnamic acid. Thanks to the work of recent times, it has been possible to develop methods for the analysis of resins based on entirely rational principles and, in general terms, very closely resembling the methods for investigating fats and fatty oils, i.e., as with fats, their analysis boils down to the determination of so-called fat constants (saponification numbers, acid number, ester number, iodine number, etc.). In medicine, resins, thanks to their consistency and stickiness when heated, are used for the preparation of various plasters, and thanks to the content in them of essential oils and various other constituent parts, they are used as irritants and blistering agents (euphorbium, turpentines, thapsia), laxatives (gamboge, podophyllin, jalap), disinfectants per os (copaiba balsam) or externally (Peruvian balsam, benzoin), against hysteria and neuroses (see Asa foetida), and so on. In addition to the indicated resins, it must also be noted that in technology, so-called artificial resins (plastic masses: bakelites, carbolites, etc.) are now often and widely used, obtained in factories by the interaction of phenols with formalin and other aldehydes. In medicine, these resins have no application. The so-called coal tar, pitch (see), is not a resin in the true sense of the word and in medicine has significance as a cause of skin diseases in those working with it (occupational dermatoses). In technology, a huge amount of resin is used for the manufacture of varnishes, which are used to cover wooden, paper, metallic, and similar objects for protection against air, moisture, and various gases. L. Ginzberg.

SNEGIREV, Vladimir Fedorovich (1847–1916), a famous gynecologist, honored professor of Moscow University, one of the founders of Russian scientific and operative gynecology. In 1865, Snegirev was enrolled as a student in the medical faculty, which he graduated from in 1870. Even while a student, Snegirev attracted the attention of the best professors of that time (e.g., Babukhin, Tolsky) with his outstanding abilities. Upon graduation from the university, Snegirev entered the Yauza Hospital for laborers, and then the Moscow Maternity Institution. In 1873, he defended his dissertation on the topic "On the Question of the Determination and Treatment of Retro-uterine Hemorrhage" (Moscow, 1873) and in the same year received an assignment abroad, upon his return from which in 1875 his scientific and pedagogical activity at Moscow University effectively began. After a brilliant first lecture on ovariotomy, Snegirev began to persistently point out the necessity of independent teaching of gynecology, and in the end, Zakharyin granted Snegirev 4 beds for women's diseases in the faculty therapeutic clinic for the teaching of gynecology. Subsequently, Snegirev set himself the goal of creating a special gynecological institute for the advanced training of doctors, which he opened in 1896 in a newly built building on the Maiden Field (Devichye Pole) and directed until his very death.

S. was a highly gifted, broadly educated scientist, an outstanding clinician, a brilliant surgeon, and an exceptionally talented teacher. S. educated hundreds of physicians, created his own Snegirev school, which became known both abroad and in Russia, and greatly contributed to the development and prosperity of operative gynecology and the elevation of Russian gynecological thought to its proper height. Many of S.'s students now hold responsible positions, head departments, and train a new type of gynecologist. S. left 70 diverse scientific works, many of which are known abroad and many of which were the subject of reports at Russian and international foreign gynecological congresses. Among the works left behind, the classical treatise by S. on uterine hemorrhages (which went through several editions and was translated into French) deserves special mention, in which almost all the doctrine of female diseases is covered, and many of its sections have not lost their significance even at the present time and can serve as a model of clinical presentation and a deep, comprehensive illumination of the question. Being a brilliant surgeon, having taken a significant part in the development of a number of issues related to operative gynecology, having proposed his own original methods of operations, S. also paid no less attention to the conservative treatment of female diseases (greatly contributed to the development of radiotherapy and radiology), spoke out against a stereotyped approach to the patient, against an incorrect attitude towards operations; in his famous speech "From What I Have Experienced", at the I Congress of Russian gynecologists and obstetricians in 1903, S. said that all gynecological institutions up to clinics are engaged only in the development of surgical gynecology, not paying attention to other departments. "These are not clinics," said Snegirev, "for the study of female diseases, but surgical dissecting rooms where uteruses, appendages, neoplasms, accumulations, etc., are removed, while the departments of functional disorders of the sexual sphere stand in silence and solitude...". His words acquire special significance in the current period of a deep preventive approach to women and the study in each individual case not only of this or that disease of the sexual sphere, not only of the study of the entire organism, but also of familiarization with the entire environment of the woman, familiarization with her living conditions and forms of labor. Among other works of S., it is necessary to mention a number of works on ovariotomy, on a new method of ligation of a. uterinae, on a modified method of fibrotomy, on the operations he proposed: colpopexia anterior et posterior, laparotomia externa, restitutio vaginae per transplantationem recti, etc. S. first proposed paraffin as a hemostatic agent, described a new form of the disease "endometritis dolorosa", and in a number of works with exceptional clarity and exhaustive completeness, he analyzed the issue of pains in the abdominal and pelvic regions and for the first time gave it a clinical evaluation and anatomical justification. Snegirev was an honorary and full member of many Russian and foreign scientific societies, his name enjoyed exceptional popularity in Russia and Western Europe. Lit.: Gubarev A. P., On the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the death of Prof. V. F. Snegirev, Journal of Obstetrics and Women's Diseases, book 2, vol. XXXVIII, 1927; In Memory of Vladimir Fedorovich Snegirev, Moscow, 1917; In Memory of V. F. Snegirev on the Tenth Anniversary of His Death (articles by A. Gubarev, S. Golovin, N. Pokrovsky, S. Lesnoy, etc.), Proceedings of the Moscow Obstetric-Gynecological Society for 1926, Moscow, 1927; Serdyukov M., Vladimir Fedorovich Snegirev, Medical Affairs, 1927, no. 11; Chernekhovskiy D., Scientific Works of V. F. Snegirev in the Light of Modern Gynecology, Gynecology and Obstetrics, 1927, no. 2.