Ivan Grigoryevich Savchenko

SAVCHENKO, Ivan Grigoryevich (1862–1932), a major representative of the first Russian bacteriologists and a well-known pathologist. He graduated from Kiev University in 1888, where, while still a student, he published his first scientific work on leprosy. Upon graduation from the university, he served as a prosector in the Department of General Pathology under Prof. Podvysotsky. In 1893, he defended his dissertation on the topic "Sporozoan Parasites in Malignant Tumors" (Kiev, 1894). In 1895, he worked at the Pasteur Institute under Prof. I. I. Mechnikov. From 1896 to 1919, he served as a professor of general pathology at the Kazan Institute and director of the Kazan Bacteriological Institute. During this time, Savchenko aligned himself with the right-wing faction of the professoriate. From 1920 until the end of his life, Savchenko served as a professor of pathophysiology at the Kuban Medical Institute and director of the Krasnodar Bacteriological Institute. During his 43-year scientific and pedagogical career, Savchenko published more than 100 scientific works. In 1893, together with Zabolotny, Savchenko successfully demonstrated on themselves the possibility of enteral vaccination against cholera for the first time, thereby laying the foundation for the application of local immunization. In 1907, Savchenko proposed his method for preparing scarlet fever serum, which is currently adopted in many institutes of the USSR and abroad and bears Savchenko's name. There is almost no infection that has not been touched upon by Savchenko's research. Originality,

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precise scientific justification, and the relevance of all of Savchenko's research earned him European fame. A number of well-known Russian scientists emerged from Savchenko's school. Along with his scientific activities, Savchenko organized two sanitary-bacteriological institutes in Kazan and Krasnodar. Savchenko's outstanding scientific, pedagogical, and public activity was marked on his 40th anniversary by a decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR on November 15, 1928, conferring upon him the title of "Honored Scientist." The Krasnodar Sanitary-Bacteriological Institute was named after Savchenko. Principal published works: "Changes in the Bones in Leprosy" (Vrach, Vol. VIII, No. 17, 1887); "Osteitis et osteomyelitis leprosa" (Ztschr. f. path. Anat. u. allg. Pathologie, B. IX, 1889); "Die Sporozoen in Geschwulsten" (Centrbl. f. Bakt., 1892); "Über den Milzbrand bei Tauben" (ibid.); "On the Pathological Histology of Cholera" (Vrach, Vol. XIV, 1893); "An Experiment in Human Immunization Against Cholera" (jointly with D. Zabolotny, ibid.); "Sporozoan Parasites in Malignant Tumors" (Kiev, 1894); "Pseudoactinomycosis hominis" (anaerobic bacillus causing diseases similar to actinomycosis) (Rus. arch. pathol., clin. med. and bacteriol., 1894); "Etudes sur l'immunite contre le charbon" (Ann. de l'Inst. Pasteur, 1896); "Etudes sur la fievre recurrente" (ibid.); "Morphological Notes on the Pathogenesis of Neoplasms" (Rus. arch. pathol., clin. med. and bacteriol., Vol. XI, 1901); "On the Similarity of Blastomycetes to Inclusions in Tumor Cells" (ibid.); "On the Role of Fixators and Alexins in Phagocytosis" (ibid., and in Ann. de l'Inst. Pasteur, 1904); "On the Preparation of Scarlet Fever Serum" (Rus. vrach, 1907). A series of works on the molecular-physical theory of phagocytosis: "On the Theory of Phagocytosis" (jointly with V. Barykin, Arch. biolog. nauk, Vol. XV, issue 5, 1906); "On the Significance of the Reaction of the Medium for Phagocytosis" (jointly with V. Aristovsky, ibid., Vol. XVII, issue 2, 1908), and others, published in the same place in 1908–10–11–14. A number of reports at Pirogov congresses and at congresses of naturalists on tumors, immunity, and serum treatment of scarlet fever and lobar pneumonia, etc. A series of works on cholera, malaria, and immunity, published in the Kuban Scientific-Medical Bulletin for 1922–30, the Transactions of the Kuban Malaria Station, and the Kazan Medical Journal. Especially valuable are Savchenko's original works on immunology, in which he provided the first physicochemical justification for the phenomena of phagocytosis.