Department of Pharmacology of the Imperial Medical and Surgical (Military Medical) Academy: the History of the second century of existence (1899-2000)

Abstract

The article continues the consideration of the history of the development of the Department of Pharmacology of Medical and Surgical (since 1881 Military Medical) Academy with an emphasis on the second century of its existence (1899-2000). This period was marked by the improvement of both the teaching of the discipline, based on new pharmacological data, and the introduction of new methods of drug research. A significant event was the release of a 2-volume edition of N.P. Kravkov's Fundamentals of Pharmacology in 1904-1905, based on the introduction of the latest achievements of scientific knowledge in the field of pharmacology. Textbook N.P. Kravkov withstood 14 editions (the last one was published in 1936, 12 years after the author's death) and served as a model for the creation of all subsequent domestic textbooks and manuals on pharmacology in the twentieth century. In experimental pharmacology, the method of isolated organs (N.P. Kravkov and co-workers) has been widely used as a universal method for quantifying the pharmacological effect. In the 1920s, ideas about the synaptic effect of drugs were actively introduced (S.V. Anichkov and co-workers), the effects of N-cholinergic drugs realized through the sinocarotid zone of the carotid artery were discovered and studied. Biochemical studies began to be widely used, starting with the works of N.P. Kravkov, continued by N.V. Lazarev, V.M. Vinogradov, A.V. Smirnov. In fact, clinical pharmacology was created and promoted after the discovery and first use of the intravenous anesthetic hedonal (N.P. Kravkov), especially developed in the studies of N.V. Lazarev and V.M. Vinogradov. New ideas about antihypoxants and actoprotectors were formulated (V.M. Vinogradov) as necessary means of increasing combat capability, successfully used in military pharmacology at the end of the twentieth century (V.M. Vinogradov, A.V. Smirnov). All these achievements allow us to conclude about the unconditional success of the department both in academic and scientific terms.