Ianovskii, Mikhail Vladimirovich

Born Oct. 29 (Nov. 10), 1854, in Poltava Oblast; died Oct. 4, 1927, in Kislovodsk. Russian internist. Academician of the Military Medical Academy. (1911).

Ianovskii graduated from the faculty of natural sciences at the University of St. Petersburg in 1877 and from the Medical and Surgical Academy in 1880. He took up a position at S. P. Botkin’s clinic in 1881. He was a professor in the subdepartment of diagnosis and general therapy at the Military Medical Academy from 1892 to 1925.

In his principal works Ianovskii dealt with the physicochemical properties of erythrocytes and attempted to substantiate the hypothesis of the “skin heart,” that is, the active role played by the peristaltic contraction of arteries in blood circulation. Under Ianovskii’s direction, the surgeon N. S. Korotkov developed an acoustic method of determining blood pressure in 1905. Studies done at Ianovskii’s clinic laid the basis for the functional school of hematology and showed the significance of the vascular element in the physiology and pathology of blood circulation. A school of internists that included G. F. Lang and N. A. Kurshakov developed around Ianovskii.