Efim London

Born Dec. 28, 1868 (Jan. 9, 1869), in Kalvarija, in present-day Kapsukas Raion, Lithuanianian SSR; died Mar. 21, 1939, in Leningrad. Soviet pathophysiologist, biochemist, and radiobiologist. Doctor of medicine (1900); Honored Scientist of the RSFSR (1935).

London graduated from the University of Warsaw in 1894. From 1895 until the end of his life he worked at the Institute of Experimental Medicine. After 1924, he became a professor at Leningrad State University and other higher educational institutions in Leningrad.

London’s main work dealt with the effect of X rays on animals and of radium on plants and animals. His Radium in Biology and Medicine (1911) was the world’s first monograph on radio-biology. London investigated the bactericidal properties of blood, hemolysins, cytolysins, and spermatolysins. He studied the interdependence of the physiology and biochemistry of digestion, absorption, and metabolism in animals. In 1919 he developed the technique of angiostomy (the fistulization of blood vessels), which marked the beginning of the study of metabolism in the organs of live animals. London was an Honorary member of the Leopoldina Academy in Halle (1925), the Harvey Society in the USA (1928), and the Academy of Arts and Sciences in New York (1929).