Lunin, Nikolai Ivanovich

Born in the family of a Derpt teacher and lexicographer , author of the first Estonian-Russian dictionary and translations of Orthodox books into Estonian, Ivan Lunin ^[3] and his wife Anna ur. Bakaldina.

After graduating from the Derpt gymnasium in 1873, N. I. Lunin entered the medical faculty of the Imperial University of Derpt , where until 1893 the teaching was conducted in German. He successfully graduated from the University in 1878 and was left at the Department of Physiology for "further improvement". First, N.I. Lunin trained for a year at university clinics in Berlin, Paris, Vienna and Strasbourg. Then, returning to Dorpat, he, under the guidance of a doctor of chemistry, an assistant professor in those years, Gustav von Bunge, carried out his famous experimental dissertation research that immortalized his name, which he called: “Ueber die Bedeutung der anorganischen Salze für die Ernährung des Thieres ”(“ On the Importance of Inorganic Salts for Animal Nutrition ”) ^[4] .

N. I. Lunin took two groups of mice. He fed one with natural cow's milk, and the other with a mixture of proteins, fats, carbohydrates and mineral salts, in composition and proportions fully consistent with cow's milk. The entire second group of mice soon died, which allowed Nikolai Ivanovich to express a thought on the content in milk (as, indeed, any other food) of unknown but essential substances for life in extremely small quantities, which he conditionally called "inorganic salts":

“... if, as the aforementioned experiments teach, it is impossible to provide life with proteins, fats, sugar, salts and water, then it follows that milk, in addition to casein, fat, milk sugar and salts, also contains other substances indispensable for nutrition. It is of great interest to study these substances and to study their importance for nutrition. ”

The academic council of the university during the defense in 1880 expressed very skepticism about the significance of N. I. Lunin's dissertation. Even his supervisor G. Bunge reacted to the idea of ​​his student with great doubt. Nevertheless, N.I. Lunin received the required degree of Doctor of Medicine and continued to serve as a doctor in the Ministry of State Property of the Derpt-Verro district.

In 1882, N.I. Lunin moved to St. Petersburg and worked as a doctor for three years at the Prince Oldenburg Children's Hospital (since 1919 the K.A. Rauchfus Hospital) . In 1885, at the Clinical Institute of the Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna , a course of childhood diseases was formed for the scientific and practical improvement of doctors ^[5], which was headed by Professor Vladimir Nikolaevich Reitz . He invited Nikolai Ivanovich, who was one of the first teachers of the course, which was later transformed into the second department of childhood diseases in St. Petersburg.

In 1897, Lunin left the course, moving to the Elizabethan hospital for young children and at the same time leading the Nikolaev children's shelter ^[6] on Tverskaya St., 6. In the same year, Nikolai Ivanovich took up active social activities. He became part of His Imperial Majesty’s Own Chancellery for the Establishment of Empress Maria (Department for the Establishment of the Institutes of Empress Maria), was a member of the Society of German Doctors ^[7] , the Society of Children's Doctors ^[8] , where he chaired from 1914 to 1920, the Russian geographical society .

Before the outbreak of World War I, N. I. Lunin was again invited, this time by the senior doctor, to the Prince Oldenburgsky Children's Hospital. In 1919, after the death of the head physician, Julius Petrovich Serk, he headed the hospital, which under him received the name of its founder K. A. Rauchfus. In 1925, having left his administrative post, he worked for a long time as a leading consultant at the hospital for pediatrics and "throat, nasal and ear" diseases.

In 1934, Lunin became a personal pensioner ^[9] . He lived for another 3 years and died on June 18, 1937. He was buried at the Volkovsky Lutheran cemetery next to his wife, who died two years earlier, and his teacher Karl Andreevich Raukhfus.

Wife: Hertha Karlovna ur. Maksimovich (1865-1935) - daughter of a botanist, academician Karl Ivanovich Maksimovich . She was buried next to her husband.

• 1895-1909: Znamenskaya St., 26;
• 1911-1918: Forge Lane, d.13;
• Since 1918: Ligovskaya St., 8 (apartment in the building of the K.A. Rauchfus Hospital).

The memory of Nikolai Ivanovich Lunin is preserved only in Estonia . His name in his native Tartu was named ul. Nikolai Lunin and trans. Nikolai Lunin . The continuation of the street of Nikolai Lunin is st. Vitamini , named after his discovery of vitamins.

• In 1881, N. I. Lunin's dissertation was published in a foreign press. Several scientists immediately tried to repeat his experience, but did not find any deviations in the health of mice fed by the "Lunin composition". Later it became known that N. I. Lunin used cane sugar, which was not indicated in his work. His followers used bad-tasting milk sugar, which turned out to contain vitamin B, which saved the mice. For many years the topic was forgotten, and even the author himself no longer returned to it. Only in the 20s of the 20th century Frederick Gowland Hopkins took up this problem, who in 1929 received the Nobel Prize for the discovery of vitamins that stimulate growth processes. In his gratitude speech during the award ceremony, he noted the merits of Lunin, but he reserved the priority ^[10] .
• When the 1st All-Union Conference on Vitamins was held in Leningrad in 1932, the organizers did not invite Lunin ^[11] . On the website of his native hospital. K. A. Raukhfusa N. I. Lunin is mentioned only in the context of the fact that he was one of its main doctors ^[12] .

• N.I. Lunin gained wide fame and authority as a pediatrician and a talented clinician. In 1929, the journal Pediatrics dedicated the 50th anniversary of the medical, social, scientific, and teaching activities of N. I. Lunin to a separate issue, entirely composed of articles by his colleagues and students ^[13] .
• For several decades he was engaged in breeding and improvement of dogs of the Poynter breed. Using his personal method of selection, training and crossbreeding, he received the Poynter of the “Lunin type”, which combined a beautiful exterior with high field qualities. For many years, N. I. Lunin was the permanent chairman of the Pointer sector in the club of dog breeders ^{[14] [15]} .

N. I. Lunin is the author of more than 40 scientific papers on pediatrics and ENT diseases.

• Lunin N. Über die Bedeutung der anorganischen Salze für die Ernährung des Thieres: Inaugural-Dissertation zur Erlangung des Grades eines Doctors der Medicin / verfasst und mit Bewilligung Einer Hochverordneten Medicinischen Facultät der Kaiserlichen Universittentüttentüttentötten zu - Dorpat: H. Laakmann, 1880 .
• Lunin N. I. On the question of treatment with anti-diphtheria serum / (From Elizabeth. Wedge. Children's. Hospital). - St. Petersburg: type. M.M. Stasyulevich, 1895 . - 14 p.
• Lunin N. I. Paracentesis pericardii in a 6-year-old boy / Read in the Society of Pediatric Doctors on November 5, 1897 - St. Petersburg: type. M.M. Stasyulevich, 1898 . - 6 p. - (From the Elizabethan Children's Hospital).
• Lunin N.I. Syphilis hereditaria pancreatis / Read at the Society of Children's Doctors December 22, 1899 - St. Petersburg: type. M.M. Stasyulevich, 1900 . - 14 p. - (From the Elizabethan Children's Hospital).
• Lunin N. I. On the question of treatment and statistics of diphtheria / From det. Hospital of Prince P. Oldenburg. - St. Petersburg: type. I. Treya, 1884 . - 35 p.
• Lunin N.I. On bleeding after removal of the nasopharyngeal gland / Chitana at the Society of Pediatric Doctors October 10, 1901 - St. Petersburg: type. M.M. Stasyulevich, 1901 . - 17 p.
• Lunin N. I. Surgical intervention for diphtheria croup / Collection of childhood diseases / Ed. M.L. Abelman (Leningrad), prof. A.A. Kissel (Moscow), prof. M.S. Maslova [et al.]. - L .: The island of children. doctors in Leningrad, 1925 . - 64 p.

Reports at meetings of the Society of Pediatric Doctors

^[sixteen]

St. Petersburg branch of the Union of Pediatricians of Russia

• Lunin Nikolay Ivanovich ;
• Lunin Nikolay Ivanovich ;
• Martinson E.E. 70th anniversary of the founding of the doctrine of vitamins by N.I. Lunin at the University of Tartu. 1880-1950. - Tallinn: Estonia. state Publishing House, 1951. - 56 p.
• Scientific conference "Actual Problems of Vitaminology" dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the discovery of the existence of vitamins by N. I. Lunin, November 18–20, 1980 Abstracts dokl. - Tartu: TSU, 1980 .-- 132 p.
• Modern issues of Soviet vitaminology. On the occasion of the 100th birthday of the founder of the doctrine of vitamins N.I. Lunina [Collection of articles / Ed. Collegium: V.N. Bukin, F.G. Krotkov (previous) and others]; Acad. honey. sciences of the USSR. - Moscow: Medgiz, 1955 .-- 300 p.
• All Yu. K., Ranne K. O. On the history of the study of vitamin nutrition of animals. (100 years since the defense of the doctoral dissertation of N. I. Lunin at the University of Tartu). / Collection of scientific works of the Estonian Agricultural Academy, 1882. - 135 p.