Leon Cienkowski

Leon Cienkowski

Leon Cienkowski ( Russian Лев Семёнович Ценковский ., Scientific transliteration Lev Semenovic Cenkovskij , Latin form. Leo de Cienkowski ; born October 1, ^jul. / 13. October  1822 ^greg. In Warsaw , Polish Kingdom , † September 25 ^jul. / 7th October  1887 ^greg. In Leipzig , German Empire ) was a Polish- Russian botanist , protozoologist and bacteriologist , from 1881 corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences . Together with Ilya Ilyich Metschnikow, he is considered the father of Russian microbiology . His botanical-mycological author's abbreviation is “ Cienk. ".

Life

1822–1846: childhood and studies

Cienkowski came from a poor background and owed his education to the ambition of his mother, who had no education herself. He attended the Warsaw high school and in 1839 came to St. Petersburg University as a scholarship holder of the Polish Kingdom . In Saint Petersburg Cienkowski was accepted into the German-Baltic scholarship group around Karl Ernst von Baer ( Otto Wilhelm von Struve , Gregor von Helmersen , Moritz Hermann von Jacobi ). Membership in this group had a lasting influence on him and established his permanent focus on the natural sciences . Most of his works are written in German .

In 1846 Cienkowski completed his studies with a master's degree . His dissertation was entitled Some facts from the history of the development of conifers (in the original : Несколько фактов из истории развития хвойных растений ). He was a member of the Society of German Natural Scientists and Doctors

1847–1887: Nile expedition and academic career

In 1847 the Egyptian ruler Muhammad Ali Pascha called a geological expedition into the country to look for gold in the areas on the Upper Nile that had been conquered between 1820 and 1821. The Russian Geographical Society sent Yegor Petrovich Kowalewski , who was experienced in expeditions, and Cienkowski in his wake to Egypt. The expedition followed the course of the Nile, stayed briefly in Khartoum and finally made camp in Roseires (near today's Ad-Damazin on the Blue Nile ). Here Cienkowski carried out botanical and ethnographic research. His reports were published in the journal Geografičeskie izvestija of the Russian Geographical Society in 1850 and in Gazeta Warszawska in 1853 .

From 1850 to 1854 Cienkowski taught as a professor of natural history at the Yaroslavl Demidow Lyceum . In 1854 he was appointed associate professor of botany at St. Petersburg University . Two years later, Cienkowski defended his dissertation and obtained the title of Doctor of Botany.

As part of the travel facilitation granted after the Crimean War , Cienkowski went on a four-year trip through Europe in 1861 , combined with botanical studies. When the New Russian University was opened in 1865 , Cienkowski received the call of professor of botany , which he accepted. In Odessa he took an active part in the establishment of the New Russian Natural Research Society , of which he was the first chairman, and the Sevastopol marine biological station . In 1872 he moved to the University of Kharkov , where he remained active until his death in 1887 .

research

Botanical and protozoological studies

Cienkowski dealt with lower organisms ( infusoria , lower algae , fungi and bacteria ) and found in his research a genetic connection between unicellular algae (so-called monads) and myxomycetes , heliozoa and radiolaria , flagellates and palmelloid algae. In his trial lecture, Cienkowski already took the controversial opinion that infusoria are protozoa , which consist of a lump of protoplasm . In doing so he contradicted the prevailing at that time, u. a. The theory represented by Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg , according to which infusoria are highly complex living beings .

In his doctoral thesis on the low algae and infusoria (in the original О низших водорослях и инфузориях ) he examines the morphology and development history of various microscopic organisms (including Sphacroplea annulina, Achlya prolifera and actinosphere hypothesis that there is no clear line between plants) - and animal kingdom . In his subsequent work he explores the connections between slime molds (myxomycetes) and unicellular algae (monads). He succeeds in discovering the capsal phase (palmella stage) of the algae, flagellates and later the bacteria.

The transitions between the plant and animal kingdoms remain the dominant theme in Cienkowski's work, the focus of which is on the one hand studies of algae and fungi , and on the other hand amoebas , sun animals , flagellates , ray and eyelash animals . Cienkowski was a staunch supporter of the (later refuted) pleomorphism and believed u. a. that certain bacteria are stages in the life cycle of algae.

Development of anthrax vaccination

His late research dealt with the then new field of bacteriology . In 1881, on the initiative of the Free Economic Society , he and the veterinarian Arkadi Alexandrowitsch Raevski were sent to Louis Pasteur in Paris to be introduced to the manufacture of anthrax vaccination and to bring it to Russia (the aim was to combat anthrax in sheep). Pasteur did not reveal the secret of his vaccination to the Russian embassy, ​​however, as he had decided to cede the manufacturing rights to a commercial company. Nevertheless, the journey on which he u. a. Robert Koch and Carl Wilhelm von Nägeli got to know that Cienkowski was finally able to develop his own anthrax vaccine in Charkov and perfect it after initial setbacks. The success of this vaccination contributed significantly to the reputation and development of microbiology in Russia.

Works

• The pseudogonidia (Jahrb. Wiss. Bot., 1852, I);
• Kilka rysów i wspomnień z podróży po Egipcie, Nubii i Sudanie. Gazeta Warszawska 1853 , № № 88, 89, 91, 94, 98, 101, 108, 110, 115, 118, 122;
• * For fertilization d. Juniperus communis (Bull. Soc. Nat. Moscou. 1853, № 2)
• Remarks on Stein's doctrine of Acinetes (Bull. Acad. S.-Petersb., 1855, XIII)
• Algological Studies (Bot. Journal, 1855)
• О самозарождении (СПб., 1855);
• About cyst formation in infusoria (Zeitschr. Wiss. Zoologie, 1855, XVI);
• On the genesis of a unicellular organism (Bull. Acad. S.-Petersb., 1856. XIV);
• Rhisidium Confervae Glomeratae (Bot. Zeit., 1857);
• About my proof for the Generatia primaria (ibid., 1858, XVII);
• About parasitic tubes on crustaceans and some insect larvae (Bot. Zeitschr., 1861);
• On the history of the development of the Myxomycetes (Jahrb. Wiss. Bot., 1862, XIII);
• The Plasmodium (ibid., 1863, III);
• About some gloeocapses containing chlorophyll (Bot. Zeit., 1865);
• Contributions z. Knowledge d. Monads (Arch. Micr. Anatomie, 1865, I);
• On the construction and development of the Labyrinthulaceans (ibid., 1867, III);
• About the Clathrulina (ibid.);
• About palmellaceae and some flagellates (ibid., 1870, VI; то же Труды 2-го съезда рус. Естеств. И врачей);
• About swarming in Noctiluca miliaris (Arch. Micr. Anat, 1871, VII);
• About swarming in radiolarians (ib.);
• The fungi of the cream skin (Bull. Acad. S.-Petersb., 1872, XVII);
• О генетической связи между Mycoderma vini, Penicillium viride and Domatium pullullans (Труды 4-го съезда русск. Естеств. И враче, 1872);
• About Noctiluca miliaris (ibid., 1873, IX);
• About palmella condition in Stigeocionium (Bot. Zeit., 1876);
• К морфологии сем. Ulothrichineae (Тр. Общ. Испыт. Прир. Харьков. Унив., 1877, то же Bull. Acad. S.-Petersb., 1876);
• About some rhizopods and related organisms (Arch. Micr. Anat., 1876, т. XII);
• On the morphology of the Ulothricheen (St. Pétersbourg: Acad. Imp. Des Sciences, 1876), special print from Bull. De l'Académie Impériale des Sciences de St. Pétersbourg. 1876, t. 9.
• On the morphology of bacteria (Mém. Acad. S.-Petersb., Сер. 7, т. XXV);
• Z życia prostych organizmów , "Wiadomości z Nauk Przyrodzonych", 1880, z. 1, 1
• Отчет о беломорской экскурсии 1880 г. (Труды СПб. Общ. Естеств., 1881, XII);
• Микроорганизмы. Бактериальные образования (Харьк., 1882);
• О пастеровских прививках (Труды Вольн. Эконом. Общ., 1883, 1884);
• Отчет о прививках антракса в больших размерах (Сборн. Херсонск. Земства, III, 1886).
• Юбилейная речь Ценковского, носящая автобиографический характер (см. Южный Край, 1886).

literature

• Bibliografia publikacji Leona Cienkowskiego . In: Kosmos , 1988, R. 37, no 4.
• Н. А. Базилевская, К. И. Мейер, С. С. Станков, А. А. Щербакова: Выдающиеся отечественные ботаники. - М .: Учпедгиз, 1957. - С. 16-24.
• П. Бучинский: Лев Семёнович Ценковский. // Записки Новороссийского общества естестествоиспытателей, т. XIII, вып. I, 1888.
• Н. М. Гайдуков: Ценковский, Лев Семенович // Энциклопедический словарь Брокгауза и Ефрона: в 86 т. (82 т. И 4 доп.). - СПб., 1890–1907.
• EB: Leon Cienkowski (wspomnienie pośmiertne) , Prawda 1887, no 45 , p. 537
• Elisabeth A. Hachten: Science in the service of society: Bacteriology, medicine, and hygiene in Russia, 1855–1907. Pp. 63-75.
• Bolesław Hryniewiecki: Cienkowski Leon (1822–1887) . Polski Słownik Biograficzny, b. IV (1938), pp. 50-52.
• Władysław JH Kunicki-Goldfinger: Leon Cienkowski jako microbiolog . In: Kosmos , 1988, R. 37, no 4.
• Leszek Kuźnicki: Wkład Leona Cienkowskiego do protistologii . In: Kosmos , 1988, R. 37, no 4.
• А. И. Л. С. Метёлкин: Ценковский. Основоположник отечественной школы микробиологов. - М .: 1950.
• Б. Е. Райков: Русские биологи-эволюционисты до Дарвина. Материалы к истории эволюционной идеи в России (Том 4). - М .: 1959
• BE Raikov: LS Cenkovskij - Osnovatel 'mikrobiologii v Rossii . In: Mikrobiologia , 28, 1949, pp 562-570.
• Jerzy Róziewicz: Działalność dydaktyczna i naukowo-organizacyjna Leona Cienkowskiego w Rosji . In: Kosmos 1988, R. 37, no 4.
• Н. В. Теренин: Ценковский, Лев Семенович // Русский биографический словарь: в 25-ти томах. - СПб.—М., 1896–1918.
• August Wrześniowski: Leon Cienkowski - wspomnienie pośmiertne . Warszawa 1888 (supplement to Wszechświat 1888, no 20).

Web links

• Николай Баландинский. Первая русская экспедиция в Африку: Егор Ковалевский и Лев Ценковский, 1847–1848 гг.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hachten, Science , p. 64
2. ↑ Members of the Society of German Natural Scientists and Doctors 1857
3. ↑ Nikolaj Balandinskij, http://www.geografia.ru/emp4.htm  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
4. ↑ Hachten, Science , p. 66
5. ↑ Hachten, Science , p. 72
6. ↑ Hachten, Science , pp. 67-74