BAKST, NICOLAI IGNATYEVICH:

By: Herman Rosenthal

Russian physiologist; born in 1843. He studied at St. Petersburg University, from which he graduated Bachelor of Natural Science in 1862. He was then sent abroad by the Ministry of Public Instruction for a period of three years to prepare himself for the professorship of physiology. Upon his return he lectured at the St. Petersburg University as privatdocent; he also lectured to the women medical students from 1881 till the separate lectures for women were abolished. In 1886 he was appointed member of the committee of science at the Ministry of Public Instruction.

Bakst's principal physiological writings are: "Versuche über die Fortpflanzungsgesch windigkeit der Reizung in den Motorischen Nerven des Menschen" (published with the approval of Helmholtz in the "Monatsberichte der Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin," 1867); "Neue Versuche über die Fortpflanzungsgesch windigkeit der Reizung in den Motorischen Nerven des Menschen" (ib., 1870); "Ueber die Zeit, Welche Nöthig Ist, Damit ein Gesichtseindruck zum Bewusstsein Kommt" (ib., and more extensively in "Pflüger's Archiv für Physiologie," iv.); "Die Folgen Maximaler Reize von Ungleicher Dauer auf den Nervus Accelerans Cordis" (in the "Archiv für Anatomie und Physiologie," 1877); "Die Verkürzung der Systolenzeit Durch Nervus Accelerans Cordis" (in the "Arch. f. Anat. und Physiol." 1878); "Kalorimetricheskoe Opredyelenie Krovi" (in S. I. Chirgev's work "Statika Krovi," St. Petersburg, 1881); "Kurs Fiziologii Organov Chuvstv" (St. Petersburg, 1886); "O Materializmye Yestestvennykh Nauk" (in "Znanie," 1871, No. 10); "O Znachenii Fisiologii pri Izuchenii Meditziny" (St. Petersburg, 1881); "Pamyati N. I. Pirogova," in commemoration of N. I. Pirogov (St. Petersburg, 1882); and "R. Stolyetnemu dnyu Konchiny Moiseya Mendelsona" (St. Petersburg, 1886).

Besides these contributions, Bakst, in the eighties, wrote numerous articles on various public topics in the "Golos," and has translated from the German and from the English Karl Ritter's lectures on geography under the title "Istoriya Zemlevyedeniya i Otkryti po Etomu Predmetu" (St. Petersburg, 1864); Odling's lectures on chemistry under the title "Zhivotnaya Khimiya" (St. Petersburg, 1867); and M. Schleiden's "Das Alter des Menschlichen Geschlechts" ("Drevnost Chelovyecheskavo Roda") (St. Petersburg, 1865).

H. R.