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Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov
Ilya Mechnikov was born on May 15, 1845 in the Ivanovka family estate of the Kharkov province.
Father, Ilya Ivanovich Mechnikov, was from an ancient family of Moldavian boyars. Mother Emilia Lvovna is the daughter of the Jewish educator L. N. Nevakhovich. When Ilya Ivanovich went bankrupt, he was forced to leave the capital with his family for his estate. The family had four sons and a daughter.
In 1862 Ilya graduated from the men’s gymnasium in Kharkov with a gold medal. He continued his studies at Kharkov University.
Personal life
In 1869, in St. Petersburg, Ilya Ilyich was married to Lyudmila Fedorovich. The bride was seriously ill with tuberculosis, and they brought her to the church, seated on a chair. The groom believed that he could heal his beloved. However, the miracle did not happen and, after 4 years, she passed away in Madeira, where she was being treated.
The death of his beloved so shocked Mechnikov that he decided to follow his wife and drank a large portion of morphine. But the dose was large and the unfortunate man vomited.
Time cures. At the age of 30, Ilya Ilyich married 17-year-old Olga Belokopytova. The young woman soon contracted typhoid fever, which rages in Odessa, where the young couple lived. And again an attempt at suicide. The scientist injects himself with a stick of relapsing fever.
He was ill for a long time and seriously. But the ending was happy: the couple recovered and received lifelong immunity against this terrible disease.
In 1887, Mechnikov moved to Paris, where he was provided with an excellently equipped laboratory at the Pasteur Institute. But the scientist did not forget about Russia.
In 1911 he leads an expedition sent by the French government to the region where the plague is spreading. He makes interesting conclusions about the infection and the course of the most dangerous infections, including tuberculosis and plague.
Mechnikov spent his entire life in systematic correspondence with prominent Russian scientists. The famous microbiologist Nikolai Fedorovich Gamaleya was his student and then a colleague.
Ilya Ilyich died in Paris on July 15, 1916, having experienced several myocardial infarctions. According to his will, the urn with his ashes is in the Pasteur Institute, which he headed for a long time. In many cities of Russia, streets are named after him.
Mechnikov: Contribution to Biology
The research of the great scientist covers many areas of science. In 1879 he discovered the causative agent of mycosis in insects. In 1866 – 1886. he worked on issues of embryology, and became one of the founders of this science. Mechnikov proposed his own theory of animal evolution.
In 1882, the scientist identified the phenomenon of phagocytosis and thoroughly studied it. This became the foundation for the phagocytic theory of immunity. For these developments, Mechnikov was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1908.
Many of the scientist’s works fully cover the issues of epidemics and infections. He was the first to scientifically explained the diseases that occur with immunodeficiency. Scientists studying immunity proved this at the end of the last century, when they discovered immunodeficiency caused by the action of the HIV virus.
The scientist put phagocytosis at the basis of many theories: immunity, atrophy and aging. The immunologist paid much attention to the study of the problem of aging. He believed that the deterioration of the body and death occur due to the poisoning of the body with various poisons.
In the course of repeated experiments, he presented to the scientific community various ways to combat poisoning. The scientist considered the main such tool to be lactic acid stick.
In 1905, Mechnikov invited S. Grigorov from Bulgaria to Paris to give a lecture on his discovery to microbiologists who had gathered at the symposium from all over the world.
Anti-aging
In 1907, the results of a study of the properties of lactic acid bacillus were published. Mechnikov himself conducted similar experiments. In 1908 he published a popular science article on fermented milk products.
Having carried out large-scale research on the problem of aging according to data from 36 countries, the scientist found that the largest number of residents who have crossed the 4-year mark in Bulgaria is 1000/XNUMX people.
The biologist believed that this was due to lactic acid bacillus. He widely promoted the benefits of fermented milk products and himself constantly used them.
The scientist believed that orthobiosis, a life cycle that ends in death, was the goal of the fight against aging. Nowadays, there is such a direction of science as orthobiotics.
The scientist was directly involved in the creation of research institutes, where various forms of infection control were developed. Many such institutions proudly bear his name.
The scientist has written several articles on Darwinism. He voiced several ideas that anticipated the modern understanding of some issues of the development of evolution. The scientist was an atheist, although he was brought up in a strict religious family. He considered himself a supporter of rational thinking and criticized religion, idealism and mysticism.
In some of his works, Mechnikov touched upon the problems of philosophy. For example, the meaning of a person’s life.
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