A NOTE OF APPRECIATION 1 



Doctor V. I. Palladin, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences 

 and author of this book, died in Petrograd on February 3, 1922, after a pro- 

 longed illness that culminated in aortic aneurism. His life work was a fine 

 contribution to physiological science in general, and especially to plant physio- 

 logy. His text-book on plant physiology was published in Russian, German, 

 French, and English, and the marked excellencies of the book have made his 

 name well known wherever this science is studied. But his greatest contribu- 

 tion lies in his research publications. 



Palladin was born July 11, 1859, in Moscow and received his education in 

 the First Gymnasium of Moscow and in the University of Moscow. He 

 studied botany under Timiriazev and Gorozhankin, and published his first 

 research contribution, "On the structure and capacity for swelling of cell 

 walls and starch grains," in 1883 (Zapiski Moskovskogo Univ.). His disser- 

 tation for the master's degree, conferred at the University of Moscow in 1887, 

 is on "The significance of oxygen for plants" (Bull. Soc. Nat. Moscow, 1886), 

 and that for the doctor's degree, conferred at the same university in 1888, is 

 on "The influence of oxygen on the decomposition of proteinaceous substances 

 in plants" (Dissert. Moscow Univ., 1889). 



The first teaching position held by the great Russian physiologist was in the 

 Institute of Rural Economics and Forestry at Novaya Alexandria, whither he 

 went in 1886. Three years later, after receiving the doctor's degree, he became 

 professor of plant anatomy and physiology in the University of Kharkov. In 

 1897 he was appointed to a professorship in the University of Warsaw and was 

 made director of the Pomological Garden of Warsaw. He was called to the 

 University of Petrograd in 1900, as professor of plant physiology, where he 

 remained until 191 7. In the last-named year Palladin removed to the Crimea, 

 giving lectures in the newly founded university at Simferopol. Later he became 

 director of the Nikitskii Botanical Garden at Jalta. 



He was elected to the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1906, and took active 

 part in the work of the Academy, publishing many papers in its proceedings. 

 Election as academician is the highest honor conferred on Russian scientists, 

 and only a few receive this mark of great distinction. 



1 This note is mainly based on a biographical sketch of Palladin. by Professor X. I. Kuz- 

 netzov, in the ninth Russian edition of the Physiology. I have been helped in its preparation 

 by Dr. Selman A. Waksman, of the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, and by Mr. 

 L. J. Pessin, of the Mississippi Agricultural and Mechanical College, as well as by Mr. D. X. 

 Borodin, of the Xew York Office of the Russian Bureau of Applied Botany and Prof. X. 

 Ivanov, of the University of Petrograd. — B. E. L. 



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