everywhere before our eyes according to the indications of the diseases involved, 

 as compiled from the best Russian and foreign writers." Yengalychev stressed 

 in particular the need for making use of the "therapeutic strength of nature," 

 preventing disease by generally observing the correctly formulated dietetic 

 rules, treating diseases early and rationally if they do develop, and toughening 

 the organism by means of systematic physical exercise and exposure to fresh air, 

 strict observance of the rules of personal hygiene, and avoidance of alcoholic 

 beverages. It is interesting that Yengalychev regarded walking to the bath- 

 house as an important means of preserving the health and vital tone of the 

 organism. 



In 1839, 1. O. Kalenichenko lectured at Kharkov University on "Influence 

 of the ages of human life on mental and moral powers." He was an eminent 

 zoologist and physiologist who taught a course on human physiology at the 

 Medical School. 



In this lecture, we find the very interesting statement that "life and death 

 exist in us at every moment; we live, and yet continually die; we die, and yet 

 continually revive." 



Kalenichenko emphasized with great force the uninterrupted changes that 

 go on during the chronological development of all living matter: "The immeas- 

 urable expanse of vitality discovered in innumerable forms of organic nature is 

 born, matures, and fades away with the well-known manifestations of normal 

 mutability, demarcated into more or less distinct periods. All the members of 

 the formative area of nature, from the smallest blade of grass to the human 

 organism, are necessarily subject to change in all the processes of their vital 

 activity . . ." 



Russian pediatrics began to develop at an early period. Its founder was 

 Prof. S. F. Khotovitskiy (1796-1885), of the St. Petersburg Medical-Surgical 

 Academy. In his "Pediatrics," published in 1847, he presented a number of 

 ideas that have been extremely important for the development of the physiology 

 of aging. Of particular value are his statements as to the specificity (qualita- 

 tive characteristics) of the human organism at various stages of ontogenesis: 



"... The considerable duration of childhood is associated with the gradual 

 development of the child organism and the approximation of the child to the 

 adult organism, and this evidently cannot be accomplished without qualitative 

 and quantitative changes in its structure and functions. And for this reason the 

 child organism, in a healthy or ailing state, is startling, at first glance, in its very 

 considerable difference from the adult organism, which does not manifest itself 

 only in the smaller size of the organs nor only in the lesser strength of the func- 

 tions characteristic of the human organism but also in the specific character of 

 the composition of the organs and the direction of their action, healthy or 

 ailing . . ." 



The studies by S. F. Khotovitskiy constitute the initial stage of the develop- 

 ment of the physiology of aging during this period, which amounted, in essence, 

 to a more or less random collection of individual pieces of information on 

 hygiene, gerontology (the study of old age), and thanatology (the study of 

 death), and of somewhat more detailed knowledge about the normal state and 



