creases tlic level of immune substances in the blood, increases the resistance of 

 the organism to infection, . . . and heightens the organism's resistance to cancer 

 by promoting the absorption of fairly large neoplastic metastases and restoring 

 the cancerolytic properties of the serum in cancer patients . . ." (1940). 



Unfortunately, use of ACS as a means of heightening the potential of the 

 organism in old age and prolonging life has not yet given highly encouraging 

 results. 



In addition to stimulation of the connective tissue, Bogomolets also sought 

 to discover immunobiological ways of reactivating other tissues: "It may be 

 that it will also be possible to carry out Mechnikov's idea, to the effect that it 

 will some day be possible, by the use of specific cytotoxins, to activate the func- 

 tions of the parenchymal cells and thereby to combat their premature attri- 

 tion" (1940). 



Two of Bogomolets's pupils (N. B. Medvedeva and N. D. Yudina) reported 

 the stimulating ("rejuvenating") action of hemolytic serum on the proteins 

 and cellular composition of the blood. 



Of particular interest are the extensive biochemical, physiological, and 

 clinical studies of very aged persons that were conducted by some of Bogomolets' 

 pupils (I. V. Bazilevich, I. M. Turovets, and L. I. Pravlina, B. V. Krayukhin 

 and N. M. Shcherbakov, R. B. Gragerova, and others (1939-1940)). On the 

 basis of these observations, Bogomolets advanced the notion of the harmonic 

 depression of functions in persons of very advanced old age, in contradistinction 

 to the disharmonic processes of pathological old age. 



Substantial contributions to the development of the physiology of aging 

 were made by the investigations of some of Bogomolets' pupils: R. Ye. Kavetskiy 

 (1939-1947), N. N. Sirotinin (1934-1951), N. B. Medvedeva (1937-1950), 

 and others. 



In Bogomolets' theory of aging, we cannot fail to note a one-sided em- 

 phasis on the exceptionally important role of the connective tissue ("the root of 

 life") in the processes of the age-linked development of the organism and espe- 

 cially in the processes of its aging. We can scarcely agree with this exaggeration 

 of the significance of the connective tissue. In Bogomolets' statements, this is 

 connected with an understatement of the importance of the age-linked changes 

 in other tissues, especially the nerves, and in the system of the glands of internal 

 secretion. I.I. Mechnikov's original concept of the spreading of a number of 

 forms of connective tissue in old age cannot be regarded as disproved. 



And aside from this, the totality of the studies by Bogomolets, the extremely 

 important factual data obtained by him and by his pupils, the various features 

 of his teachings on colloidoclasia and the harmonic depression of functions in 

 the very aged, his efforts to unite the uncoordinated scientific forces around the 

 struggle for longevity: all of this has found its lasting place in the basic founda- 

 tions of Russian age-associated physiology. 



A large series of studies by I. I. Shmal'gauzen (1926-1938) have been de- 

 voted to the problems of growth mechanisms. On the basis of a very large num- 

 ber of experimental findings, he proposed his widely used growth formula and 

 introduced into scientific practice the concept of the growth constant (k = Cyt). 



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