University, the surgeon Nikifor Dmitrievich Lebedev dis- 

 cussed a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He 

 later on read at the university "history and literature of 

 medicine". Lebedev dissertation was entitled "About the 

 nature of weightless substances in general and vital 

 powers in particular" (Dissertatio inauguralis physislogica 

 de natura imponderab ilium in genere et de viribus vitalibus 

 in specie, quam...in Universitate caesarea Mosquensi, pro 

 gradu doctoris medicinae. . .elaboravit publiceque defendet 

 chirurgus I-mae classis Nicephorus Lebedev, Mosquae, 1825. 

 28 p.). Lebedev, referring to Blumenbakh, dwelt on the 

 idea that all vital processes — organic formation and growth 

 as well as movement of already formed parts-possess their 

 own source of a special vital power (55) . The vital power, 

 according to his opinion, is an internal, inherent character 

 in the organic body, which is the cause of life and at the 

 same time seems to be its product (Vis vitalis est interna 

 et proporia organici corpori qualitis, quae vitae causam 

 constituit et simul ejusdem est quasi productum, thesis 9) . 

 Works of similar kind are not characteristic of the common 

 materialistic trend of Russian biological and medical 

 sciences. Therefore, the dissertation of Lebedev served 

 as a reference and mainly as an illustration of this 

 negative influence, which was shown by the idealistic 

 German philosophy and some representatives of Russian 

 sciences especially the naturalists who worked under its 

 direct influence (106) . 



(28) Izef Gotlib Kelreiter (1733-1806), botanist and 

 zoologist, worked from 1756 to 1761 as a junior scientific 

 assistant at Petersburg Academy of Sciences, with which he 

 kept in close contact after returning back to Germany and 

 till the end of his life. In the period, from 1758 to 1811, 

 15 botanical and more than 20 zoological works of Kelreiter 

 were published in Russian scientific and scientific popular 

 editions (Novi Commentarii Acad. Scient. petropolitanae, 

 Acta Acad. Scient. petropol. Nova Acta Ac. Sc. Petropl., 

 Trudy Volnogo Ekonomicheskogo Obshchestva and in the journal 

 "Sochineniya,K poize i uveceleniyu sluzhashchie") . His 

 scientific fame is connected mainly with the study of 

 reproduction and hybridization in plants (see Ioz. Kelreiter" 

 Study about sex and hybridization in the plant", the editor 

 with a biological essay was prof. E. V. Wolff, 1840). 



614 



