Prominent Russian pharmacologist N.P.Kravkov and his contribution to the world pharmacology (in memoriam to 150 years from the birth)

In every field of science there are the proper prominent scientists. In Russia, there was Nikolai Pavlovich Kravkov (1865-1924), a founder of the Russian pharmacology. In the paper, the life and scientific achievements of Professor N.P. Kravkov, headed the Department of Pharmacology, Military Medical Academy, St. Petersburg, were described. N. P. Kravkov carried out significant investigations in pharmacology of gas metabolism, drug toxicology, aged and evolutionary pharmacology, clinical pharmacology (discovery of intravenous and combined narcosis). The main achievement of N. P. Kravkov became the cycle of investigations on isolated organs (ear, heart, lung, spleen, pancreatic gland, thyroid gland, adrenal gland, uterus of the mammalians, head and gills of pike, human fingers, heart and spleen). In these investigations, the rhythmic oscillation of the vascular tonus was proved, the theory of phasic action of pharmacological drugs on tissues, presentations on sensitiveness limits of living protoplasma, possibilities of animation of mummified tissues were postulated. N. P. Kravkov created a large scientific school (S. V. Anichkov, M. I. Gramenitskii, G. L. Shkavera, M. N. Nikolaev, A. I. Kuznetsov, B. S. Sentyurin, V. V. Zakusov, V. A. Valdman).