Nikolai Veliaminov

Born Feb. 15 (27), 1855, in St. Petersburg; died Apr. 9, 1920, in Petrograd. Russian surgeon and public figure.

Vel’iaminov graduated from the medical department of Moscow University in 1877 and became a professor at the Military Medical Academy in 1894 (1910-12, chief of the academy). He was the first in Russia to use phototherapy and laid the foundation for the scientific elaboration of this method. He was a pioneer in the study of the role of the endocrine glands in the onset and development of surgical diseases. Vel’iaminov described a new form of joint disease (thyrotoxic polyarthritis) and developed the classification of diseases of the joints and thyroid gland. He initiated the study of occupational traumatization; he also studied the influence of ultraviolet rays on the course of lupus vulgaris, epithelioma, and other diseases. In 1885 he began to publish the first surgical journal in Russia, Khirurgicheskii vestnik. He founded the Consultation Bureau for Workers, the first first-aid station in St. Petersburg. Vel’iaminov worked for Red Cross organizations.