The Histaminolytic Index of Blood during Pregnancy and its Clinical Application

Gleb Anrep, 1891-1955

Gleb (Vassilievitch von) Anrep was descended from a famous Westphalian family with a proud history of high military distinction which can be traced back to the tenth century. Field Marshal von Anrep was leader of the Livonian Order of Knights who built an outpost of Christianity on the shores of the Baltic. General von Anrep came to St Petersburg at the invitation of Peter the Great and founded the Russian branch of the family in the eighteenth century. Professor Vassili (Basil) von Anrep (1854-1925) was the first member of this family to prefer science to arms. He was born in St Petersburg and studied law in the university there for a year, but he soon tired of academic legal arguments and entered the Medical Academy where he was a brilliant student. He spent two years studying pharmacology in Leipzig, where he described the local anaesthetic action of cocaine and recommended its use in medicine four years before its introduction by Roller. He returned to Russia to be professor of pharmacology, first in Kharkov and then in the Medical Academy in St Petersburg. At the invitation of Prince Oldenburgski he founded the Institute of Experimental Medicine and directed it for several years. At the command of the Emperor he then founded a medical institute for women doctors, which was needed because Moslem women refused to be treated by men. His public duties interfered with his researches and eventually he devoted himself entirely to the reform of education. He held high administrative posts in connexion not only with medicine but also with education in general, and nearly succeeded in introducing compulsory education for all Russians. In the first world war he was at the head of the Russian Red Cross. At the outbreak of the revolution he was thrown into prison, but was released after six months and since the family had come from the Baltic he managed to obtain a Latvian passport. He arrived in London in 1919, stayed with his younger son Gleb for a few years and then left for Paris, where he died in 1925.