BERNSTEIN, NATHAN OSIPOVICH:

Russian physiologist; born at Brody, Galicia, in 1836; died in Odessa Feb. 9, 1891. He received his first education from his grandfather, the eminent Solomon Eger, chief rabbi of the province of Posen; and, on the removal of his parents to Odessa in 1849, entered the gymnasium of that place, from which he graduated in 1853. He studied medicine at the University of Moscow in 1853-58, where he was awarded a gold medal in 1857 for his treatise, "Anatomia i Fiziologia Legochno-Zheludoch-navo Nerva." In 1861 he became consulting physician of the city hospital of Odessa, and associate editor of the Russian-Jewish periodical "Sion," until its suppression by the government in April, 1862. In 1865 he was appointed instructor of anatomy and physiology at the newly established New-Russia University at Odessa; and from 1871 lectured there on anatomy as assistant professor, but was not confirmed in this position by the government. He devoted much of his time to the Society of Physicians of Odessa, having been secretary of it for two years, vice-president for eight years, and president for fourteen years. He was an alderman of the Odessa city council, director of the Talmud Torah, director of the city hospital, and honorary justice of the peace. His works appeared in the following publications: the "Moskovskaya Meditzinskaya Gazeta," 1858; "Moskovskoe Obozryenie," 1859; "Biblioteka Meditzinskikh Nauk," 1859; "Sion," 1861-62; "Meditzinski Viestnik," 1864; "Sovremennaya Meditzina," 1863; "Arkhiv Sudebnoi Meditziny," 1864; "Gazette Médicale de Paris," 1865; and many other medical periodicals. Of his manual on physiology, entitled "Rukovodstvo Chastnoi Fiziologii," two parts were published at Odessa in 1868.

Bibliography:
  • Vengerov, Kritiko-Biograficheski Slovar, vol. iii., 1892;
  • Voskhod, No. 5, 1891.
H. R.
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