Dr. Efim (Efraim) Semionovitch London

"...pathologist Efim (Efraim) Semenovich London. [Jacob] Robinson’s uncle, one of Russia’s first Jewish medical researchers, was codirector of the Institute of Experimental Medicine in Saint Petersburg, scientific editor of the popular Russian journal Niva, and a regular guest of Tsar Nicholas II..."

Born Dec. 28, 1868 (Jan. 9, 1869), in Kalvarija, in present-day Kapsukas Raion, Lithuanianian SSR; died Mar. 21, 1939, in Leningrad. Soviet pathophysiologist, biochemist, and radiobiologist. Doctor of medicine (1900); Honored Scientist of the RSFSR (1935).

London graduated from the University of Warsaw in 1894. From 1895 until the end of his life he worked at the Institute of Experimental Medicine. After 1924, he became a professor at Leningrad State University and other higher educational institutions in Leningrad.

London’s main work dealt with the effect of X rays on animals and of radium on plants and animals. His Radium in Biology and Medicine (1911) was the world’s first monograph on radio-biology. London investigated the bactericidal properties of blood, hemolysins, cytolysins, and spermatolysins. He studied the interdependence of the physiology and biochemistry of digestion, absorption, and metabolism in animals. In 1919 he developed the technique of angiostomy (the fistulization of blood vessels), which marked the beginning of the study of metabolism in the organs of live animals. London was an Honorary member of the Leopoldina Academy in Halle (1925), the Harvey Society in the USA (1928), and the Academy of Arts and Sciences in New York (1929).

Source: The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition. S.v. "London, Efim Semenovich." Retrieved June 18 2017 from http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/London%2c+Efim+Semenovich

My name is Grigory Efimovich London. I know that I have relatives in the United States, but I know very little about them. My mother was Raisa Abramovna Eshman. My father, Efim Semenovich London (in Hebrew, Ephraim son of Shmuel), 1869- 1939, was bom in Kalvarie, Suwalki province. He was a world-famous scientist and a member of a number of international academies. He published over 300 works which are included in "Selected Works of E.S. London” (The publishing House, USSR Academy of Medicine, 1956). From 1927-1929 my father was invited by the Rockefeller Institute in New York to visit the United States and to do research there. His work there with P.A Levens was published in The Journal of Biological Chemistry, vol. 83, no. 3, September, 1929. He was made a member of the Jewish Academy of Arts and Science in February, 1929. During their stay in the United States, my father and mother met his brother, Emanuel Semenovich London. His wife’s name was Frieda. She died around 1950. They had a daughter who was about 10 years old in 1929. One of my father's sisters was married to Yaakov Robinson and she lived in New York. I should like to write a biography of my father, but I know little about his childhood or his family. I hope that by publishing my letter in your newspaper you will help me find relatives living in the United States. Grigory Efimovich London Kirovsky pr. 59/71, apt. 15a 197022, St. Petersburg, USSR

Published in the Jewish Post,Indianapolis, Marion County, 18 December 1991