CYN, ELIA von. - Russian physiologist, b. at Telschi in 1843, d. in Paris in 1912. In the first phase of his scientific activity he discovered the accelerator nerves of the heart and (with the German physiologist K. F. W. Ludwig) the depressor nerve (1866), discoveries for which he remains deservedly famous.
Professor at St. Petersburg until 1877, he left Russia for political reasons and in Paris devoted himself to political life, becoming an effective advocate of the Franco-Russian alliance. Returning to research, he published three works that have remained classics: *The Nerves of the Heart*, *The Blood Glands as Protective Organs of the Central Nervous System*, and *The Ear*, which were also translated into Italian (Bologna 1912-13). Of Jewish birth, he converted to Orthodoxy toward the end of his medical studies and died a Catholic. His work *Dien et science* (1910-12), written with an apologetic intent, should also be noted.
