CYON, ELIA von. - Russian physiologist, b. at Telschi in 1843, d. at 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.

A professor at St. Petersburg until 1877, he left Russia for political reasons and in Paris devoted himself to political life and was an effective advocate of the Franco-Russian alliance. Having returned to research, he published three works that have remained classics: I nervi del cuore, Le ghiandole sanguigne come organi protettori del sistema nervoso centrale and L'orecchio, which were translated also into Italian (Bologna 1912-13). A Jew by birth, he converted, toward the end of his medical studies, to Orthodoxy and died a Catholic. His work Dieu et science (1910-12), written with an apologetic purpose, should be remembered.

Bibliography

BIBL.: The list of works up to 1900 is in Dictionn. de physiologie, by Ch. Richet, IV, pp. 668-69. Biographical notes and appreciation by F. Lussana and P. Albertoni, prefixed to the Italian translation of I nervi del cuore, Bologna 1910, p. III ff.

Luigi Scremin

@incollection{ec4_cyon_elia_von, author = {Scremin, Luigi}, title = {Cyon, elia von}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {IV}, pages = {1101--1102}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1950}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/cyon-elia-von} }

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Cyon, Elia von

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