title: Nikolai Konstantinovich Kulchitsky (1856-1925).
abstract: Nikolai Kulchitsky is best remembered for his identification of the Kulchitsky (enterochromaffin) cell. His life spanned a teaching and scientific career at Kharkov University, employment as the Imperial Minister of Education for all Russia, work in a soap factory and flight from the Russian Revolution to London, and a position at the University College with Elliot Smith. His subsequent contributions to the anatomic delineation of dual nerve-endings in the muscle were highly regarded, although his identification of the enterochromaffin cell (1897) remains his enduring scientific legacy. The observation of a cardinal neuroendocrine cell of the gut formed the basis for the subsequent delineation of the diffuse neuroendocrine system and provided the cellular framework on which the discipline of gut neuroendocrinology would be established. Kulchitsky's mysterious demise in a bizarre lift-shaft accident at UCL on his 69th birthday tragically terminated a life of service to science.
authors.affiliation: Yale University School of Medicine, USA.
authors.forename: Ignat
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Drozdov
authors.forename: Irvin M
authors.initials: IM
authors.lastname: Modlin
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kidd
authors.forename: Victor V
authors.initials: VV
authors.lastname: Goloubinov
mesh_terms: D054814:Anatomists / Q000266:history; D000715:Anatomy / Q000266:history*; D004739:England; D004759:Enterochromaffin Cells; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D008829:Microbiology / Q000266:history*; D012426:Russia; D014586:USSR