Elsevier

Surgery

Volume 123, Issue 6, June 1998, Pages 606-616
Surgery

Original Communications
The life and death of Professor Alexander P. Borodin: Surgeon, chemist, and great musician☆,☆☆

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Abstract

Music is one of the most effective and most beautiful means of communication between peoples. However characteristically national the music may be, it will penetrate to the hearts of all receptive listeners regardless of outlook, provided that it has real beauty.

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Section snippets

Life

Alexander P. Borodin (Fig. 1) was born on Oct. 31, 1834, as the illegitimate son of Prince Gedianov, who registered Alexander as the legal son of one of his servants.

. Alexander P. Borodin, MD, 1834-1887. (From the archives of the Military Medical Academy, St. Petersburg, Russia.)

In this way Borodin was the serf of his own father. Alexander was a very curious boy. Once when he was about 2 years old he stuck his head in the parapet of the balcony; the scar on his forehead remained with him for

Surgeon

On April 6, 1856, Borodin was graduated from the Medico-Surgical Academy cum examia laude and was appointed house surgeon to the Second Military Hospital. Those first 3 years, until 1859, were very difficult for him as a young surgeon. Once, for instance, the coachman of some high-ranking official was brought into the hospital, and Borodin had to remove a bone that was choking him. While he was operating, the rusty instrument he was using broke while in the patient's throat. However, the young

Chemist

On May 15, 1858, Borodin received a doctorate for his dissertation, “On the Analogy of Arsenic and Phosphoric Acids.” In October 1859 Borodin went abroad as a delegate of the Medico-Surgical Academy, together with Mendeleev, Sechenov, and Botkin. Zinin insisted that Borodin should spend some time abroad to gain the necessary experience for the post of Adjunct-Professor of Chemistry, which he would take up on his return. Thus it came about that Borodin was able to abandon his surgical career,

Composer

In autumn 1859, Borodin again met Musorgsky, this time at the home of Professor Ivanovsky. Borodin wrote about this:

He was just as smartly dressed, and still the perfect gentlemen, but there was no trace of foppishness. We were introduced to one another, but of course we immediately recognized each other, and went on to reminisce about the times when we first met at Popov's. The conversation automatically turned to the subject of music. I was still mad keen on Mendelssohn, and at that time

Death

On March 19, 1887, the following note appeared in the Lancet:

Dr. Alexander Porphyryevich Borodin died suddenly, probably from highly diseased coronary arteries. His published works were tolerably numerous and included a number of important articles on the estimation of nitrogen. By means of Professor Borodin's process, combined with that of Kjeldahl's, the physician has a means whereby this estimation may be made with a very moderate amount of difficulty and trouble... In spite of his arduous

Epilogue

Ten years after Borodin's death, the income from Prince Igor alone amounted to 50,000 rubles. The essential sum was arranged soon to be donated to the St. Petersburg Conservatoire in the form of a Borodin Scholarship for young composers.

Borodin was the greatest musician and chemist of all surgeons. Although he did not make a great surgeon, he expressed himself equally well in his medical work and music of immortal beauty. More than 100 years after his death, his music continues to capture and

Acknowledgements

This article is dedicated to the 200th anniversary of the Military Medical Academy. I thank Professor V. O. Samoilov and Dr. Timothy Pansegrau for their valuable advice regarding the manuscript.

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    Surgery 1998;123:606-16.

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