Babkin, Boris

Pavlov s student V. V. Savich stimulated secretion of mucus by applying 0.2% corrosive sublimate, 10% silver nitrate, absolute alcohol or an emulsion of mustard oil to the gastric mucosa of dogs. Boris Babkin inherited his interest in mucus from Pavlov and Savich, and he and his own students stimulated mucus secretion with 1% acetic acid (ca. 160 mN) or 90% ethyl alcohol. Franklin Hollander whose devotion to mucus was as intense as Babkin s stimulated mucus secretion with topical application of water saturated with ethyl ether or with a 5% emulsion of clove oil. All those stimulants seriously damage the gastric mucosa, and their effect, other than their ability to stimulate shedding of mucus and mucus-containing cells will be discussed in a later part of this chapter. 

Boris Babkin inherited his interest in mucus from Pavlov, and he in turn encouraged his students to study the function of mucus. He also inherited from Pavlov s laboratory Mett s method for measuring pepsin. 

Figure 3-9. Boris Babkin s determination of the effect of introduction of 1% acetic acid (H Ac) into the main stomach of a dog upon the secretory response of the dog s Pavlov pouch to sham feeding. (From Babkin BP, Hebb CO, Krueger L. Changes in the secretory activity of gastric glands resulting from the application of acetic acid solutions to the gastric mucosa. Q / Exp Physiol 31 63-77, 1941.)...

When Boris Babkin himself reviewed the subject in 1950, he concluded that there was no proof that the sympathetic nervous system has any direct effect upon parietal or peptic cells any inhibition is probably the result of vasoconstriction." On the other hand, Babkin thought that sympathetic stimulation causes some as yet unidentified cells to secrete mucus. That opinion was based on work his student Stewart Baxter had done in 1934. In acute experiments in dogs and cats, Baxter has found that prolonged stimulation of newly severed splanchnic nerves resulted in secretion of a small amount of alkaline mucus having only low peptic power. Secretion was not abolished by atropine, and the pyloric glands seemed to be the chief source of the secretion. Baxter found paralytic secretion of mucus in two eso-phagostomized cats with gastric fistulas whose splanchnic nerves he had severed earlier." " ... 

Boris Babkin, who thoroughly knew the work done in Pavlov s laboratory, wrote ... 

Boris Babkin was apologetic when he addressed an audience at Columbia University on 29 June 1934. He spoke on the chemical phase of gastric secretion, and he began by saying ... 

Figure 5-7. Boris Babkin s diagram of the innervation of the gastric mucosa showing his supposition that acetylcholine (AC), as the neurotransmitter of vagal impulses, liberates histamine (H). (Reprinted, by permission of the publisher, "The Abnormal Functioning of the Gastric Secretory Mechanism as a Possible Factor in the Pathogenesis of Peptic Ulcer," CAM/, Vol 38, May 1938.)...

Ten years later Boris Babkin, in a lecture commemorating the work of a Canadian surgeon who had unsuccessfully attempted to promote growth of collateral circulation in the heart, summarized these results and his own by saying ... 

Boris Babkin (center), a pupil of Pavlov, translated the Russian scientist s views into English and was responsible for disseminating many of his ideas in North America. Babkin, himself, developed novel theories regarding the parasympathetic innervation (bottom) of the gastric glands. 

---