Serafina Schachova, also known as Seraphima Schachova (1854-unknown) was a Russian Empire physician known for her discovery of the
spiral tube of Schachova
In mathematics, a spiral is a curve which emanates from a point, moving farther away as it revolves around the point.
Helices
Two major definitions of "spiral" in the American Heritage Dictionary are:kidney's duct system.
She grew up in
Ekaterinoslav
Dnipro, previously called Dnipropetrovsk from 1926 until May 2016, is Ukraine's fourth-largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located in the eastern part of Ukraine, southeast of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on the Dnieper Rive ...
, modern-day
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
, in a somewhat well-off family and an area rife with class tensions. She studied medicine at the
University of Zurich
The University of Zürich (UZH, german: Universität Zürich) is a public research university located in the city of Zürich, Switzerland. It is the largest university in Switzerland, with its 28,000 enrolled students. It was founded in 1833 f ...
pigeon
Columbidae () is a bird family consisting of doves and pigeons. It is the only family in the order Columbiformes. These are stout-bodied birds with short necks and short slender bills that in some species feature fleshy ceres. They primarily ...
model. Schachova's time in Zurich ended abruptly when the Russian government required women to leave the city. She transferred to the
University of Bern
The University of Bern (german: Universität Bern, french: Université de Berne, la, Universitas Bernensis) is a university in the Swiss capital of Bern and was founded in 1834. It is regulated and financed by the Canton of Bern. It is a compreh ...
and worked with
Theodor Langhans
Theodor Langhans (28 September 1839 – 22 October 1915) was a German pathologist who was a native of Usingen, Duchy of Nassau.
He studied medicine at the University of Heidelberg, and at the University of Göttingen under Friedrich Gustav Jak ...
on kidney anatomy research using a canine model of induced nephritis. Schachova returned to Russia in 1878 and practiced medicine in that country until 1910, when she moved to Kharkhov, Ukraine. The details of the end of her life are not known.