Anton Gordonoff (3 February 1893 in

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

- 1960s) was a

Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

pharmacologist Pharmacology is the science of drugs and medications, including a substance's origin, composition, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, therapeutic use, and toxicology. More specifically, it is the study of the interactions that occur between ...

and

toxicologist Toxicology is a scientific discipline (academia), discipline, overlapping with biology, chemistry, pharmacology, and medicine, that involves the study of the adverse effects of chemical substances on living organisms and the practice of diagnos ...

of Russian origin. Gordonoff studied pharmacology at the Universities of

Bern Bern (), or Berne (), ; ; ; . is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".; ; ; . According to the Swiss constitution, the Swiss Confederation intentionally has no "capital", but Bern has gov ...

and Nancy and finished his studies in 1921. In 1926 he received his

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in Germany, France, Italy, Poland and some other European and non-English-speaking countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excelle ...

from the University of Bern. Later the same university appointed him a professor of pharmacology and toxicology; he headed the Department of Pharmacology at the School of Medicine and was also a member of the Swiss Commission on Medicine and Drugs and of the Swiss Association for Clinical Neurophysiology. As the main expert for the defence of

Maria Popescu Maria Popesco, wife of Victor Popescu (September 4, 1919 – 2004), was a Romanian-born socialite, convicted murderer and memoirist, whose case was at the center of one of the few miscarriages of justice in Switzerland. Born in Bucharest and the d ...

, in 1953, together with Georges Brunschvig, he achieved a second re-investigation of the case. He tested the accusation of poisoning by

Veronal Barbital (or barbitone), sold under the brand names Veronal for the pure acid and Medinal for the sodium salt, was the first commercially available barbiturate. It was used as a sleeping aid (hypnotic) from 1903 until the mid-1950s. The chemical ...

, and established that in the 1945 indictment which had led to Popescu's dubious conviction, there had been confusion between it and Quadronox. When Gordonoff then openly accused the forensic specialist

François Naville François Naville (14 June 1883 – 3 April 1968) was a Swiss physician and director of the medico-legal Institute of the University of Geneva. He was the only truly neutral expert participating in the international Katyn Commission investig ...

of incompetence, the prosecutor, Charles Cornu, and the presiding judge "stuttered . . . something about 'unavoidable errors'". Popescu was thus considered to have a good case for appeal.

Hans Martin Sutermeister Hans Martin Sutermeister (29 September 1907 – 4 May 1977 pen name: Hans Moehrlen) was a Swiss people, Swiss physician and medical writer, politician, and activist against Miscarriage of justice, miscarriages of justice. Life Early years Hans ...

, ''Summa Iniuria: Ein Pitaval der Justizirrtümer: fünfhundert Fälle menschlichen Versagens im Bereich der Rechtsprechung in kriminal- und sozialpsychologischer Sicht''. Basel: Elfenau, 1976, pp. 40–43: '' ls Gordonoff daraufhinProf. Naville offen "Unfähigkeit" vorwarf, stotterten Staatsanwalt Cornu und Gerichtspräsident Cougnard . . . etwas von "unvermeidlichen Irrtümern". araufhin legte man"Popescu ein Begnadigungsgesuch nahe"''.

Selected publications

"Gibt es eine Bronchialperistaltik? VI. Mitteilung. Ein Beitrag zum Studium der Physiologie und Pharmakologie der Sekretomotorik"
''Research in Experimental Medicine'' 97.1 (December 1936)
"Physiologie und Pharmakologie des Expektorationsvorganges"
''Reviews of Physiology, Biochemistry and Pharmacology'' 40.1 (December 1938).
"Über Triorthokresylphosphat-Vergiftungen"
''Archives of Toxicology'' 11.1 (December 1940)

References

External links

*
Publications on Pubmed
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gordonoff, Anton Academic staff of the University of Bern Swiss pharmacologists 1893 births 1960 deaths Nancy-Université alumni