The main milestones in the life and work of Alexander M. Shumlyansky (1748–1795), a Russian doctor, obstetrician and the first Russian scientist-microscopist, are presented. It is noted that in 1776 he graduated from the hospital school at the Admiralty Hospital in St. Petersburg, received the title of doctor and was sent to study abroad. A.M. Shumlyansky in 1782 graduated from the University of Strasbourg and defended his thesis on the topic “On the structure of the kidneys, physiological and anatomical treatise” (the work was published in 1788). Upon his return to Russia he taught pathology and therapy at a hospital school in Moscow. It is shown that since 1793 A.M. Shumlyansky was a Professor of Obstetrics at the Moscow obstetric school. The fact that A.M. Shumlyansky applied an original technique for injecting kidney blood vessels and urinary tubules in own research is analyzed. He was the first to present and substantiate the pattern of their anatomical relationships. The scientist showed that the renal corpuscles described by Professor M. Malpighi (100 years before AM Shumlyansky) are not glands, but plexuses of arterial capillaries, surrounded by “some annular border.” It is noted that this was the first (60 years before Bowman) observation of the glomerulus capsule (Shumlyansky – Bowman capsule), the discovery of which was later sometimes attributed to V. Bowman. The works of A.M. Shumlyansky showed that each vascular glomerulus is adjacent to a separate renal tubule, and each tubule is a single tube with straight and tortuous sections. Alexander Shumlyansky also proved the falseness of the statement of the prominent anatomist F. Ruysch about the presence of so-called open kidney vessels and thereby finally confirmed the assumption that the circulatory system of the kidneys is closed. Alexander M. Shumlyansky, being one of the founders of nephrology in our country, as well as the scientific school of clinicians, is rightfully recognized as one of the patriarchs of Russian medicine.

Keywords: A.M. Shumlyansky, biography, scientist-microscopist, kidney structure, injection of kidney blood vessels, Shumlyansky-Bowman capsule