Zahorsky, Petro or Petr [Загорський, Петро; Zahors'kyj], b 20 August 1764 in Ponornytsia, Novhorod-Siverskyi county, Chernihiv gubernia, d 1 April 1846 in Saint Petersburg. Anatomist and physiologist; full member of the Russian Imperial Academy of Sciences. Educated at Chernihiv College (1776–82) and the Saint Petersburg Army Hospital Medical School (1784–5), in 1797 he was appointed an adjunct professor (from 1880 professor) of the Saint Petersburg Medico-Surgical Academy. He discovered the nuclei of the abducent, accessory, and hypoglossal cranial nerves. He established the first school of anatomists in the Russian Empire and wrote the first anatomy textbook, Sokrashchennaia anatomiia, ili rukovodstvo k poznaniiu stroeniia chelovecheskogo tela (An Abridged Anatomy, or Guide to the Study of the Structure of the Human Body, 1801).

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]