Medical faculty University of St Volodymyr foundation history and activity of its clinics in the 19th century

 

Imperial University of St. Volodymyr (now Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv) was founded in 1834. On April 28 year 1840, a royal decree on the founding of a medical faculty at the Kyiv University was promulgated. The opening of the medical faculty was postponed to 1842 until the completion of the construction of the main university campus. However, considering the spread of epidemics and the acute need for hospitals classes at the Faculty started at the beginning of the 1841-1842 studying year. For its temporary placement a three-story house on Lutheran Street was leased and 22 medical students listened to the first lecture on anatomy on September 9 of 1841.The second lecture on “Encyclopedia and methodology of medicine” was given September 12.

The medical faculty was equipped with the part of the laboratory property and equipment of the Vilna Medical-Surgical Academy. The one was closed by the government as a center of the Polish national liberation movement. Given that the most of its teachers were Poles only a small number of them, recognized as politically reliable, were able to go to work at Kyiv University. By that time in Russian Empire there were several medical institutions. Such us: Medical-Surgical (later - Military-Medical) Academy in St. Petersburg, medical faculties of universities in Moscow, Derpt, Kazan, and Kharkiv. But the Kyiv University had already been given peculiar role in the medical education system of the country: he should have become a leading center for other medical faculties in southern Russia.

29 graduates of gymnasiums were accepted on the first course of the medical faculty of the University of St. Volodymyr for studying for public funds. The first medical professors were invited to the university even before the approval of the 1842 Statute. Among them there were graduates of universities: V.O. Karavaev (Kazan’), O.P. Walter, E.E. Miram (Derpt), F.S. Tsitsurin (Kharkiv), O.P. Matveev (Moscow) and others. They became the direct founders and organizers of the clinics of the University.

According to the 1842 Statute medical faculty of University of St. Volodymyr consisted of 10 cathedras:
- physiological anatomy with macrography, heads: M.I Kozlov (1841-1844), O.P. Walter (1844-1868), V.A. Bets (1868-1890), M.A. Tikhomirov (since 1890)
- physiology of healthy human, heads: Е.Е. Miram (1842-1862), O.P. Walter (1862-1864), V.B. Tomsa (1865-1884);
- physiology of ill human or pathological physiology with pathological anatomy, heads: M.I. Kozlov (1841-1853), O.P. Walter (1853-1854), U.I. Matson (1854-1856), G.N. Minh (1876-1895);
- general therapy and doctors spellbinding, heads: M.I. Kozlov (1842-1843), V.V. Becker (1843-1859), O.P. Walter (1859-1861), O.O. Scheffer (1861-1864), E.G. Gaybel (1865-1868, 1877-1897), V.I. Dibkovsky (1868-1870), P.P. Sushchinsky (1871-1876);
- operative surgery with a surgical clinic, heads: V.A. Karavaev (1841-1861), U.K. Shimanovsky (1861-1868), O.H. Rynek (1879-1894);
- theoretical surgery with ophthalmology, headed by: V.A. Karavaev (1843-1844), V.V. Becker (1844-1845), O.C. Tsilhert (1846-1848), V.K. Kurdyumov (1848-1850), H.Ya. Gubbenet (1850-1870), M.V. Sklifosovsky (1870-1871) O.P. Walter (1871-1872), S.P. Kolomnin (1872-1879), O. H. Rynek (1878-1881), O.S. Yatsenko (1882), F.K. Bornhaupt (1883-1903);
- special therapy, heads: F.S. Tsitsyurin (1844-1846), S.P. Alferiev (1846-1857), F.F. Mering (1857-1864), U.I. Macon (1865-1866), V.T. Pokrovsky (1866-1877), L.K. Goretsky (1876-1877), K.G. Tritshel (1877-1879), E.I. Afanasyev (since 1893);
- therapeutic clinic with semiotics, heads: M.I. Kozlov (1842-1843), F.S. Tsitsyurin (1844-1857), S.P. Alferiev (1857-1864), F.F. Mering (1864-1886);
- theoretical and practical obstetrics with the presentation of diseases of the childbirth and newborns, obstetrical clinic, heads: I.K. Kramarenkov (1841), O.P. Matveev (1844-1882), G.E. Rhine (1883-1900);
- state medical sciences, which included: “a) judicial medicine; b) medical police with hygiene; c) medical law, that is, a summary of the course of cases, the order of service and the device of medical management in the state, as well as information on civil service and jurisprudence to the extent necessary for the doctor; d) veterinary police with epizootic diseases”, headed by: I.F. Leonov (1842-1853), F.F. Mering (1853-1857), F.F. Ergardt (1857-1889), M.A. Obolonsky (since 1889).

The term of study at the medical faculty was 5 years. In 1846, the first issue of doctors - 20 people, and in 1848 the number of graduates increased to 299 (46% of the 656 people studying at the University). Subsequently, the recruitment of students constantly increased (say, in 1895 it already made 986 people). The faculty remained the most numerous of the faculties of the University until the beginning of the twentieth century. Clinical and training facilities expanded. Anatomical theater for medical faculty was built in 1853.

Subsequently, after the introduction of the 1863 statute, a number of departments were opened:

• comparative Anatomy and Embryology, heads: E.E. Miram (1842-1862), P.I. Intermittently (1868-1891);
• medical chemistry and physics, heads: M.I. Kozlov, O.O. Scheffer (1863-1868), O.S. Shklarevsky (since 1869);
• pharmacy and pharmacognosy, heads: L.F. Seget (1843-1853), I.M. Fonberg (1853-1854), M.M. Neese (1854-1863), E.G. Nemetti (since 1864);
• general pathology, heads: N.A. Khrzhnchevsky (1869-1887), V.V. Podvysotsky (since 1887);
• ophthalmology, heads: V.A. Karavaev (1843-1844), V.V. Becker (1844-1845), O.K. Tillhurt (1846-1848), H.Ya. Gubbenet (1850-1870), O.V. Ivanov (1870-1876), E.H. Mandelstam (1876-1880), A.V. Khodin (1881-1902);
• hygiene, medical police, geography and statistics, head: V.A. Subbotin (1871-1893);
• encyclopedias, methodology and history of medicine, heads: M.I. Kozlov (1842-1846), N.Ya. Kozhevnikov (1848-1850), F.F. Mering (1854-1860), H.Ya. Gubbenet (1861-1862), O.P. Walter (1869-1872), E.G. Geibel (since 1874).

In the early 1860's there were already 16 departments at the Faculty of Medicine. The quantitative and qualitative composition of the teaching staff has increased. In addition to seminars laboratory and practical classes in laboratories, clinics, and anatomical theater were added. The creation of new chairs is associated with the names of the professors-founders of the priority areas of research: N.A. Khrzhonchevsky, P.I. Peremezhko, V.A. Subbotin. According to the statute of 1884, 24 faculties operated at the Faculty of Medicine of the University, opening the opportunity to teach the treatment of childhood, nervous, mental, eye, skin and other diseases.

In year 1885, buildings for faculty therapeutic and surgical clinics were constructed on funds allocated by the government to the 50th anniversary of the University (1884). In 1888, the building of the Obstetric Clinic was completed, which allowed to complete the university medical and medical complex at the Bibikovsky (now Taras Shevchenko) boulevard, 17. At that time, there were 45 educational and auxiliary institutions at the University, including 4 faculty clinics, 3 hospital clinics, 2 clinical offices at the city hospital, anatomical theater, as well as laboratories and offices.

In the 1847-1849 period professors O.P. Walter, F.S. Tsitsurin, H.Ya. Gubbenet were directly involved in fight against epidemics of cholera in Kiev; in 1856 professors F.F. Mering and S.P. Alferiev went to fight the typhus epidemic in theater of warfare. In the period of 1877-1878, professors V.T. Pokrovsky and M.S. Afanasyev died in the fight against the epidemic of typhus in Kiev. Professor G.M. Minh was fighting against epidemics of plague and leprosy in the south of Russia, Astrakhan, Persia, Palestine and Egypt. A selfless fight with epidemics of cholera and plague both in Russia and abroad - in India, Mongolia, Mesopotamia, Portugal, Morocco, China and Manchuria of professors V.V. Visokovich and D.K. Zabolotniy at late XIX - early XX century is widely known.

The Society of Kyiv Physicians was founded at the faculty. It became the one of the first medical societies in Ukraine and Russia, on which initiative a number of medical institutions were set up, and the ambulance service was set up in Russian Empire for the first time. Clinical work of the medical faculty was not only limited to faculty clinics. On the basis of the "Regulations on clinical units at the Kiev military hospital" (Annex II to Article 7 "The Combined Warfare Post, Book XVII, 1869”, continued 1878") at the Kiev Military Hospital the clinical departments of the university were opened - therapeutic, surgical, dermatological and syphylidological, forensic medical, as well as department of the department of pathological anatomy and an explorative office for neuromuscular diseases. After implementation of 1884 statute a propaedeutic clinic of nerve diseases and children's clinic were opened at the city's Alexander Hospital, which operated on the basis of the "Regulations on clinical units at the Kyiv City Hospital". For the maintenance of all optional clinics 22 500 rubles were released from the State Treasury and 14 531 rubles from the special funds of the University, totaling 37,041 rubles. In 1886 an obstetric and gynecological society was established, headed by Professor G. E. Rhine. The Society for Combating Infectious Diseases was founded in 1894. Physical-medical society which purpose was the convergence of medicine with the other branches of natural science, widespread use of the results of fundamental research and medical practice was founded in 1896. Psychoneurological Society under the guidance of Professor I.O. Sikorsky - 1897; society for combating suhoti and humpbackland 1899; dermatophyllophilic society, headed by Professor S.P. Tomashevsky and Children's Doctors Society under the chairmanship of V.E. Chernoff. The organizer and head of the surgical society was Professor M.M. Volkovich.

Along with the scientific associations of specialists at the Faculty of Medicine, the University of St. Vladimir created for the first time a student scholarly society, organized by O.A. Kisil together with F.G. Yanovsky, P.V. Nikolsky and O.G. Chernyakhivsky. In 1910, another association of student youth support - Society of ambulance for needy students of higher educational institutions began its activities. In April 1920, on the basis of the medical faculty of the University of St. Volodymyr, Women's Medical Institute and the Faculty of Medicine of the Ukrainian State University (founded in 1917), the Institute of Health was formed. In December 1920, ше was reorganized into the State Medical Academy, and in December 1921 - to the Kiev Medical Institute (now - the National Medical University named after O. O. Bogomolets).

So, the opening of the Kiev University of St. Volodymyr became a great cultural, scientific and social event, and the organization of the medical faculty contributed to attracting new medical and medical personnel to Kyiv and improving the quality of medical care for the population. The first clinics of the medical faculty of the Kiev University of St. Volodymyr headed by leading specialists were the faculty clinics - therapeutic, surgical, obstetric, obstetric and gynecological, which became not only a base of medical education and science, but also centers of highly qualified medical aid.