Search

Trotula de Ruggiero is supposed to be one of the first female physician of the history, or at least the first who practiced, taught, and wrote medical texts inside the illustrious medieval Medical School of Salerno around the XI-XII centuries. Here we retrace the steps of her fascinating history from historical cues to legendary anecdotes, through the analysis of the medical texts which were ascribed to her in the Middle Ages and that were very popular around Europe for several centuries, prevalently dealing with all the aspects of women's medical problems, with a focus on dermatology, cosmetic science, and obstetrics/gynecology., (© 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

In 1840s, the group of physicians worked at the medical faculty of the Vienna university. In their activities, they were guided by successes and achievements of natural sciences. Hereinafter this group was accepted as the new (second) Vienna medical school. Carl von Rokitansky was its acknowledged head and the therapists Joseph Skoda and Iogann Oppolzer were its distinguished representatives. Ferdinand von Hebra, disciple of Skoda and another representative of the school founded the Vienna school of dermatologists. This school was characterized by morphological approach to classification of appearance of skin rash and "external" approach to treatment of skin diseases. The Russian therapists S.P. Botkin and G.A. Zakharin, during their travels abroad in the process of professorship training witnessed and actively participated in changes of classic natural science. The visits to clinics and laboratories of Vienna consisted important and continuous part of their educational missions. The dermatological schools of St. Petersburg and Moscow came into being at their therapeutic clinics. A.G. Polotebnov and A.I. Pospelov, their disciples and the founders of national dermatology, in their deeds in organization of clinical and research activities were guided by experience and achievements of the Vienna dermatological school as leading dermatological center of Europe in 1850-1890.

Alexej Gerassimovitsch Polotebnov played an important role in the foundation of the Russian scientific school of dermatology. The international journeys to European dermatological centers, particularly in Vienna, were very important for his professional development. Through his initiative in all Russian universities the Chairs for skin and venereal diseases have been created. He wrote numerous works, which became the basis for his followers. Many of his works have been published in Europe and gained fame there.

The development of dermatovenerology in Croatia parallelled more or less this process in other parts of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy throughout the 19th century. The foundation of the first specialized hospitals as well as the establishment of dermatovenerological units and their transformation into academic departments and chairs in the early 20th century was a slow growth provoked by the spread of syphilis and Skrljevo disease. A group of Zagreb physicians were instrumental in this regard. Based on archival sources, this paper illustrates the chronology and circumstances of the foundation of the first chair, on the occasion of its 80th anniversary.

In 1861 a professorship in syphilology was founded at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. However, unlike the conditions in Denmark, Finland and Norway, a combined chair in dermatology and syphilology was not established until in 1927. The main reason for this delay was that, according to the laws applicable to the hospitals of Sweden, patients with venereal diseases could be treated solely in special hospitals ("kurhus"). Only in 1901, when these laws were changed, it was possible to establish departments for both skin and venereal diseases. The article is a survey of the development of dermato-venereology as a subject in medical education in Sweden until our time.

Teaching and scientific activities were discussed of the outstanding surgeons and internists lecturing on dermatology and venereology at the Academic Faculty of Medicine existing in the years 1809-1816 and at the Faculty of Medicine of The Warsaw University closed by the tsarist authorities after the November Insurrection in 1831. The academic school of medicine could begin its work after a pause of 25 years in 1857 as The Medical-Surgical Academy transformed in 1862 into The Medical Faculty of The Central School closed definitely in 1869 when a Russian university was founded in its place. Those who rendered the greatest services in the development of dermatology and venereology in Warsaw were, among others, Józef Czekierski, Andrzej Janikowski, Antoni Le Brun, and Polikarp Girsztowt, and in the first place Bronisław Chojnowski who raised it to the rank of a clinical discipline. After closing of The Central School the main center for the Polish dermatologists and venereologists was The St. Lazarus Hospital.