[YESTERDAY'S CLINICIANS: JUDGEMENTS AND REQUESTS IN THREE LETTERS OF NIGRISOLI, MURRI, AND GALDI]

We present here three interesting documents which allow us to have a quick look at some aspects of the professional life of Italian teachers of internal medicine at the end of XIX century. A typewritten copy of a letter sent, on 23 February 1877, by Augusto Murri, professor of internal medicine at the University of Bologna, to Francesco Crispi, Speaker of the Italian Parliament. This document was enclosed in a letter dated 6 March 1937 from Bartolo Nigrisoli, a distingued surgeon of Bologna, to Francesco Galdi, clinician of the University of Pisa. The third document is a handwritten reply from Galdi to Nigrisoli. Relevant information in all three documents are commented upon.

[About the clinical school of D.D. Pletnev: Professor B.A. Egorov (1889-1963)]

The article considers the issues of clinical school created in the first half of XX century by D.D. Pletniyev, one of the founders of therapy in the USSR. The article for the first time presents the scientific biography and complicated course of life of B.A. Yegorov, one of the leading representatives of this school.

Professor František Pór, MD--an outstanding internist in the former Czechoslovakia

Professor František Pór, MD, (1899-1980) graduated at the German Medical Faculty of Charles University (GMF-CHU) in Prague in 1926. In January 26, 1945 he was captured, together with his wife, by the Gestapo and they were deported to the concentration camp to Sered' and later to Terezín (Czechoslovakia) from where they were liberated by the Soviet Army on May 8, 1945. He was a founder and the head of the Internal Clinic of the new Medical Faculty in Košice, from October 1, 1948 until 1971. Professor Pór, MD created a school of internal medicine specialists in Eastern Slovakia and many of his co-workers achieved considerable success in internal medicine in Slovakia. He was the founder of Eastern Slovakian Medical Meetings in Nový Smokovec, in the High Tatras, in 1961, the 50th Meeting was held in 2011. Since 1994 the Medical Society in Košice has organized an annual Meeting in his memory.

Six decades of the chair of Internal Medicine at the Medical Faculty in Skopje

The chair of internal medicine in Republic of Macedonia was created in 1947. The Department of Internal Medicine (CIM) is the most numerous at Skopje's medical faculty (currently 56 members). According to the archive material from the first session of the Scientific Teaching Council of the Faculty of Medicine (17.03.1947), Mr Mario Krmpotic (Professor of Internal Medicine) was proposed as the first Director of the Internal Clinic (1947). For reasons unknown, Mr Krmpotic never came to Skopje to accept the post. As a consequence of this fact, the real founder of the CIM was the Russian Professor Alexandar Ignjatovski (1875-1955). Mr Ignjatovski was elected as the first Director of the Clinic for Internal Medicine in 1948 for a period of 4 years (1948-1952). At the same time, he was the first Chief of the CIM in Skopje (Macedonia). Dr D. Arsov was elected as the first Assistant Professor of Medicine in 1947, and second (and last) Director of the Clinic for Internal Medicine (1952-1974). For the same period (22 years) he was Head of the CIM. Dr D. Arsov sequentially and successively became first associated and then ordinary professor of medicine in the years 1951 and 1958. The regular activities of the CIM are as follows: 1) Undergraduate education for students (Clinical Investigation, Internal Medicine, Clinical Pharmacy) in general medicine, dentistry, geriatrics, urgent and family medicine (ECKTS); Undergraduate educationfor nurses, speech therapists, physiotherapists, radiologists (high /three year/ nurses School, ECKTS); 2) Postgraduate education (candidates for specialisation in internal medicine, infectology, anaesthesiology, neurology and surgery; 3) Continual medical education (a traditional morning scientific meeting on Thursdays, 08 h; weekly meetings of all internal medicine subspecialists); Scientific meetings, symposiums, congresses of former internal medicine associations (cardiology, pulmoallergology, gastroenterology, nephrology, haematology, rheumathology, endocriniology and toxicology); 4) Publishing activities in the national journals (Macedonian Medical Review, Journal of Macedonian Medical Science, Acta Physiologica, Medicus); 5) Decision-making: the Head of CIM regularly collaborates with the subspecialities of internal medicine by means of a coordinated body for all questions related to educational purposes in clinical investigation and internal medicine.

One hundred years since the birth of academician Dimitar Arsov, founder and nestor of the modern internal medicine in the Republic of Macedonia

Dimitar Arsov was born in Kriva Palanka on September 28, 1908 and died on July 2, 1974 in Skopje; he had finished elementary education in Kriva Palanka, high school (1922-1926) in Kumanovo, Macedonia and Col-lege of Medicine (1926-1932), Ph. D. University of Paris, Sorbone, France, 1936. He returned to Macedonia in 1937. In 1947 he was elected and Assistant Professor and in 1950 a Docent at the Faculty of Medicine in Skopje. He was appointed Director of the Clinic of Medicine and Head of the Chair of Internal Medicine, who served at those positions in the period 1952-74. In 1958 he was elected Professor of Internal Medicine. The first habilitation of the Medical Faculty in Skopje was defended by D. Arsov in 1954, titled: "The Effects of the Intravenous Epinephrine on the Hypersplenism of Malaria and Cala-Azar". On August 18, 1967, D. Arsov was elected Full Member and also the first member in the field of medicine of the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts. The excellent experience in the work with the patients, precise observation of the symptoms and syndromes of the diseases in each patient, knowing the most advanced therapy at that time enabled D. Arsov to make conclusion for possibility of new therapy and gave him the material for writing scientific papers. In the first half of the 50s, during his regular work, Arsov discovers a new, internationally recognized therapy for rheumatism. Patients of both Cala-Azar and inflammatory rheumatism were treated with small doses of adrenaline therapy and they felt drastic decrease in rheumatism inflammation within one week. This therapy was used a couple of years in several countries around the world. He participated in the undergraduate and graduate studies. He contributed to the development of 2,240 graduated doctors and under his management over 300 doctors specialized in internal medicine and became specialists internists. Under his management, numerous habilitations and dissertations in internal medicine were finished. He contributed also to the development of 25 assistants, 5 docents, 5 full-time professors in internal medicine at the Medical Faculty in Skopje. He has published more than 200 papers from different areas of internal medicine, of which 36 are on the PubMed. He has published 5 books on internal medicine for students and doctors. He was a President and member of several Macedonian medical associations, as well as of medical associations of former Yugoslavia. He was awarded with the highest awards of former Yugoslavia and Macedonia. He was also awarded with international awards, such as: Doctor Honoris Causa by the University in Besancon and Honor and Medal from the City Assembly of Besancon (France). During his management of the Internal clinic the University Internal clinic developed eight different sub-specialist departments: Cardiology, Pneumology, Rheumatology, Nephrology, Hematology, Gastroenterology and Endocrinology with metabolism and Clinical biochemical laboratory. The fast development of subspecialties has led to development of separate clinics for each subspecialty in 1975, so only the Chair of Internal Medicine remained as a connection between the subspecialties for education and scientific research. He was a prolific scientist who after World War II wrote the first scientific and specialist papers and books in the field of internal medicine in Macedonia. He created a school of internal medicine. The scientific and uncompromised attitude towards the expert truth are weaved in the unforgettable face of the Academician Prof. D-r. Dimitar Arsov, scientist, teacher, and doctor. With his vast work in healing the sick and preventing the diseases in the Republic of Macedonia, he became the cornerstone of modern medicine in the Republic of Macedonia. Thus, he truly deserves to be the doyen of internal medicine, one of the leading, most important persons in medicine of the 20th century in our country. Today, his honorary name appears on: Clinic of Rheumatology at the Medical Faculty in Skopje, Medical Center in Kriva Palanka, Scientific Club of the student organization of the Medical Faculty in Skopje.

[Moscow therapeutic schools (from the 1920s to the 1940s)]

Six leading Moscow therapeutic schools in the 1920s to the 1940s are first identified and given in this paper; their personal composition, distinctive characteristics, and role in the history of Russian internal medicine are shown.

The history of the Department of Internal Medicine at Saint Louis University

The Department of Internal Medicine at Saint Louis University has a long and proud tradition of excellence in patient care, research and education that goes back for 100 years, but also appears to remain strong for the future. The department has played a key role in several medical discoveries and innovations over the last 100 years and continues to make an impact on those in its community.

["Professor is well". The correspondence between Max Schur and Marie Bonaparte]

The correspondence between Freud's doctor and his "Princess" spans the period 1929-1962, and comprises over 90 letters, mostly concerned with Freud's health but also touching upon Schur's permanent dilemma--to emigrate or to stay with Freud--and upon the dire situation of his family and friends on behalf of whom he appeals to Marie for help. After Freud's death the letters change in focus.

[Quincke and his oedema]

Heinrich Irenaeus Quincke (1842-1922), the son of a physician, was born in Frankfurt but was educated in Berlin where he also completed his medical studies in 1864. After a 'grand tour' that took him to Paris, Vienna and London, he was trained in Berlin, first in surgery and later in internal medicine, under Von Frerichs (1819-1885). In 1878, he became a professor of internal medicine in Berne; from 1883 he held the chair of medicine in Kiel, which he would hold for the next 30 years. In 1882, he published a synthesis of several observations of 'acute, circumscribed oedema of the skin'. Quincke accurately described the clinical features and distinguished the familial from the sporadic forms. He was correct in attributing the condition to increased vascular permeability, but he surmised the causal factors were neurogenic rather than humoral, according to current insights (excess of bradykinin due to external factors or hereditary deficiency of C1-esterase inhibitor). Quincke not only contributed to several other clinical observations, but also pioneered the lumbar puncture, initially not for diagnostic purposes, but to relieve headache in hydrocephalic children.

[Anniversaries of Josef Thomayer - 85 years since the death, 160 years since the birth]

Study summarises the life, work, pedagogical and popularization activities of Josef Thomayer on the basis of his publications and writings as well as archival sources.

[Quadruple anniversary of Bohumil Eiselt]

Internist Bohumil Eiselt belongs to eminent personalities of the Prague Medical Faculty. Since the summer semester in 1861, he purposefully and systematically persuaded the Czech as the teaching language at the Prague Medical Faculty. In 1871, his clinic was recognized as the first Czech clinic of the not yet divided Prague Medical School. In 1881, he managed to get the largest clinic of internal medicine in the general teaching hospital which, after the activation in 1883, was transferred at the Czech Medical School. It ensured the Czech medics good conditions for learning internal medicine. Bohumil Eiselt stood at the cradle of the Czech Medical Association and the Journal of Czech Physicians, founded in 1862, whose introduction was necessary for the development of professional medical Czech. The same importance had his publishing the edited compendium Professional pathology and therapy in the years 1878-1889 and organizing the first congresses of Czech medical doctors.

[Isidore Snapper (1889-1973) and Bedside medicine]

Snapper was born in Amsterdam, where his Jewish ancestors worked as diamond cutters. His sharp wits allowed him to obtain a good education and he went on to study medicine in his home town. After a few years in Groningen, where he wrote a physiological dissertation and trained as an internist, he was appointed as professor of internal medicine in Amsterdam at the age of 30. In 1938 the threat of the Nazis led him to accept an appointment at the Beijing Union Medical College. In 1942, after prolonged confinement by the Japanese authorities, he was allowed to travel to the USA, where he subsequently became department head at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York (1944-1952) and Cook County Hospital in Chicago (1952-1953). His gifts as a diagnostician and teacher are evident from his book Bedside medicine (1960).

[Colleagues of Prof. J. Thomayer as in his notices from 1905-1918]

There are 10 dairy pocket books in the inheritance of the professor of the internal medicine Josef Thomayer in the Literary archives of the Memorial of National Literature. From the point of view of the history of medicine they have not been used yet. Except of memories concerning his colleagues there are also some events mentioned that had upset Thomayer--the conflict with the pathologist Hlava concerning the cause of the death of J. Hlávka, the conflict with the surgeon Kukula concerning the way of treatment of the appendix.

[Professor Frantisek Por MD and Professor Robert Klopstock MD, students at Budapest and Prague Faculties of Medicine]

Professor Frantisek Por MD and Professor Robert Klopstock MD were contemporaries, both born in 1899, one in Zvolen, the other in Dombovar, at the time of Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. Prof. Por attended the Faculty of Medicine in Budapest from 1918 to 1920, and Prof. Klopstock studied at the same place between 1917 and 1919. From 1920 until graduation on 6th February 1926, Prof. Por continued his studies at the German Faculty of Medicine, Charles University in Prague. Prof. Klopstock had to interrupt his studies in Budapest due to pulmonary tuberculosis; he received treatment at Tatranske Matliare where he befriended Franz Kafka. Later, upon Kafka's encouragement, he changed institutions and continued his studies at the German Faculty of Medicine, Charles University in Prague, where he graduated the first great go. It is very likely that, during their studies in Budapest and Prague, both professors met repeatedly, even though their life paths later separated. Following his graduation, Prof. Por practiced as an internist in Prague, later in Slovakia, and from 1945 in Kosice. In 1961, he was awarded the title of university professor of internal medicine at the Faculty of Medicine, Pavol Jozef Safarik University in Kosice, where he practiced until his death in 1980. Prof. Klopstock continued his studies in Kiel and Berlin. After his graduation in 1933, he practiced in Berlin as a surgeon and in 1938 left for USA. In 1962, he was awarded the title of university professor of pulmonary surgery in NewYork, where he died in 1972.

[Hermann Lebert (1813-1878): natural scientist, spa doctor, histopathologist and clinician in Switzerland, France and Germany]

H. Lebert was in many ways an extraordinary personality. He began is career as a scientist performing experimental research in botany and zoology. After a short period as a spa doctor--work he approached on a scientific basis--he performed one of the first microscopic tissue analyses, as well as writing two significant works with a wealth of pictures on pathophysiology and histopathology, thereby paving the way for cellular pathology. In addition to general problems relating to inflammation, he concentrated on tumors and tuberculosis. He was one of the first to recommend pre-operative histology, making him a pioneer of biopsy diagnostics.As a clinician he worked in nearly all areas of internal medicine, including neurology, and published a large number of monographs, of which the first German monograph on acute articular rheumatism was one. Rheumatology played a considerable role in both his histopathological and clinical activities.Of particular interest is the fact that Lebert frequently travelled between Switzerland, France and Germany and was applauded in all three as a great scientist, as awards from both Napoleon III and the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV can testify.

[The Faculty Therapy Clinic in the formation of clinical teaching of internal medicine: on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the I. M. Sechenov Moscow Medical Academy]

The V. N. Vinogradov Faculty Therapy Clinic of the Imperial Moscow University (IMU) (then Moscow State University--I. M. Sechenov Moscow Medical Academy) was opened under this name in 1846 simultaneously with the Surgery Clinic on Rozhdestvenka Street. The paper shows the continuity of the idea for bedside clinical teaching, whose need was clearly realized just by S. G. Zybelin and which was first done in practice by his follower and the first Director of the Clinical Institute, IMU, F. G. Politkovsky, as well as that of specific forms of implementing of this idea. It is shown that just early internal medicine teaching provided the principles that were stated by M. Ya. Mudrov and that subsequently formed the basis of a course taught at the Department of Faculty Clinic. The original teaching of a theoretical course without a clinic one at the Department of Particular Pathology and Therapy, which was stipulated by the 1835 Charter, gradually lost its importance as clinical teaching was formed. The succession of the Clinical Institute and the Faculty Clinic was also shown in the staff the director of the newly-opened Clinic and Therapy Department Professor was A. I. Over, M. Ya. Mudrov's favorite disciple and the last Director of the Clinical Institute; the adjuvant teacher at the Therapeutic Department of the Clinical Institute was K. Ya. Mlodzeyevsky. This all permits the V. N. Vinogradov Faculty Therapy Clinic to be regarded a competent descendant of the first clinical institutes. In conclusion, there is a clinical analysis of division of an internal medicine course into faculty and hospital courses at the present stage and prospects for teaching therapy are discussed.

A history of the INTERNIST-1 and Quick Medical Reference (QMR) computer-assisted diagnosis projects, with lessons learned

The INTERNIST-1/Quick Medical Reference (QMR) diagnostic decision support project spans four decades, from 1971-onward. This paper describes the history of the project and details insights gained of relevance to the general clinical and informatics communities.

[55 years of history of the Polish Society of Internal Medicine in Szczecin]

On occasion of the centennial anniversary of the Polish Society of Internal Medicine, the scientific and educational activities of the Szczecin Section during 55 years of its existence are presented.

Professionalism: evolution of the concept

The concept of professionalism has undergone major changes over the millennia in general and the last century specifically. This article, the first in a series of articles in this Journal on professionalism, attempts to provide the reader with a historical overview of the evolution of the concept of professionalism over time. As a result of these changes, medical school curricula, and contemporary specialist training programs are increasingly becoming competence based, with professionalism becoming an integral part of a resident's training and assessment program.