Shanghai, June 6.
Peter the Great, the reorganizer of Russia, could also be called the fathe of Russian medicine.
There ° did! exist a Pharmaceutic Department be, fore his time, but this could not be called a schoo! for training doctors: 50 that most of the doctors in Russi were foreigners from Europe.
But even they were small in number. In 1107 Emperor Peter founded the first military hospital in Moscow, ap pointing as head physician the the famous. Dutch doctor N. Bidlow. In his reign many foreign doctors wer granted permission to enter Russia, but before starting a practice they had to pass an examination given by the court doctor, Lawrence Blumenfrost, Inter the first president of the Russian Academy of Sciences, a Irstitution likewise founded by Peter the Great, The event leading to its founding was Peter's visit to the Paris Academy, which elected the Russian Tsar to_membership. Yea after year the Paris Academy sent Peter its annals, he, faithful to his duties as momber~ replied with careful punctuality. To this day a letter written by Peter' in the Is in, with a then new map of the' Caspian sea, is treasured in Paris, When the Tsar terminated his war with Sweden, he decided to found the Petersburg Academy, assigning to it the annual subsidy of $25,000—huge sum In those days, But in the beginning of 1725 he died from the effects of a cold contracted while among their compatriots but among foreigners, and Chinese os well, Waiting Rooms Always Full connection with this it would be interesting to raise the question—what are the major sicknesses aillet-Ing Russian emigrants, and are there any specifically "emigrant" ills? Doctors are not a talkative tribe and Have an ingrained dislike for interviews, but it may be concluded from number of conversations that whic the older" generation suffers con siderably from illnesses, nature not yet evolved any distinctly Rus~ sian ailment. While indifferent health proportionately more frequent among emigrants than among other foreigners living under more normal conditions, this is explained partly bythe physical and psychological fatigue and wearing-out of the or-gunism which is met more often Among them, and partly by the fact that the ills that" flesh is heir to are multiplied with age. 'The heart begins to skip beats, pain gnaws in the region of the liver, the lungs are imperfect condition, and ulcers and catarrhs choose this' moment to make their appearance. These discomforts prey on others too, especial-yin this climate, but among Russians they are made somewhat more acute due to the lariers' experiences the years of the War and Revolution. "At any rate, the walting-rooms of Russian doctors are always full principle. tha rescuing drowning persons from the Neva and the Academy was opened by his wife and successor, Catherin I. Medicine, however, had _alws interested Peter intensely. He to anatomy and With the former he was} first acquainted in Holland in 169% when he visited the operating theatres of Leiden and Amsterdam. Here he completed an anatomical course with the renowned scientist Ruiehe, from whom he later acquired the famous anatomical which to this day is one of the attractions of the Natural History De: partment of the Academy of Sciences in Leningrad. Historians ort that} the Tear himself had no small know-Jedge of medicine, showing most aptitude in the field of surgery, Usually he carried about with him two sete—one of mathematical inst ments and the other of surgical, several occasions he even operated in person. His faith In the curative value of surgical operations gave him' the chance, while in Paris in 1717 of helping a blind Russian soldier Gri Peter's insistence an operation—held extremely complicated and dangerous in those days—of removing he cataracts from the eyes was per~ formed on the soldier by the well-own eye specialist Vaulgusen. The soldier's sight was. restored, and Peter, overjoyed by this success, sent Vaulgusen several pupils.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.