Medicinska fakulteta Univerze v Ljubljani 1919–1945 - Univerza v ...

the Order of the Brothers of Mercy regarding the ward for special
patients (Abteilung für besondere Kranke) from 1808, however,
this ward did not have any connection to Gradišek’s homeopathic
system� It is interesting to note that the other Austrian lyceums
did not have such an institute, which again shows the aspirations
of Ljubljana in regard to medical-surgical studies, namely for the
lyceum there to grow into a genuine university-level study� In his
desire to ensure selective admission to this ward, the director of
Medical-Surgical Studies, Dr� Karl Bernard Kogel, laid down the
condition that patients from rural areas could also be admitted,
that admission was only possible with an admission slip and that
the professor and assistant could select patients suitable for the
ward from among the city’s poor people� By sending a special
circular, he notified the district authorities that they should send
educational and rare cases to the hospital, whereby he especially
highlighted cases of “gunshot wounds, head trauma, complicated
fractures, dislocations, burns, ulcers, fistulae, syphilis, benign
and malign tumours, gallstones, hernias and hydrocoeles”� He
established an emergency clinic�
In the mid twenties, the city municipality built an annex to the
hospital in Ajdovščina that housed a hall for dissection and an
anatomy-pathology cabinet, which was located in the lyceum
building up until then�
The 1833 study reform allowed the medical-surgical studies at the
Ljubljana Lyceum to reach their pinnacle� In the official acts at
the time, the individual teachers at the lyceum were appointed
to the position of professor� The Chair of Theoretical Medicine
was founded and represented the first step towards pathology
becoming a required course� By splitting the Chair into the
theoretical and practical parts, the curriculum at the time already
came closer to the study system of today: instruction of pathological
anatomy and experimental pathology� The unnecessary
division of surgery into the theoretical and practical parts was
abolished� The most characteristic new feature of the reform
was the Chair for Preparatory Sciences – an important supplementation
of the theoretical education of future surgeons and
an important teaching supplementation for other courses� Even
more so because the four grades of the gymnasium did not offer
future candidates the necessary breadth of ancillary knowledge�
What is most important, however, is that the four grades did not
provide the students with the ability to ascertain whether they
were even suitable for this profession� As already mentioned, the
syllabus of the then six-grade gymnasium did not comprise any
natural science courses� Even in this respect, the Ljubljana Lyceum
was an exception when compared to those in other provinces� The
mentioned in-the-field instruction of botany within the scope
of the study of philosophy at the Ljubljana Lyceum that was
associated with the botanical gardens enabled both surgeons and
the learners of medical-surgical studies to gain some botanical
knowledge� The importance of the botanical gardens, which
were – as already mentioned – administered by those in charge of
101
the study of philosophy, was well known to those at the medicalsurgical
studies� Consequently, after Prof� Franc Hladnik retired
and the study of philosophy did not have a suitable person for
the job, the management of the gardens along the Ižanska cesta
road was taken over by Dr� Jan Nepomuk Biatzowsky, Professor
of Preparatory Sciences, which also included botany, at medicalsurgical
studies� This ensured the continuity in a professional
sense and in terms of administration�
The instruction in obstetrics now lasted two months� The
theoretical portion of the course was provided in Slovenian in
the morning and in German in the afternoon, while the clinical
portion associated with practical exercises was provided at the
maternity birthing beds at the maternity hospital�
Since the thirties, lectures on first aid in the event of clinical death
and aid in emergency life-threatening situations were available to
anyone on Sundays and holidays�
In the forties, extraordinary lectures on special pathology and
therapy of childhood diseases were given three times a week
during the winter semester, namely on Mondays, Wednesdays and
Fridays, while practical exercise performed at the child’s bed were
provided each afternoon at the maternity hospital�
IV
In accordance with the curriculum of medical-surgical studies
from 1810, studies proceeded as follows in Ljubljana at the end
of the twenties:
First year
First semester
a) Introduction to the Study of Surgery as an Encyclopaedic
Overview with Anatomy, from 2 pm to 3 pm
b) Introduction to the Study of Surgery and Theoretical Surgery,
i�e� General and Special Pathology of External Diseases, from
3 pm to 4 pm
c) Physiology, General Pathology of Internal Diseases, from 4 pm
to 5 pm
d) Theoretical and Practical Obstetrics for Midwifes, from 7 am
to 8 am
Second semester
a) Anatomy, from 2 pm to 3 pm
b) Theoretical Surgery, from 3 pm to 4 pm
c) Materia Medica et Chirurgica, Dietetics and the Introduction
to Prescription Writing, from 4 pm to 5 pm
d) Theoretical and Practical Obstetrics for Midwifes, from 7 am
to 8 am
e) Continuation of Theoretical Surgery, i�e� General and Special
Pathology of External Diseases, from June to the end of the
academic year: Instruction on Surgical Wound Dressing and
Instruments, from 3 pm to 4 pm