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

defined in detail� The rules also determined the duration and
content of individual study courses of the faculties� The study of
medicine thus took five years with the following syllabus:
the 1 st year: Rhetoric, Metaphysics, Physics
the 2 nd year: Natural History and Botany, General Chemistry
the 3 rd year: Anatomy, Physiology, Pharmaceutical Chemistry
the 4 th year: Pathology Clinic, Pharmacology
the 5 th year: Clinic, Modern Medicine, Surgery and Obstetrics
It needs to be said, however, that in practice the study of medicine
differed from the rules� Foreign students, who came to Ljubljana
as graduates of medicine from foreign educational institutions to
do their doctorate here, did not have that choice�
The five-year surgical study was the same as the study of medicine
for the first three years and in the fourth year, the surgeons
studied Anatomy, Pharmacology, Surgery and Obstetrics and in
the fifth year Anatomy and Forensic Medicine� For the first two
years, pharmacists studied together with medical students and in
their third year Natural History and Botany and in the fourth
Botany, Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Chemistry� The same
as at other faculties, teachers of first-year medical students were:
Agapito Jerome from Buzet for Rhetoric according to his own
notes in Latin, Matevž Ravnikar for Logics and Metaphysics
according to his own notes in Latin and Janez Krstnik Kersnik
for Physics according to the textbook by Franz Ernst Neumann
(Introduction into Theoretical Physics) in Latin� Teachers
in the second year were Franc de Paula Hladnik for Natural
History (Anthropology) and Botany in German, Anton Melzer
for Anatomy in Latin and Jean Marie Zendrini from Brescia in
Italy for General Chemistry in French� Two more teachers were
appointed during the first year of the Faculty of Medicine: Fran
Melzer for Surgery and Obstetrics and Wilibald Schmid for
Pathology and Clinic who, however, were not yet teaching, as it
was believed that these courses should be taught in the last two
years�
In the first academic year of 1810-1811, the Faculty of Medicine
of central schools had 21 students: 7 in the first and 14 in the
second year� Only three students were enrolled in the study of
surgery, one in the first and two in the second year� The latter
attended lectures together with medical students�
At the time of the academy, in the academic years of 1811-1812
and 1812-1813, the Faculty of Medicine underwent an important
change� In both academic years, the study of surgery was added to
the Faculty of Medicine, as there were not sufficient students of
surgery and the Faculty of Surgery was thus formally dissolved� It
needs to be mentioned that Governor General Bertrand issued
a decision that allowed the Faculty of Medicine of the Academy
to also accept “students”, who did not have the required school
education� At the time, France distinguished between two types
of medical personnel: doctors with a faculty education and
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special health officers (officiers de santé), who were able to take a
practical examination after practicing medicine at a doctor’s office
for six years or at a hospital for five years� In Ljubljana, the Faculty
of Medicine of the Academy was thus supposed to educate not
only doctors but also health assistants and thus also assume the
role of the former Austrian lyceal study of medicine and surgery�
These surgeon apprentices or primary school graduates, who
were being educated for health officers, attended some of the
lectures together with “real” medical students, who were studying
to become doctors� Vlado Schmidt believes that they probably
lowered the level of study work� In any case, such a study system
affected the learning language, as it is improbable that students
learning to become health officers spoke Latin or French�
In the 1811-1812 academic year, when medicine had 24 students
in the first and second year (15 and 9 respectively), at least five
of the first-year students were unskilled and in the next academic
year, three of these students advanced to the second year of
medical study by taking an exam in Anatomy� At that time, the
first-year professors were the same as in the previous academic
year and in the second year, the following professors taught them
in Latin: Anton Melzer Physiology, from May Anton Jeunikar
– instead of the originally appointed Wilibald Schmid, who
emigrated, – Pathology and Pharmacology, Fran Melzer Surgery
and Obstetrics and Janez Krstnik Kersnik General Chemistry (in
French), because Zendrini left Ljubljana�
In the next and last academic year (1812-1813), the Faculty of
Medicine already had three years with 31 students� The only
change in the first year was that Kersnik taught Chemistry in
German� From the seven unskilled students of that year, only
two completed their study obligations� In the second year, the
Melzer brothers (Fran only until March when he died and he was
replaced by his brother Rajmund) taught Physiology, Surgery and
Obstetrics� In the third year, medical students attended lectures
and took exams from Pathology, Special Therapy and Forensic
Medicine that were taught by Anton Jeunikar�
The French higher education school in Ljubljana did not hold
lectures in veterinary medicine and for midwifes� It is known that
Marmont told Zelli that the professor of Surgery and Obstetrics
at the central school should test obstetrics knowledge of female
candidates who had already completed their schooling under
Austrian regime and that the Chancellor should issue them a
diploma� These instructions were observed by central schools�
It was in this form that the French Faculty of Medicine ended its
work in Ljubljana� Only one more year was needed for the first
doctors to graduate in Ljubljana�