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

logical Anatomy and an Institute of Experimental Pathology and
Pharmacology; the sixth semester would require an internal clinic
and a surgery clinic, the seventh semester a clinic of obstetrics
and gynaecology and a clinic of psychiatry and neurology, the
eight semester a clinic of ophthalmology and the ninth and tenth
semesters a clinic of dermatology and venereology, a clinic of
paediatrics, an institute of hygiene, and an Institute of Forensic
Medicine, a clinic of tuberculogy, a clinic of laryngology and a
clinic of dentistry� The alternative proposal to start with the first
three semesters required building, converting and organising
all the institutes and clinics a year sooner and the Institute of
Histology and Physiology immediately�
In early April, the Belgrade authorities temporarily put off
solving the university issue, so University Commission President
Dr Danilo Majaron intervened with the vice-president of the
government, Dr Anton Korošec� Positive news from Belgrade
came again at the end of May when the Ljubljana University was
discussed in the Belgrade Parliament� In the beginning of June,
the Ministry of Education submitted a draft act on establishing
the Ljubljana University to the Council of Ministers which,
however, objected to the establishment of the Faculty of Medicine
and the decision on establishing the university was deferred as a
result� On 26 June, Danilo Majaron went to Minister Davidovič
in Belgrade, who was satisfied with his explanations regarding the
Faculty of Medicine and submitted the draft act to the Council of
Ministers where the bill on founding the University of Ljubljana
was passed on 2 July� The bill provided for the establishment of
a university in Ljubljana with five faculties including a medical
faculty which comprised the first two preparatory years� The bill
was passed in parliament on 16 July, signed by Regent Alexander
on 23 July and published in the Official Gazette a month later�
Faculty Arrangements and the First
Academic Year
On the last day of August 1919, Regent Alexander appointed the
first professors of the University of Ljubljana nominated by the
University Commission, among others Dr Albert Botteri, private
assistant professor at the Faculty of Medicine, University of
Prague, as full professor of ophthalmology, Dr Alfred Šerk, private
assistant professor at the University of Prague, as full professor of
neurology and psychiatry and Dr Janez Plečnik, the prosector at
the Ljubljana Provincial Hospital, as associate professor of pathological
anatomy� In late September, the University Commission
was dissolved� The newly appointed professors convened on 18
September as the University Council - the supreme university
body which took over the University Commission’s affairs,
continued with the work to open the university and took control
of financial matters� On 12 November, the first university and
120
faculty officials were elected� The Faculty Council of the Faculty
of Medicine elected its first dean, Dr Alfred Šerko, and its first
vice-dean, Dr Albert Botteri� Under their guidance, the Faculty
Council carried on with the preparations to arrange the faculty
and start its activities�
National freedom in the new state of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
brought Slovenes much of what we desired for a long time and also
carefully prepared, but it also brought us much that we may have
desired but did not prepare for adequately. When the University
Commission started activities to realise the old Slovenian demand
for a complete university, it found tilled soil for some sciences, but
the soil was still unploughed for some sciences and faculties, wrote
Alojz Zalokar on the university’s 20th anniversary and added that
the sciences for which the ground was poorly or not at all prepared
included first and foremost medicine� In organising the Faculty of
Medicine, the Faculty Council thus faced greater problems than
the other faculties of the Ljubljana University� The faculty had
absolutely nothing to start work with; neither any premises, laboratories
for practicals nor the necessary teaching aids� For a start, it
was given just the Provincial Hospital’s Pathological Department�
It was a small building with four ground-floor rooms, two autopsy
rooms and a morgue� Work to rearrange the building into an
anatomical institute started at once� Joining the autopsy rooms
provided a small lecture hall which was sufficiently finished by
early January to accommodate lectures in anatomy which had so
far been held in the Provincial Mansion� The curriculum of the
Ljubljana Faculty of Medicine was based on the curriculum of the
faculty in Zagreb established in 1917� For only the first two years,
the Ljubljana Faculty of Medicine was a kind of preparatory
school teaching theoretical subjects and preparing its students
for further study of clinical subjects� The first professors taught
subjects from senior semesters, being appointed in the belief that
the faculty would evolve soon, which led to a personnel complication
solved by the Faculty by entrusting instruction in anatomy
to Dr Janez Plečnik, otherwise the professor of pathological
anatomy, whereas the neuropsychiatrist Dr Alfred Šerko gave
lectures in anatomy and later also in nervous system physiology�
Professor Plečnik, who was already appointed full professor of
anatomy in January 1920, and Professor Šerko lectured in these
temporarily assigned subjects until their death� The ophthalmologist
Dr Albert Botteri took up first-year instruction in ocular
anatomy and histology but as soon as the next year left for Zagreb
as head of its ophthalmological clinic� In the time between the
two world wars, chemistry classes were held at the Faculty of
Technical Sciences or in the basement of the “Realka” secondary
school, where Professor Maks Samec organised a chemistry
laboratory� After mid-January 1920, medical students were
taught biology five hours a week by the gymnasium professor Dr
Pavel Grošelj as a part-time teacher at the Assembly Hall of the
Provincial Mansion and experimental physics six hours a week by