Smelovsky, Ivan Andreevich

Ivan Smelovsky was born in the Kiev province on January 6, 1762 ^[1] ; came from the clergy . After graduating from the course of the Kiev Theological Academy , where he worked diligently in the Latin language and, besides compulsory subjects, studied with great desire Polish , German , French , Greek and Jewish , Smelovsky received a master’s degree and taught Latin and Greek at the same academy ^[2] .

On August 28, 1788, he volunteered for the Medical and Surgical St. Petersburg School . Having successfully completed the course of the latter, he was promoted to healer in 1790 and, assigned to the 6th battalion of the Siberian Corps of the Russian Imperial Army , was a member of the Korel borders during the war with Sweden ^[2] .

From 1791 to 1794, Ivan Andreevich Smelovsky served as a county doctor in the city of Vytegra , Olonets province , on April 21, 1791 he was sent to Petrozavodsk to treat scurvy, which intensified in the Olonets jaeger battalion, and on June 2 of the same year to the city of Pudozh to end the epidemic ; in 1792 he was sent to Kargopol County to stop the death of livestock ^[2] .

In 1794, he transferred to the Admiralty Hospital of the capital , and in 1795 and 1796 he worked, moreover, at the " General Ground Hospital " ^[2] .

On April 5, 1796, I. A. Smelovsky gave a trial lecture on painful causes in general and consumption . For this lecture, the Medical College identified him at the St. Petersburg Medical and Surgical School as an adjunct to pathology, therapy and clinic (“ praxis medica ”) to the first Russian clinician, Professor Grigory Ivanovich Bazilevich ; On November 20 of the same year, Smelovsky received the title of headquarters healer " for a practical observation sent ." By this time, the school had already been significantly improved, which was facilitated mainly by the work of the chief director of the Medical College , Baron Vasiliev. In 1798, the school was transformed into an academy, and Smelovsky continued to read his subject ^[2] .

February 24, 1799 G. I. Bazilevich was elected scientific secretary of the Medical College and left the academy; in his place he recommended Smelovsky; the latter gave a test lecture on “ diseases of the vascular vessels ” on April 17, 1799, and on June 20 he was entrusted with the independent teaching of pathology, therapy and clinic with the rank of associate professor . From this time until 1805, he was the only professor of general medicine at the academy. February 22, 1801 Smelovsky received the title of extraordinary professor , and in 1802 - ordinary . The department involved in Smelovsky combined not only internal diseases, but also nervous, mental, skin, venereal, ocular and others . This also included the theory of medicine ^[2] .

Chistovich believes that Smelovsky taught his subject not only theoretically, but also at the patient’s bed ^[3] . Aurorov in his “Historical Outline of the Department of General Pathology” cites the report of Smelovsky, which he submitted to the conference in 1805. From this report, in which the author presented his translation of the Hartman’s analysis of the Brown’s system, it is clear that Smelovsky very carefully followed the scientific theories of his contemporaries and treated them critically. “ In each of these three courses, he says, I was forced to offer my teaching in a completely different way ..; leaving the prejudice of respect (praejudicium auctoritatis) . ” Smelovsky considered it necessary to “ hold on to more of the nature of a living human organism, ” etc. Nevertheless, he did not have completely independent views and was forced to be content with a statement of Brown’s excitation theory, Rayleigh’s theory of life force, etc. ^{[4] [2]} .

In 1805, Smelovsky moved to the newly established Department of Physiology, General Pathology and Dietetics (Hygiene) and remained there for two years (until his death). Despite the signs of consumption , he, to the best of his ability, continued to teach his subject, sometimes assigning lectures to his associate Danila Vellansky. In March 1808, he notified the conference of his illness, which soon brought him to the grave. Ivan Andreevich Smelovsky died on May 11, 1808 in St. Petersburg ^[2] .

In addition to the Academy, Smelovsky worked in various hospitals, was in the army during the Swedish War, was repeatedly sent to stop epidemic diseases and animal cases. In addition, Smelovsky was also entrusted with the treatment of the pupils of the Academy, who highly appreciated Smelovsky as a person and as a teacher. The following words were preserved in its minutes: “ Desiring to keep in its circle with due reverence, the memory of their late professor adviser Smelovsky, the conference put, in respect of the excellent merits rendered to the society by the education of youth, in appreciation of his zealous work, with which he performed he entrusted various positions to him by the authorities, to write this in the protocol, with the addition that the loss of this respectable husband, whose unprecedented meekness, humanity and condescension, with extensive and miserable knowledge, both in medicine and in other sciences and knowledge, is truly worthy of imitation - it will forever be more sensitive to its companions and to pupils ” ^[5] . Smelovsky lived " comfortably " and left his family without any means of subsistence. Work in the academy and hospitals almost did not leave him time to engage in independent scientific research ^[2] .

On behalf of the Medical College, he, without interruption from his main job, translated various decrees and instructions from descriptions of the pestilential ulcer in Moscow from Russian into Latin ^[2] .

• Critical Review of the Hartman Brownian System (PK Hartman's Analyse des Brownischen Systems; 2 Theile, Wien, 1802); perev. from German., 2 hours, St. Petersburg. , 1808, 8 °, edition of the Academy.
• Hildebrant's “Pathology” (translation from German)
• “Special Physiology and General Pathology” (an essay by the Edinburgh physician, professor and member of various medical societies Gregory. For the classic at the Imperial Medical and Surgical Academy of Use, the professor of the Academy Ivan Smelovsky, court counselor, translated from the first Venice edition; 1808.

• Zmeev L. F. “Russian Writers”, Issue I, St. Petersburg. , 1880
• Verekundov V.P. “Historical essay of the Department of Diagnostics and General Therapy at the Imperial Military Medical Academy”, dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Medicine , St. Petersburg, 1898, 8 °, pages 14-16.
• "History of the Imperial Military Medical Academy for 100 years," compiled. Commission, St. Petersburg, 1898, 4 °, p. 88, 97, 100, 126, 129, etc.
• Krestovsky P. “Materials for the history of the Department of Private Pathology and Therapy of the Imperial Military Medical Academy”, the dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Medicine, St. Petersburg. , 1898, 8 °, p. 1, 2, 23–32.