MARTYN MATVIYOVYCH TEREHOVSKYI (1740-1796) AND IMPROVEMENT OF TEACHING IN THE HIGHER MEDICAL SCHOOL

Abstract

Objective: to summarize the main facts of M. M. Terekhovskyi’s biography based on a critical analysis of publications and, at the same time, to highlight his contribution to the improvement of teaching in higher medical school. Materials and methods. Published materials were used as historical sources. The historical method was the main research method in the article. Results. We performed an analysis of the literature about prof. Terekhovskyi. For the first time, his role in the reforms of higher medical education in the late 18th – early 19th centuries was clarified. The first critical analysis of the literature about M. M. Terekhovskyi, published over more than a century and a half, made it possible to identify erroneous statements and typos. It was found that the first publication about him appeared in 1845, that is, half a century after his death. It was a brief biographical note in the dictionary of Metropolitan Eugene. It was proved that the main and most complete life description of Professor Terekhovskyi was his biography written by Ya. A. Chistovich (1883), which was based on archival materials and supplemented with archival findings by M. K. Borodii (1984). The fundamental study of his contribution to science was represented by the work of S. L. Sobol (1948, 1963). It was shown that the charter of 1792 of the higher medical school (academy), which Professor Terehovskyi took part in, served as the basis for the staff of the St. Petersburg Medical and Surgical Academy in 1808. The charter of 1792 for the first time included Medical Police (Politia Medica), which was later transformed into Social Hygiene and Public Health, as one of the teaching subjects in the higher medical school. Then it was enshrined in the charter of 1806, which was written by the founder of this science, J. P. Frank. The study made it possible to identify gaps in the biography of M. M. Terekhovskyi. Thus, the date and month of his birth are still unknown; it is not clear who his mother was, whether he had his own family (wife, children), and whether he received a scholarship from Princess Ye. D. Golitsyna. With this regard, further archival searches are needed to confirm Professor Terekhovsky’s authorship of the handwritten essay «Opinion on the correction of medical sciences.»