Materials to the history of Kharkov clinic established by doctor G.A. Davidovich (1895–1920)

Abstract

Rationale and purpose of the study. At the end of XIX century, in Kharkov, a large private clinic was opened, with modern equipment for physiotherapy. Its work, the names of employees and the role in the development of urban medicine are poorly and unclearly highlighted in the literature. The purpose of the work is to establish according to the source materials the main stages of the history of the hospital and the names of the doctors who played key roles in it. Sources. The study used annual guides published in Kharkov (city and special medical) and in St. Petersburg (“Russian Medical List”), “Lists of students of the Imperial Kharkov University”; “Kharkov Medical Journal”, the newspapers “Kharkov Provincial Gazette” and “Southern Region”. Results. It is established that the surgical clinic with an in-patient facility was opened in Kharkov in 1893; the head of the department was the doctor G.A. Davidovich, and the resident physician was P.A. Litsyn, both graduates of Kharkov University. In 1895, G.A. Davidovich became the owner of the clinic (including its building), and P.A. Litsyn became the head; the list of services was added with the treatment of internal and nervous diseases. During the years 1896-1898, a new three-story building was built for the hospital with a special project, and emphasis in its equipment was placed on water treatment and phototherapy. Here, one of the first in Russia electric light baths invented in the early 1890s by an American physician D.H. Kellogg, were installed. However, in the same year of 1898, G.A. Davidovich died, and the clinic was inherited by his widow Sophia; Litsyn remained the head of the department. In 1899, doctor B.I. Spivakov, who graduated from the Khar- kov University, was admitted to work in the hospital. Over the next 20 years, yesterday’s student made a great contribution to the further development of the hospital as a physiotherapy hospital. After the nationalization of the clinic by the Bolsheviks, it became a city hospital, where P.A. Litsyn and B.I. Spivakov continued to work. The latter became an assistant professor, and in 1930 the head of the depart- ment of physiotherapy of the Institute for Advanced Training of Physicians. In the mid-1920’s, on the basis of the former clinic of Davidovich, the Ukrainian Institute of Physiotherapy and Balneology was opened. Conclusion. The hospital of Davidovich, and especially its employee B.I. Spivakov played a significant role in the development of Kharkov medicine, especially in the improvement of physical methods of treatment.