Botkin Sergey Petrovich

The significance of the works of Sergei Petrovich Botkin (1832-1889) for national and world medicine can not be overestimated. Literally everyone in our country at least several times heard this name, even if he himself is far from medicine and never addressed to doctors. After all, everyone heard about "Botkin's Disease" - hepatitis A, pathophysiology and the reasons for which were first described by Sergei Petrovich.

In just 28 years Botkin defends his thesis, and a year later becomes a professor. With his clinic, Botkin creates the first in the history of Russia laboratory, in which he and his students studied the pharmacological action of various drugs. Later this laboratory grew into the largest research institute of experimental medicine.

Students of Sergei Petrovich recorded and then published in three volumes of his lectures, which were named "Course of Internal Medicine Clinics" in three volumes. In them, Botkin expressed his theory that the organism can exist only in close contact with the environment. He argued that the human body is constantly in the metabolism with the environment, so it remains viable, and changes in the environment help him to develop new properties. Now this seems obvious to any ordinary person, but for the first time such thoughts were voiced and formulated precisely by SP Botkin. It was he who first began to assert that "all diseases are from nerves." Now this phrase is pronounced more often as a joke, but there is a lot of truth in it.

Botkin paid a great deal of attention to the physiology of the nervous system. He argued that assessing the state of the nervous system will help to recognize and explain the nature of many internal diseases. Many years later, most of his conjectures and assertions were proved by physiologists, pathophysiologists, anatomists and clinicians.

SP Botkin formulated the basic principles of medical science: the main task is to prevent the disease, to treat the already developed disease and alleviate the patient's suffering.

Throughout his practice, Botkin opened free clinics, some of which exist to this day. Sergei Petrovich has many medical discoveries that contribute to a significant breakthrough in Russian medical science. Enumerate them can be almost infinite and there is no such field of medicine in which the talent of the Great Physician would not leave its trace.

For all his life, Sergei Petrovich has put only one wrong diagnosis - to himself. Suffering from coronary heart disease, he continued to insist that these are only intestinal colic. At the age of 57 he died of heart failure.

author of the material: surgeon N. Mednikov.