"His face is terrible ..."
How often Peter frightens us with an ominous expression of his physiognomy, even in his best endeavors!
J. van Neck (1634 -1714). Opening.
In 1697, the young tsar visited the anatomical office of the then famous scientist, Frederick Reuss, in Amsterdam, who had achieved amazing perfection in the preparation of anatomical preparations. Here is a rough list of what the tsar and his companions saw in this museum, according to the anonymous author of the Journal of Travels in Germany, Holland and Italy in 1697-99:
“I saw at the doctor of anatomy bones, veins, human brain, infant bodies and how it is conceived in the womb and how it will be born; I saw the human heart, the lung, the kidneys, and how a stone would be born in the kidneys, and everything inside is different: the one on which the liver lives, the throat and intestines, and the one on which the lung lives, like an old rag; the veins that live in the brain; I saw 50 bodies of babies, imperishable in alcohol for many years ... I saw human skin, made thicker than the drum, which lives on the human brain, all in the veins ... "and so on.
An ordinary person in this kind of institution is seized by an attack of nausea. There are people so curious that they overcome fear and disgust in themselves. There are just individuals with strong nerves that you can't get through. But what Peter did trumps any reaction normal person... He was overjoyed. At the sight of an embalmed four-year-old girl in a robron and gilded shoes, preserved with such amazing art that a smile frozen on his lips made this preparation seem to be alive, the king was so overwhelmed with feelings that he kissed the corpse right on those smiling lips.
In my opinion, this is one of the worst kisses in history. From him, a frost involuntarily sneaks through the skin.
I will note in parentheses that spiders and cockroaches, unlike human carrion, caused an unbearable disgust in the king. One movement of the cockroach mustache plunged him into dark terror. At night, he screamed terribly when he saw a spider in the bedroom. In such cases, he ran out to the orderly with a shaking head, in a fit ...
Let's go back to Amsterdam in 1697. Since then, Reuss began to enjoy special royal favor. Peter often visited his house, and together with Reuss he visited the hospital of St. Peter, where he was fascinated by every movement of the surgeons who honed their skills on a pale corpse under a sheet ...
Once passing through the market square of Amsterdam, the king noticed a wandering paramedic, who, using the simplest tools, deftly pulled out rotten teeth. Peter admired the spectacle, and when the patients had dispersed, he took the zoodera to the nearest tavern, treated him to him and persuaded him to teach him his skills for a certain fee. Having learned after several lessons all the simple tricks of the teacher, the tsar began to constantly carry a small case with surgical instruments in the pocket of his green skipper's caftan. As soon as he found out that someone had a toothache, he immediately appeared with an offer of his services. Refusing, of course, was impossible. In the Kunstkamera, there is still a small bag with teeth that he personally pulled out from different people. Sometimes, however, Peter turned from a dentist into an executioner and tore his teeth in order to punish the guilty and tame the obstinate. On this occasion, there is one quite reliable and therefore especially terrible anecdote.
Instruments of Peter I for craniotomy
The sovereign's valet Poluboyarov married a girl who did not harbor any warm feelings for him. But Peter himself wanted this marriage, so she had to submit, because her relatives considered such a party very profitable. After the wedding, the sovereign noticed that Poluboyarov walked constantly gloomy and anxious, and asked him about the reason. He admitted that his wife stubbornly avoids his caresses, excuses herself with a toothache. "Good," said Peter, "I will teach her." The next day, when Poluboyarov was at the service in the palace, the sovereign unexpectedly came to his house, called his wife and asked her:
- I heard that you have a toothache?
- No, sir, - answered the young woman, trembling with fear, - I am healthy.
- I see you are afraid, - said Peter, - nothing, sit down on this chair, closer to the light.
Mrs. Poluboyarova, fearing the tsarist anger, did not dare to object and silently obeyed. Peter pulled out her healthy tooth and gently remarked: "Obey your husband in the future and remember that the wife is afraid of her husband, otherwise there will be no teeth." Returning to the palace, the emperor called Poluboyarov and, grinning, said to him: “Go to your wife. I cured her, now she will not disobey you. "
Saws for shin amputation (from personal belongings of Peter I)
Peter's love for surgery was so strong that St. Petersburg doctors were obliged to notify the sovereign about every difficult surgical operation. The tsar came to the hospital in a cart. The old medic Termont was usually with him. Under the guidance of this experienced surgeon, the king acquired great skill in dissecting corpses, letting blood, opening abscesses, making surgical prostheses and bandaging wounds. In the diary of the Holstein chamber-cadet Berchholz, who lived in Petersburg in last years reign of Peter, there is an indication of two difficult operations performed by the sovereign himself. Thus, the wealthy linen manufacturer Tamsen, who enjoyed the special favor of Peter, developed a large swelling in his groin, which greatly tormented him. The called doctors found the operation dangerous, but the sovereign, who was present at the council, took a knife and with a bold hand cut the tumor, which, as he correctly identified, was pus-like. Tamsen, to the great delight of the crowned surgeon, recovered very soon. (By the way, Pyotr himself pulled out a tooth from Tamsen's maid, a lanky Dutch woman.)
But another operation was not so successful. This time, Peter almost by force forced the merchant's wife Boreta, who suffered from dropsy, to agree that he let the water out of her. The king was proud of the fact that thanks to his scalpel, more than 20 pounds of water came out of the patient, while only blood appeared during the attempt of one English surgeon. The patient received relief, but, unfortunately, too late: the operation, although very skillfully performed, did not save her life. She died ten days later. Peter attended her funeral and followed the coffin to the cemetery.
In 1717, during his second trip abroad, the tsar asked the famous eye doctor Voolguiz to show him his medical skill in Paris. Especially for this, a 60-year-old invalid was found, who had a thorn in front of his eyes, which Voolguiz successfully squeezed out in the presence of the Russian sovereign, who eagerly followed all the doctor's manipulations.
Anal mirror (from personal belongings of Peter I)
On this second trip abroad, Peter finally succeeded, through his physician-in-chief, Areskin, in persuading Reuss to discover a professional secret - how he prepares his excellent anatomical preparations and embalms corpses. The 30 thousand guilders, which the king laid out for the Reuss museum, did their job: the old man revealed his secret to Peter. Subsequently, after the death of Reuss, the emperor informed her physician-in-chief Blumentrost. Almost simultaneously with the purchase of Reuss's office, Peter bought in Amsterdam for 10 thousand guilders from the pharmacist Albert Seb an equally rare and numerous collection of all known aquatic and terrestrial animals, birds, snakes and insects from the East and West Indies. These two richest collections served as the basis for the natural study at the Academy of Sciences. Together with other exhibits, the tsar's favorite moved to St. Petersburg - a four-year-old mummy in a faded robron and gilded shoes, which so delighted Peter twenty years ago.
Here we come to the bright side of the tsar's passion for medicine. Peter contributed a lot to the development of medical art in Russia. Under him, from 1706 to 1717, hospitals and surgical schools, anatomical theaters and botanical gardens were established in capitals and other cities, and state pharmacies were established. In 1717, it was ordered to attend to the mining of mineral springs in Russia. The Lipetsk and Olonets iron waters, discovered earlier, received a proper arrangement.
Everyone remembers the common image of Peter, captured in many paintings - in a green caftan with fluttering floors, in high boots ...
But there is another Peter, about whom it is important to remember for the completeness of the image of the king-reformer. With his hair tied with a strap and an apron smeared with grease, blood and pharmaceuticals, he stands in a stuffy room. Greasy candles are floating over the oak table, the Petersburg night mysteriously flickers in the window. The tsar's coarse black hair clung to his sweaty temples. Slightly deflated dark eyes shine, a cropped mustache slightly twitches above thin lips. Dead human flesh crunches and squishes under the king's hands ...
———————————————————-
Materials used:
Shubinsky S.N. Crowned surgeon. In the book: Historical essays and stories. - SPb., 1869.
It should be borne in mind that the tsar's interest in medicine was largely determined by the goals and objectives that Peter I solved during the Great Embassy. One of these tasks was the recruitment of specialists for the Russian service, including doctors - they were in dire need of the army. And since the tsar tried to “try everything with his own hands,” whether it was the construction of ships, firing cannons or the study of clockwork, then medicine stood in the same row. At the same time, surgery turned out to be closer to the "handy" king, who was able to grasp the basics of any craft literally on the fly. Therefore, surgical dentistry with its high requirements for manual skills turned out to be so close to Peter I.
These “Dutch episodes” forever determined not only the respectful and pragmatic attitude of Peter I to medicine, but also his own “medical preferences”.
In short, the tsar considered therapy in all its forms to be a kind of quackery, recognizing only surgery in all its variants, including dental.
In memoir sources, there are many references to the emperor's dental exercises. Since even today this procedure is associated with very unpleasant sensations, one can imagine how persistent proposals (read orders) to provide dental care with "royal hands" were perceived by contemporaries. The tsar was simply afraid of such "dental offers". Here is some of them…
From the diary of the chamberlain Berchholz, which he kept in Russia during the reign of Peter the Great from 1721 to 1725: “1723, January, 20th. In the evening, the local merchant Tamsen told us that His Majesty was with him yesterday and on this occasion, according to all the rules and with his own tools, pulled out the tooth of his lanky Dutch girl, because he considers himself a good dentist and is always willing to pull out someone's tooth ... A few days before (having heard that the girl complains of a toothache), he promised her to come today and save her from suffering. "
It must be remembered that we are talking about the master of a huge country in a state of incessant reforms and war with the militarily strongest Sweden. But nevertheless, somehow, after one of the operations, “The Empress, they say, jokingly told His Majesty that this operation should have been done (his. - Approx. auth.) a doctor, to which he replied: "no, not a doctor, but a surgeon, perhaps."
The ideas of paternalism were characteristic of the activities of Peter I. And he sometimes did not punish his subjects, but "taught", as a father teaches unreasonable children. Moreover, this "study" included in its orbit both the new aristocracy, and sometimes ordinary people... Everyone knows about the famous Peter's club, which he "taught" to his closest associates, but the tsar sometimes used dental instruments to educate his subjects.
Here is what A.K. Nartov in the "Memorable Narration and Speech of Peter the Great": "His Majesty's valet Poluboyarov complained to the sovereign that his wife disobeys and does not sleep with him, excuses herself with a toothache. "Good," he said, "I'll teach her." One day, when the sovereign came to Poluboyarova, when her husband was in the palace, he asked her: “I heard you have a toothache?” “No, sir,” the valet reported with trepidation, “I’m healthy.” “I see you’re scared.” From fear she could no longer deny, obeyed. He pulled out her healthy tooth and then said: "Obey your husband in the future and remember that the wife is afraid of her husband, otherwise there will be no teeth." Then, returning, His Majesty to the palace, grinning in front of me,
Poluboyarov said:
“Go to my wife, I have cured her, now she will not be disobedient to you” ... You must know that the Tsar often performed surgical operations on different occasions himself and had a rank. There was a whole bag with a pelican and ticks in the Cabinet of Curiosities from the teeth pulled out. "
Thus, contemporaries noted a rather unusual for the chapter Russian Empire "Dental component" in solving the intimate problems of their subjects.
As mentioned above, the "whole bag" of teeth pulled out by the emperor since the death of Peter the Great is kept in the Kunstkamera. Over time, the "Register of teeth twitched by Emperor Peter I" appeared. In total, the collection contains 73 teeth that were personally removed by the emperor, and most of them belong to molars, that is, to the group of hard-to-remove teeth. However, despite the curvature of the roots, no fractures were noted, which indicates a good command of the extraction technique and knowledge of the anatomy of the teeth. It should be noted that among the extracted teeth, along with carious ones, there are also healthy teeth, the origin of which is clear from the above memoir evidence. It is possible that the healthy tooth of the valet's wife Poluboyarov is still kept in this collection.
In his memoirs, it is repeatedly mentioned that Peter I did dental operations with his instruments. The collection of royal medical instruments has been preserved and is located in the Kunstkamera and the State Hermitage. All instruments date from the 18th century. and produced in France, Germany and Russia. The tools are made of steel in a completely functional manner.
During the life of the king, medical instruments were kept in two chests. One contained surgical instruments, the other - dental instruments. They ended up in the Winter Palace in the second half of the 1820s, when Nicholas I, having moved to the main imperial residence, began to collect memorial things.
associated with Peter I. In the 1830s. they were put into an inventory published in 1837. It lists 1,500 items. Among them, in addition to medical instruments, the "Jar containing 8 teeth torn by the hand of Peter I" is mentioned.
On the website of the State Hermitage in the collection "Medical Instruments of Peter I" the following photographs are "laid out":
Opened bladder dilator (France);
? a tool for opening sores in the throat (France);
? an instrument for keeping the mouth open (France);
? lithotomy proud (late 17th - early 18th centuries. France);
Anal speculum (France);
? uterine mirror (France);
? lithotomy probe (France);
? expander probe (Western Europe);
? an instrument for eye surgery (France);
Instrument for cauterization of wounds (France);
? a craniotomy instrument (France);
? obstetric hook (France);
? lancet (France);
? surgical hammer (France);
? amputation knife (France);
? buttoned knife (France);
? obstetric knife (France);
? surgical scissors (France);
? eye tweezers (France);
Bullet extractor (France);
? handle-key from trepan (France);
? drill bit from trepan (France);
The first head of the hospital school, the Dutch doctor N.L. Bidloo (1670–1737) wrote Instructions for Students of Surgery in the Anatomical Theater (1710) for students. This textbook contained information on performing maxillofacial operations on the oral mucosa, lips, hard palate, tongue, and also describes the indications and contraindications for these interventions.
In the section "On the operation of teeth" was considered in detail the structure of the teeth, the timing of eruption, innervation, purpose and function. different groups teeth, various dental diseases are described. Dental treatment consisted of filing them with a file, removing dental deposits ("cleaning teeth"), cauterizing a nerve (in case of acute toothache). Indications for tooth extraction included "rotten tooth", "loose tooth", "extra tooth".
For treatment, a dental scalpel, scraping a scalpel was used, for tooth extraction - a pelican, a sheep's or a ram's leg, a repulsor for loosening teeth, a tooth, a crow's beak, and an elevator.
But for doctors preparing in hospital schools, and then at the medical faculty of Moscow University, dentistry has never been the main specialization. As a rule, this knowledge
were of an auxiliary nature. Professional dentistry was, at best, singularly represented by graduates of medical faculties of European universities, in the mass case, barbers, bath attendants and healers were still engaged in it. Nevertheless, in 1728 in Russia, in the original language, a monograph by Pierre Fauchard was published, outlining the basics of dentistry.
There were also middle-level medical personnel in Russia, who had been trained since 1741 in paramedic schools.
Some theoretical medical disciplines were taught to him. For example, they were introduced to the anatomical and physiological features of the dentition, they mastered the elements of dental practice to help with dislocation of the lower jaw, fractures of the jaws, with toothache, and to remove teeth. But by and large, their theoretical knowledge was very superficial. At best, they were conscientious artisans from medicine.
The barbers learned about dentistry privately, either from successful practicing colleagues, or from regimental doctors, in hospitals and hospitals. For the “teachers” it was a third-party earning, and not all of them gave their all, transferring their not too extensive knowledge. Thus, in the XVIII century. dentistry was a fairly well-paid craft that was only partly controlled by the state.
As already mentioned, starting from the time of Peter the Great, all persons wishing to practice dental practice had to pass an examination before the officials of the Medical College. The shortage of specialists was such that not only dental doctors, but also "corn operators" could pass this exam.
Once eligible for dental practice, dental practitioners gathered a clientele by publishing relevant advertisements in the newspapers. Since the advertising genre presented certain requirements, the texts were printed accordingly. Dentists reported that they were able to “tame any toothache in a minute, pull out sick and chipped teeth, insert new ones, artificially made, which almost cannot be distinguished from natural ones; in removing greenery and rabble from teeth, in strengthening weak and wobbly teeth. "
Key dates and events:1710 - introduction of civil script; 1703 G. - the beginning of the publication of the first official Russian printed newspaper; 1719 - opening of the first Russian museum; 1714 - opening of the first scientific library in the country; 1724 - a decree establishing the Academy of Sciences; 1700 introduction of a new chronology.
Historical figures:Peter 1; J. W. Bruce; L. F. Magnitsky; A. K. Nartov; D. Trezzini; B. Rastrelli.
Basic terms and concepts:assembly; polite; cabinet of curiosities; Petrine Baroque.
Response plan:1) historical conditions for the development of kulilura in the first quarter HULLIIN.; 2) achievements in development domestic science and kulilury: scientific knowledge, education, technical thought, architecture, painting; 3) changes in the daily life of the main categories of the population; 4) the estate character of the kulylury; 5) the significance of changes in the culture of the life of Peter the Great.
Answer material:Under Peter 1, the prerequisites for the emergence of the proper russian science and its development. The need to develop scientific knowledge was explained by the practical needs of the state and was associated with the development of the vast Siberian and Far Eastern expanses of the country, the search and use of minerals, the construction of new cities, the growth of manufacturing and trade.
The foundations of domestic medicine were laid. In 1706, the Pharmaceutical Garden was founded in Moscow, which became the basis for the future botanical garden. In 1707, the first hospital in Russia was opened, with a hospital school attached to it. In 1718, the first domestic surgical instruments were manufactured in St. Petersburg.
In 1720, a map of the Caspian Sea was published.
In 1700, by order of Peter, a state mining and exploration service was organized to search for minerals. In 1703, the peasant Shilov discovered a copper ore deposit in the Urals; in 1714, the hammer master Ryabov - the first mineral healing waters in Russia in the "region of Petrozavodsk; at the beginning of the 1920s, the mine explorer Grigory Kapustin - coal deposits in the south of Russia. At the same time, brown coal was discovered in the Moscow region."
Peter's associate, Ya. V. Bruce, in 1699 organized the Navigation School in the Sukharev Tower in Moscow, where astronomy was taught. Here in 1102 the first observatory in Russia was equipped. In 1707 Bruce made the first map of the starry sky in Russia. Regular meteorological observations began in St. Petersburg in 1725.
Of great importance was the publication in 1703 of LF Magnitskiy's Arithmetic, an encyclopedia of mathematical knowledge of that time, which MV Lomonosov called the "gate of his learning."
A. K. Nartov in 1712-1725 was the first in the world to invent and build a number of lathes; In 1724, according to the project of another genius Russian mechanic, Nikonov, the first submarine was created and tested at the Galerny yard. Scientific and technical knowledge was applied in the construction of canals and dams, mechanisms in factories, shipyards.
At the direction of Peter 1, from 1722 began collecting materials on the history of Russia for subsequent writing scientific papers and textbook Interesting documents and materials that laid the foundation for Russian archives began to be brought to St. Petersburg from all over the country and from abroad.
Peter's interest in knowledge remained throughout his life. The second reformer understood perfectly well that schools based solely on church knowledge, as well as sending talented youth to study abroad, could not give a good result. In Russia, its own education system began to form. At the beginning, the schools were non-class: children from different walks of life could study in them. However, soon many special educational institutions (which trained specialist officers) began to accept only children of the nobility. The children of serfs were not allowed to attend public schools. Since not all the children of the nobles wanted to study, the tsar ordered that study be considered one of the types public service... And so that no one could avoid it, he forbade the priests to marry nobles who did not have a certificate of education.
The creation of the education system required many books (textbooks, reference books, visual aids). Only for the first quarter XVlIIin. more books were published in Russia than in all 150 years that have passed since the beginning of Russian book printing. Of great importance for raising the level of literacy of the population was the introduction of the civil alphabet in 171O. As MV Lomonosov later noted, “under Peter VeLL-tcom, not only boyars and boyars, but also letters threw off their wide fur coats and dressed in summer clothes”. Since 1703, the first official printed newspaper, Vedomosti, began to be published, in which mainly foreign chronicles were published.
The Kunstkamera (a room for rarities), founded by the tsar in St. Petersburg in 1719, became a major scientific institution, which contained collections of minerals, medicines, ancient coins, an ethnographic collection, several terrestrial and celestial globes. This was the first Russian museum. At the same time, the Naval and Artillery Museums were founded in St. Petersburg, and in 1714 - the oldest in our country science Library... The crown of Peter's reforms in the field of science and education was the decree of 1724 on the establishment of the Academy of Sciences and Arts (it opened after the death of the tsar in 1725).
Under Peter 1, artistic kulilura took a new place in the spiritual life of society. It became secular, more diverse in genre, and received active support from the state. However, on the whole, Kulilura was of a transitional nature, since in many ways the features of the previous era were still preserved.
Music was represented by simple everyday forms: dance, military, table melodies. Kant (polyphonic everyday singing, usually sounded on the days of state and military holidays) were especially popular.
The architecture of this time is represented primarily by the buildings of St. Petersburg, for the construction of which the best foreign experts were invited J. Leblon, D. Trezzini, B. Rastrelli. Russian architects, I. K. Korobov and M. G. Zemtsov, also participated in this work. The most important architectural monuments are the Peter and Paul Cathedral and the Peter and Paul Fortress, the building of the Twelve Collegia, the Menshikov Palace in St. Petersburg, the Menshikov Tower in Moscow, the buildings of the Peterhof ensemble.
Fine arts of the first quarter XUIIIin. represented by such a new phenomenon as engraving (it came to Russia from Europe). Engravings gained popularity primarily because of their cheapness and were soon widely used in educational literature, newspapers, calendars. A.F. Zubov was a famous master engraver. Other hallmark painting of the era of Peter became a portrait. One of the founders of Russian secular painting was the portrait painter I.N. Nikitin (1690-1742), who, by decree of Tsar Peter, received the opportunity to study in Italy. His portraits "<Напольный гетман», «Петр 1 на смертном ложе») присущи реализм, интерес к внутреннему миру человека, показ не только индивиду-
some external traits, but also character. -
By the abundance of new phenomena in the cultured life, the first quarter XVIIIin. has no analogues in Russian history. By order of the tsar, the obligatory wearing of European clothing was introduced for the nobility - camisoles, stockings, shoes, ties, hats. Boyars and nobles had to shave their beards. For disobedience, they faced, at best, a large financial fine, and at worst - disgrace. For the right to wear a beard, peasants had to pay a tax, which was levied whenever a peasant entered the city. Only the clergy retained their right to wear traditional clothing and beards.
Since January 1700, Peter introduced a new chronology - from the Nativity of Christ, and not from the creation of the world. Therefore, now after 7207 came 1700. In addition, the New Year now began not from September 1, as before, but from January 1 ...
The tsar brought from Europe and introduced in Russia new forms of communication and entertainment: holidays with illumination, fireworks, masquerades. From 1718, by special decree, he introduced assemblies, which were held in the homes of the nobility. They were invited
dignitaries, officers, clergy, wealthy merchants. The peculiarity of these meetings was that women were allowed to participate in them. The assemblies were held in small talk, discussion of the latest news and gossip, dances and attractions. An obligatory part of the evening was a grand dinner, during which each host of the assembly strove to surpass their predecessors in splendor and innovation. The playing of the clavichord (a prototype of the piano), violin, and flute became widespread. Amateur orchestras became popular, whose concerts were obligatory to be attended by representatives of the nobility. There were so many innovations in the life of the upper strata of the population that a special manual with the rules of good form was needed. In 1717, the famous "Honest Mirror of Youth, or Testimony to everyday life, collected from various authors" was published.
It is known that Peter the Great's curiosity was extraordinary. Wishing to instill in his people a love for work, he consciously set him an example of an energetic, tireless and stubborn worker in achieving his goal. In whatever field of activity we begin to observe Peter, we see everywhere that he strove to personally and thoroughly study every matter that he considers useful. Without exception, all branches of knowledge interested him; but at the same time, of course, he studied some of them out of necessity, others in order to derive this or that benefit, and, finally, still others solely by the urge of his inquiring mind. The latter included anatomy and surgery. Peter had a special passion for surgery, practiced it practically and willingly did a wide variety of operations himself.
For the first time his passion was discovered in Amsterdam, in 1689, when he visited the anatomical office of the then famous scientist, Friedrich Ruysch, who had achieved amazing perfection in the preparation of anatomical preparations. Peter was so delighted that he kissed the corpse of a four-year-old girl, preserved with such amazing art that a smile frozen on his lips made this preparation seem to be alive. One of the tsar's companions entered into his diary the following description of the Ruysch museum:
"I saw at the doctor of anatomy bones, veins, human brains, infant bodies and how it is conceived in the womb and how it will be born; I saw a human heart, lungs, kidneys, and how a stone will be born in the kidneys, and everything inside is different: the one on which the liver lived lives, throat and intestines, and she lived on which the lung lives, like an old rag; the veins are those that live in the brain; I saw 50 bodies of babies, in alcohol from many years incorruptible; I saw how male and female (bodies ) four years of age are incorruptible: both the blood of the nobility and the eyes are intact, and the bodies are soft, but lie without alcohol; the inner sex of the female sex: the heart, liver, intestines, stomach, - everything is incorruptible. I saw human skin, made thicker than the drum that is on the brain a person lives, all in veins; bones are small, like hammers that are in the ears.Animals are small, from many years collected and incorruptible in alcohol; monkeys and small Indian animals, and loving snakes, and frogs, and many wonderful fish, and birds different, extremely marvelous, and crocodiles, behold snakes with legs and, the head of duty, and the snake about two heads; there and then the beetles are delightful and the butterflies are very great, "
Peter several times with the greatest interest examined the Ruysch Museum, became close to this famous scientist, easily came to him to dine in order to converse with him more freely, and often attended his lectures on anatomy. When at St. Peter, which was in charge of Ruysch, turned out to be difficult patients, the emperor certainly accompanied him and closely followed the operations performed by him.
During the same stay in Amsterdam, Peter, walking through the market square, noticed a small crowd of people and, approaching, saw among them a wandering paramedic, with particular dexterity pulling out rotten teeth to those who wished, using the simplest tools for this. The sovereign admired his art for a long time, and as soon as the patients had dispersed, he took the zooderer to the nearest tavern, treated him to him and persuaded him to teach him his skill for a certain fee. After several lessons, Peter perfectly mastered all the techniques of the teacher, began to constantly carry a small case with surgical instruments in his pocket, and as soon as he found out that someone had a toothache, he immediately came up with an offer of his services. So, once stopping by the merchant Tamsen and seeing that a lanky Dutch woman had tied her cheek at the door that opened for him, he almost forcibly sat her down on a chair and, examining her mouth, immediately pulled out the spoiled tooth. In the Kunstkamera, there is still a small bag with teeth, which the sovereign personally pulled from different persons. Sometimes he even assumed the role of a dentist in order to punish the guilty and tame the obstinate. On this occasion, there is one quite reliable anecdote.
The Emperor's valet Poluboyarov married a girl whom he did not like at all. She was forced to marry him, because Peter himself wished for this marriage, and his relatives considered such a party very profitable. After the wedding, the sovereign noticed that Poluboyarov walked constantly gloomy and anxious, and asked him about the reason. Poluboyarov admitted that his wife stubbornly avoids his caresses, dissuading toothache. "Good," said Peter, "I'll teach her." The next day, when Poluboyarov was at the service in the palace, the sovereign unexpectedly came to his apartment, called his wife and asked her: "I heard that you have a toothache?" "No, sir," the young woman replied, trembling with fear, "I am healthy." - "I see you are cowardly," said Peter, "nothing, sit down on this chair, closer to the light." Poluboyarova, fearing the tsarist anger, did not dare to object and silently obeyed. Peter pulled out a healthy tooth for her and gently remarked: "Obey your husband in the future and remember that the wife is afraid of her husband, otherwise there will be no teeth." Returning to the palace, the emperor called Poluboyarov and, grinning, said to him: "Go to your wife; I have cured her; now she will not be disobedient to you."
Peter's love for surgery was so strong that whenever an important operation was due in hospitals, doctors were obliged to inform him about it in advance. The sovereign almost always came accompanied by an elderly but experienced surgeon, Dr. Themont, and was often not only a spectator, but also a character. Under Themont's guidance, he acquired a great skill in methodically dissecting corpses, bleeding, opening abscesses, making surgical prostheses and bandaging wounds. In the diary of the Holstein chamber-junker Berkhholz, who lived in St. Petersburg in the last years of the reign of Peter the Great, there is an indication of two difficult operations carried out by the sovereign himself. So, the wealthy linen manufacturer Tamsen, mentioned above and who enjoyed Peter's special disposition, developed a large swelling in his groin, which greatly tormented him. The called doctors found the operation dangerous, but the sovereign, who was present at the council, took a knife and with a bold hand cut the tumor, which, as he correctly identified, turned out to be pus-like. Tamsen, to the great delight of the operator, recovered very soon. On another occasion, Peter persuaded the merchant's wife Boreta, who suffered from dropsy, to allow him to let the water out of her. He even used some violence in this and was not a little proud of the fact that he was lucky enough to release more than 20 pounds of water from the patient, while when one English operator tried to show only blood. The patient received relief, but, unfortunately, too late: the operation, although very skillfully performed, did not save her life. She died ten days later. The Tsar was present at her funeral and followed the coffin to the cemetery, thus wishing to honor the memory of the sufferer, whose illness he tried to alleviate.
In 1717, when he was in Paris, having heard stories about the art of the then well-known ophthalmologist Dr. Voolguiz, Peter expressed a desire that he performed some kind of operation with him. A sixty-year-old invalid was found who had a thorn in his eyes. In the presence of the sovereign, in his room in the Hotel Lesgnidieres, Voolguise successfully squeezed out (per depressionem) a thorn, and Peter watched with intense attention every movement of the dexterous ophthalmologist
It is clear that with such an attraction to medicine, Peter the Great paid special attention to the development of the medical art in Russia. In 1706, the first military hospital was established in Moscow, along with a surgical school, an anatomical theater and a botanical garden, in which the sovereign himself planted various plants. In the same year, state-owned pharmacies were established: in St. Petersburg, Kazan, Glukhov, Riga and Revel. In 1712, an invalid hospital for elderly soldiers and almshouses for the poor were organized: in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kiev, Yekaterinburg, Revel and Riga, for which 15 thousand rubles were allocated annually. In 1714 a botanical garden was established in St. Petersburg. In 1715, hospitals were established in St. Petersburg: land and sea on the Vyborg side. At these hospitals, just as in Moscow, surgical schools were established, in which, at government expense, 50 pupils were trained in medicine, in order to eventually become doctors. To facilitate the study of medicine, Peter ordered the translation and printing of various medical works. In 1707, the Pharmaceutical Order was renamed the Medical Chancellery, which in 1712 was transferred to St. Petersburg; 50 thousand rubles a year were allocated for its maintenance, purchase of medical supplies and salaries for doctors. In 1717, he was ordered to attend to the mining of mineral springs in Russia. The Lipetsk and Olonets iron waters, discovered earlier, received a proper arrangement.
Peter repeatedly tried, through his physician Areskin, to persuade Ruysch to reveal the secret - how he prepares his excellent anatomical preparations and embalms corpses. But these negotiations were unsuccessful, because Ruysch asked for his secret a huge amount - 50 thousand guilders. On his second trip abroad, in 1717, the sovereign managed to buy his museum from Ruysch for 30 thousand guilders, and the old man, under an oath of silence, revealed his secret to Peter. Subsequently, after the death of Ruysch, the emperor informed her physician-in-chief Blumentrost. Almost simultaneously with the purchase of Ruyshev's office, Peter bought in Amsterdam for 10 thousand guilders from the pharmacist Albert Seb an equally rare and numerous collection of all known aquatic and terrestrial animals, birds, snakes and insects from the East and West Indies. These two richest collections served as the basis for the natural study at the Academy of Sciences.
Shubinsky, Sergei Nikolaevich (1834 - 1913) Major General, retired, writer, Russian historian, journalist, founder and long-term editor of the journals "Ancient and New Russia", "Historical Bulletin" and bibliophile.
In 1698, in Amsterdam, Peter I became an eyewitness to an autopsy, which he wrote in his diary: “One of them was anatomized, they separated my head and brain in front of me; The professor took apart the inner one to teach doctors: he tore off his head (then he rubbed the skull with a saw, lifted the skin from the skull), took out the brain, ripped open the chest, examined the heart, liver and lungs, how the inner one lies, like a lamb. The professor has made a part of that cut man alive. "
At the same time, the king was angry that not everyone shares his passion. So, in London, seeing that the boyars frown when opening the baby, he immediately ordered them to bite him.
Upon the return of the embassy to Russia, public anatomical autopsies began in Moscow. This is how one of them went on January 28, 1699: “ The physician Tsopot began anatomical exercises in the presence of the tsar and many boyars, who were prompted by the tsar's order, although such exercises were repugnant to them."(" Russian antiquity ", 1879).
In this case, the autopsy was carried out not for educational, but rather for cognitive purposes.
Peter's surgical instrumentsI
With the opening of a hospital and a school in Moscow (1706-1707), anatomy was firmly established in Russia. Thus, in the Leipzig newspaper Evropeyskaya Rumova, the official organ of the Russian government, the following was placed among the news from Moscow: “In the anatomical theater, which is entrusted to the supervision of Dr. Bidloo, a Dutchman and physician-in-chief of His Imperial Majesty, anatomies are often performed on human bodies that have died from both common diseases and wounds. At the same time, the king himself or various high-ranking gentlemen are often present, especially when doctors and surgeons arrange interviews about the structure of the human body and the causes of various diseases and wounds. "
Peter's toolsI for craniotomy
In the personal library of Peter I there were translations of medical books that have survived to this day.
The first of them is an anatomical atlas by Gottfried Bidloo, in which the printed text for 105 tables is replaced by handwritten Russian. Translated from the 1685 edition in Latin. However, it was not possible to find out the name of the translator, and, consequently, the creator of the foundations of Russian anatomical terminology. The second manuscript is a translation of Hippocrates' Aphorisms. Translated from the Leiden edition of 1533. The third, judging by the preface, is a rough copy of the translation of L.A. Blumentrost, published in Germany in 1668. The original translation, created in Moscow and dated 1708, is dedicated to Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich, and then presented to him by the sons of L.A. Blumentrost.
It is believed that all of these translations were made by people associated with the Moscow Medical and Surgical School.
Deletedteeth, collapsible models of the eye and ear, tools (from personal belongings of Peter I)
It is known that Peter considered himself a first-class surgeon ("archiatrist") and, in particular, a dentist. In the State Hermitage, among his personal belongings, many special surgical instruments have been preserved.
Saws for shin amputation (from personal belongings of Peter I)
Lipidella to remove sand from the bladder (from personal belongings of Peter I)
Cauterizers (from personal belongings of Peter I)
