The
\nmodernization of Romania’s medical school was made concurrently
\nwith that of the entire society in the principalities of Wallachia
\nand Moldova towards mid 19th
\ncentury. The pioneers of this movement were initially foreign
\ndoctors, but also Romanians who studied abroad, as was the case of
\ndoctor Leon Sculy, one of the pioneers of surgery and neurosurgery in
\nIasi, northern Romania and also the founding father of the local
\nfaculty of medicine, whose first dean was.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
When
\nthis education institution was officially opened in December 1879,
\nLeon Sculy was teaching the anatomy course. Born in Piatra Neamt, in
\n1853, the future doctor came from a Greek family as we learn from
\nprofessor Richard Constantinescu, custodian of the Medical History
\nMuseum with the University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Iasi.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Richard
\nConstantinescu:Leon
\nSculy had another name – Logothetides,
\nor Logotheti in short. He had a brother and a sister. Interesting in
\nhis case is the fact that along the years he had been depicted by
\nvarious acquaintances in opposite ways; he was either a good,
\nfriendly guy or a tough one. His contemporaries described him as a
\nguy with a short fuse, difficult to get along with. In a text
\npublished by the Iasi medical review, his collaborator doctor Paul
\nAnghel described him as ‘a nice middle-sized man with whiskers. He
\nwas a stout man but with a strange gait pushing one of his shoulders
\nforward all of the time. He was smart and waggish.’ That was the
\nportrait he got from another fellow surgeon who was also a man of
\nletters. Leon Sculy trained as a doctor at the universities of
\nMontpelier and Paris. He took his PhD in France then he came back to
\nIasi to become collaborator of professor Ludovic Russ, an Austrian
\nconsidered the founding father of surgery in Moldova. He was one of
\nthe promoters of Romanian neurosurgery and had many operations on the
\nskull cap. He was one of those who introduced hygiene rules and used
\nthe revolutionary X-rays to diagnose his patients. Leon Sculy had a
\nsignificant contribution to the introduction of several surgical
\ntechniques in that Romanian province.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\nBesides
\nhis medical activity Leon Sculy also got into politics and he became
\nan MP together with his brother, but he was mainly interested in
\ncharity.
\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Richard
\nConstantinescu:
\nHe was a great student supporter, deeply involved in university life.
\nI learnt from a paper published between the two world wars that part
\nof the Jewish community in Iasi, as a token of appreciation for this
\ndoctor, planted several olive trees in Palestine in a park named
\nafter him, Leon Sculy. I found this piece of information only in that
\narticle and need to do some research to confirm it. He even used to
\nhelp his patients with money.
\nIn a paper published in Iasi, one of his students who was ill in a
\nhospital in Ungheni thanked professor Sculy who came to visit him in
\na carriage. The professor wouldn’t wait for the train and had to
\ncross the river in the carriage running the risk of getting drowned
\nby the heavy waters. His student was so impressed that he wanted to
\nthank his former professor in a newspaper. This practice of helping
\nthe poor with money was common among the doctors of that time. They
\nused to place money under the pillow of their patients so that
\nrelatives might
\nbe
\nable to buy for them the medicine they couldn’t afford otherwise.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\nAlthough
\npeople know very little about doctor Leon Sculy, he is still
\nappreciated at the Faculty of Medicine in Iasi.
\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\nRichard
\nConstantinescu: In
\nthe Institute of Anatomy with the Medicine University in Iasi, there
\nis a bas-relief representing Leon Sculy and at the beginning of a new
\nschool year, professors are referring to his personality in an
\nexcursus on the history of this institution. They are mentioning Leon
\nSculy as the first dean, the first professor of anatomy and pioneer
\nof thoracic and neurosurgery. His political and charity activities
\nare also being mentioned. So we can safely say that his biography
\ndeserves being revisited. His brother Vasile had a mansion close to
\nIasi, which he donated to the Romanian state in the First World War
\nto use it as a hospital for the treatment of typhus.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\nPioneer
\nof neurosurgery, promoter of sterilization and antisepsis as well as
\nof hygiene as a means of fighting diseases, the
\ngreat philanthropist, doctor
\nLeon Sculy was also a passionate
\ncollector.
\nAn icon from his collection, featuring
\nSaint
\nHaralambie, traditionally known as ‘the plague healer’, has
\nrecently been put up for sale.
\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n(translated
\nby bill)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A presentation of the personality of Romania’s great neurosurgeon and philanthropist, doctor Leon Sculy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":83019,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45210],"tags":[45583,34200,45581,45582,41709],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-169609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rri-encyclopaedia","tag-haralambie","tag-iasi","tag-leon","tag-sculy","tag-vasile"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n