Physician Iuliu Barasch

One of the many foreign nationals who came to the Romanian Principalities to contribute to the modernization process was also physician Iuliu Barasch. Born into a family of Jews in July 1815 in the city of Brody in the former Kingdom of Galicia, back then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, today in present-day Ukraine, Barasch furthered his studies in Berlin and Leipzig, but chose to return to Romania to practice medicine here. What he did was so much more: he helped set up modern medical institutions. He popularized the sciences through his publications. He edited textbooks and actually taught medicine. He set up a clinic which later developed into a children's hospital, thus laying the foundations of Romanian pediatrics. He also supported the Jewish community here. He served as a quarantine physician in Călărași over 1843-1847 and in Dolj County over 1847-1851. Despite all that, Iuliu Barasch remains virtually unknown today to general audiences, including among scholarly elites. His works are now being published and translated in Romania, as most were written in German. Historian Ștefan Petrescu gave us an overview of Iuliu Barasch's career.

"What do we know about Iuliu Barasch? He was a man of numerous talents, someone with an interest not just for medicine, but for other fields as well. He was what we call a true scholar. He could have been anything he wanted. His parents wanted him to become a rabbi, but that's not what he wanted. Then they wanted him to become a merchant, and actually sent him to Moldova to learn the trade, unfortunately to no avail. So they sent him to study abroad, and this is where Iuliu Barasch would shine. He first study in Germany, then he came back, showing great potential for a scientific career. He was also a writer, an accomplished scholar, not just a physician. He was interested in the life of his community, in the fate of the Jews. This was a time when Jewish emancipation in the Romanian Principalities was on the rise, and he was one of the iconic representatives of this movement. He also capitalized on building momentum created by the 1848 Revolution, followed by the 1859 Union. This was the rule of Alexandru Ioan Cuza, which created numerous opportunities for the Jews. Iuliu Barasch was in the middle of it all, but his life was cut short. After a lifelong of hard work, Iuliu Barasch passed away at only 40 years of age, leaving behind huge volumes of works. He worked as a physician in the public sector, which was no small thing for a Jew. He also taught in public schools, including at the Saint Sava High School in Bucharest".

Iuliu Barasch achieved all that over a relatively short period of time, as he died in March 1863, at only 47 years of age. Back then, Romanian society was in dire need to people like Iuliu Barasch to help modernize the country, and Iuliu Barasch knew that. He was particularly known for helping Wallachia bridge the development gap compared to other Western countries. He also served as a press correspondent for a German-language newspaper. And that's not all. To medical historian Octavian Buda, Iuliu Barasch brought to the Romanian Principalities the spirit of enlightenment, albeit with some delay, something which the region lacked back then.

"He brought out a series which has become a reference for the field of history and popularizing sciences, Natura, which he published at a time when Western countries were following the same trend. He made commendable efforts to write in Romania. He paid attention to every detail pertaining to modern procurements in the field of medicine, and he stood out as one of the first people to signal something was wrong with cholera. He suspected the transmission method was not by direct contact. The issue was disconcerting. There were two running theories at odds with each other - on the one side those who argued in favor of direct contact, while the other camp spoke of foul air that was infectious, which you had to avoid at all costs. Iuliu Barasch managed to examine all these things, and what he did was typical of any exponent of moderate enlightenment - he didn't discard these popular practices from the very start as nonsensical, irrational and primitive. No. He thought there is a collective experience that could be instrumental in formulating a rational medical discourse based on causes, that sought the development of health policies based on prevention and education. And this was something truly remarkable. He was part of this specific strand of Jewish enlightenment which in the West was best represented by Moses Mendelssohn. He was under the influence of Kant, as he went to Leipzig to enroll in a course delivered by a professor who was a disciple of Immanuel Kant at Königsberg. Therefore, this was the sort of intellectual legacy that Barasch had. In Berlin he met with the great medical experts. He went to college with people who were considered the founder of modern pathology, the heavyweights of international anthropology in the late 19th century. Despite all that, he returned to Romania, and it is reasonable to ask if he actually missed on greatness. It's hard to answer, because he graduated with a paper that is considered one of the first theses that systematize modern dermatology at the highest scientific level. He could have easily stayed in the West, practicing in the emerging field of dermatology, and he could have been featured today in standard textbooks of the history of dermatology".

Corint Publishers have recently started to decrypt Iuliu Barasch's biography by translating the volume called "Iuliu Barasch. Pioneering medicine in Wallachia", a work that brings together a number of his medical articles. (VP)