19th-century Polish physicians

Tytus_Chałubiński

Tytus Aureliusz Chałubiński (29 December 1820, Radom – 4 November 1889, Zakopane) was a Polish physician, naturalist, and co-founder of the Polish Tatra Society. His collections of natural history specimens are now held in the Tatra Mountains Museum in Zakopane.

Edmund_Biernacki

Edmund Faustyn Biernacki (19 December 1866 in Opoczno – 29 December 1911 in Lwów) was a Polish physician.Biernacki was the first one to note a relationship between the sedimentation rate of red blood cells in a human blood sample and the general condition of the organism. This method, known as the Biernacki Reaction, is used worldwide to assess erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), which is one of the major blood tests.

Anna_Tomaszewicz-Dobrska

Anna Tomaszewicz-Dobrska (1854–1918) was the second Polish woman to become a medical doctor, and the first female Polish medical doctor to practice in Poland. She obtained her medical degree in 1877 in Zurich.During her fifth year of study in Zurich she worked as an assistant to Professor Edward Hitzig (a German neurologist and psychiatrist) in the Institute for the Mentally Ill.After obtaining her medical degree she worked in Berlin and Vienna for a short time. However, she was not allowed to pass the state exam, which would have given her the right to practice medicine in Poland, and she was refused as a member of the Polish Society of Medicine because she was a woman.She moved to St. Petersburg and passed the state exam there. This allowed her to practice women's health and pediatric medicine within the Polish Kingdom and Russia. In 1882 an epidemic of infection during childbirth broke out in Warsaw, and a few maternity shelters were opened; shelter number 2 (on Prosta Street) was given to Anna to lead, and she led it until 1911. In 1896 she became the first to perform a Caesarean section in Warsaw.She was also one of the founders of the Society of Polish Culture.