Vol. CXXI • No. 2/2018 • August • Romanian Journal of Military Medicine EDITORIAL Brief notes about the Great War, Romanian military doctors and the Great Union Dan Mischianu Motto: “L’Histoire, c’est la rencontré d’une volonté et d’une Versailles in 1949 in the Gral (R) Prof DAN MISCHIANU évènement” – Charles de Gaulle, 1890-1970 Mirror Hall, with multiple Chief of Urology Clinic, Carol European implications... Davila Central Emergency This short notice, largely iatrohistoric, appear in the Military Hospital 100th year since the Great Union out of the desire to Then, at Versailles in the Faculty of General Medicine, know more about what has happened. Grand Trianon Palace, a treaty Carol Davila University of was signed on June 4, 1920 Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest, Romania In Romania, there was a lot of talk about the First between 16 allied states World War. The Germans remember this war under (including Romania) and the successor state of the the name of "der Erste Weltkrieg worde von 1914 bis Austro-Hungarian Empire. At the beginning of the war, 1918 in Europa, in Naken Osten, in Africa, Ostasien and Romania, a "very small country", in the form of "L", auf dez ozeanen gefurt". Obviously this first had 137,000 km2 and a population of 7.2 million conflagration was the army of "Zweiter Weltkrieg"! inhabitants, and after Trianon, it was reunited and The British preferred the denomination of the became „The Great Romania", with an area of 295,000 "European War" or, more correctly, they named it "the km2 and a nation of 18 million people. It is certainly Great War". why, in the collective mentality of a neighboring It appears that this name is slowly but surely nation, that this situation is perceived as unacceptable penetrating our literature, following "World War I" even after 100 years! which, referring to the title of this editorial only makes After the assassination of the crown Prince of Austria- us Romanians remind that we have also had a Small Hungary – Franz Ferdinand on June 28, 1914 the Union (1859), followed by the Great Union of 1918. actors, both big and small, began to enter the stage: It must be remembered that the Romanian literature Central Powers – Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey, between 1948-1989 wrote about the Great War in an Bulgaria and Antanta or the Triple Alliance, England, abbreviated manner, because of two reasons: the Russia followed by Italy, Romania, USA... Eastern neighbors had "turned history" – things did The Kingdom of Romania had passed through a recent, not happen as planned and the contribution and unforgettable experience for the army and especially participation of the Romanian Royalty to the final for the military doctors. In 1913, during the Second victory was extremely important but also very Balkan War, the Romanian troops that had easily embarrassing that it had to be silenced. entered the northern half of Bulgaria lost 1,600 lives The Great War began in Sarajevo in 1914 and ended at due to the cholera epidemic – a fearful "enemy". 5 Evidently, the accusations have risen, obviously committees for dysfunctions research have been named, obviously the responsible military doctors – Constantin Papilian (1852-1917) and Senator G-ral (r) Prof. Dr. Athanase Demosthen (1846-1925) informed I.C. Bratianu – Prime Minister and Minister of War about all this. Certainly, the two years of neutrality have chosen better and more efficient organizational lines, as "stage sanitation, semi-hospital evacuation, evacuation hospitals, auxiliary hospitals, and infirmary He became Professor of Experimental Medicine at the station ". Faculty of Medicine in Bucharest at the age of 38 and Just after two years of "armed expectancy" war began, was appointed in 1908 as General Manager of the for Romania as well as for other nations, how all wars Health Service to "Effectively fight epidemics, set up start "suddenly and unprepared!". We do not insist in isolation hospitals and pavilions, rural infirmaries and geostrategic and political-economic details. We bacteriological laboratories". In the Bulgarian present only the result and brief considerations about campaign he successfully ordered the vaccination in an military doctors truly involved in the "Perpetual Drama epidemic environment, called and known as "the great of War". Romanian experience." What Prof. Dr. Vasile Sârbu, a Templar Knight of He conducted the Civil Public Health and Military Romanian Surgery and Iatrohistory, presented with his Public Health Directorate during the Great War, a true known erudition a few months ago, is perfectly true: Ministry of Health, which allowed him to organize anti- "In this war, 400 military doctors died out of 2,800 choleric vaccination and fight against exanthematic participants." 2,400 health workers have also died out typhus, typhoid fever and smallpox – having the rank of 14,000 participants, as well as 14 pharmacists and of Col. Dr. of the Romanian Army. 20 students of the Military Health Institute. These numbers do not say much. If we compare them with the other "weapons", we will be surprised to learn that this group of people is on the 2nd place after the infantry, which made King Ferdinand to offer them the right to wear the "combatant weapon" badge. "This was the result!..." Among the personalities, the first name to be quoted with gratitude and piety is that of Prof. Dr. Ion Cantacuzino – Jean Cantacuzen for the French, descendant of Byzantine emperors, a medical school creator, graduate of the French medical school, born in 1863 in Bucharest, student of Ilia Mecinikov, In 1920, together with Nicolae Titulescu and Mihai founder of the Romanian School of Immunology and Ciucă, his student, participated, as the Romanian state Experimental Pathology, doctor of medicine with a delegate, at the Treaty of Trianon. He enjoyed a high thesis on the destruction of the vibrio cholera. The prestige, he had an important word to say, was even a subject of the thesis, supported in 1894, and its friend of French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau, findings will prove useful in almost 20 years, as in the a distinguished neurologist... On April 1, 1921, as a novels of Alexandre Dumas. result of his unrelenting thought, effort, and 6 Vol. CXXI • No. 2/2018 • August • Romanian Journal of Military Medicine determination, he founded the "Serum and Vaccine The General Dr. Iacob Potarca (1866-1942), a graduate Institute", by royal decree, which will then bear its of the Bucharest Faculty of Medicine, specialized in name. general surgery in Paris, physician colonel in 1916, head physician of the First Army’s Corp, general in O tempora, o mores!... 1917, then Sanitary Inspector of the First Army – who fought in the Mărăști-Mărășești sector, was not only an illustrious military physician in the war. In 1924 he becomes General Inspector of the Army's Sanitary Service, but it is worth mentioning that he is the first Romanian surgeon to have operated the esophagus, having other remarkable surgical researches quoted by Professor Dan Setlacec in his formidable monograph "Romanian Medicine, European medi- cine".[3] The drama on the battlefront at the end of 1917 – the beginning of 1918, was almost at its peak. In absolute anarchy a single thought seemed to be clear! The In 1911 the General Dr. Nicolae Vicol (1861-1936), as thought of the Great Union! Director of the Health Department of the Ministry of In August 1917, at Mărășești, there were "many other War, organizes two preparatory sanitary maneuvers doctors from the old country, young, learned able- around Bucharest that have proven to be beneficial in bodied: Victor Papilian, Titu Vasiliu, Odiseu Apostol, the future. In August 1916, when he signed the troops Grigore T. Popa, Constantin, Mihail Kerubach, and mobilization he followed the General Constantin many, many others”.[4] Prezan – the head of the General Headquarters, unfortunately not having total decision-making power and being obliged to listen to the Minister Constantin Angelescu. Since February 1917, when the Public Health Directorate was founded, led by the supreme authority in the field – Colonel Prof Dr Ion Cantacuzino, he starts a great collaboration with him. The name Col (r) Prof. Iacob Iacobovici (1879-1959) is worth mentioning from the beginning, not only for being the founder of the Surgery School in Cluj, after the Great Union and of the first Emergency Hospital in Romania, the one in Bucharest, but also an involved participant in the Bulgarian campaign and the commander of the 7th Evacuation Hospital of the Second Army in Bacau in 1917. Professor Iuliu Moldovan (1882-1966) attended the Faculty of Medicine in Vienna and Prague, and then, what a few know (4), he worked as a military doctor at the Department of Dermatovenerology and at the 7 Central Laboratory of Bacteriology of the Austro- Medical Clinic, dean of the new Faculty of Medicine in Hungarian Army. Cluj, "Magnificus rector", precursor, visionary, called the "Hippocrates of the Romanians", was also a participant in the Great National Assembly in Alba- Iulia. The last, but not the last, because the number of the unknown is overwhelmingly large, is Dr. Alexandru Vaida Voievod (1872-1950). In July 1914 he was mobilized and appointed the head hygienist of one of the Austro-Hungarian armies, effectively engaging in the eradication of some epidemics. On the 1st of December 1918 he took part in the works of the Great National Assembly in Alba- Iulia. Between 1919 and 1920, he became the professor of the Department of Hygiene and Social He was a graduate of the Faculty of Medicine in Hygiene of the Faculty of Medicine in Cluj, general Vienna, doctor of medicine, who established in secretary of the Social Protection Resort of the Carlsbad where he trained as an intern and Transylvanian Conducting Council and he also balneologist, later attracted to the political activity, organized the Transylvanian Medical Service.