[Physiology formation in St. Petersburg system of higher medical education]

Abstract

This article is devoted to almost a century of history of teaching physiology at the St. Petersburg Medical (Hospital) Schools, Chief Medical College, and Medical-Surgical Academy before foundation of the independent department June 17, 1848. Strokes to portrait of the first professor of St. Petersburg Medical Schools I.-F. Schreiber who began to teach physiology as an independent discipline in 1754, are presented on the basis of the source material analysis. Thanks to this prominent pedagogue, likeminded friend A. Haller, who reformed physiological science in the XVIII century, its foundation took place simultaneously in Russia and in Western Europe. Further path of physiology development in Russia institutes of higher education was not like a highway and dependent mainly on weight of experiment in research studies and teaching. Experiment introduction to educational process predetermined establishment of the independent department of physiology.