Galician Popularizers of Health and Hygiene at the Turn of the 19th and 20th Century

Abstract

At the turn of the 19th and 20th century, Galicia became the centre of the Polish hygienic movement, the aim of which was to improve the hygienic situation of the country. On the one hand, owing to the autonomy, it had greater opportunities than other partitioned parts of Poland to exchange ideas and experience, and on the other hand, the difficult living conditions of the population and the very bad sanitary and hygienic situation of the cities and villages imposed a necessity to take drastic actions in this scope. The Polish hygienists, doctors and educators joined the actions for improvement of the hygienic conditions in Galicia. The article presents the chosen figures and the popularizing actions for health and hygiene in two centres, i.e. Cracow and Lviv. Tadeusz Żuliński, the author of the first schoolbook on school hygiene, a pioneer of the hygienic thought in Galicia, acted in Lviv. Furthermore, the following persons were engaged in the hygienic action: Józef Żuliński, Edward Madeyski, Mieczysław Tytus Baranowski, Bolesław Adam Baranowski, Bronisław Kaczorowski, Edmund Cenar, Antoni Durski. Henryk Jordan, the professor of the Faculty of Medicine of the Jagiellonian University, became a famous person in Cracow. Apart from him, Eugeniusz Piasecki, Józef Dietl and Zygmunt Wyrobek were involved in social work for promoting hygiene.

Keywords

• historia wychowania, higiena, wychowanie higieniczne, ruch higieniczny w galicji