Vlodzimezh Vysokovych, hero of the patho-immunology!

Talking about the achievements of the hero of our essay would lead to overwhelming the essay with scientific terms and titles that are related with him, as the number of titles and professional achievements of Vlodzimezh Vysokovych is really huge, so we’ll mention only some of them.

When we read about a person who has made a more or less significant contribution to culture, science, politics or sports, we always look for a mention of his or her nationality to be proud to say, “Yes, that is our kin! I am proud!” In the case of Vlodzimezh Vysokovych, he can be seen as a prominent Pole throughout all his life, getting acquainted with distant lands, different peoples, but not dividing people into social classes, doing right things with inspiration, saving and healing everyone, and at the same time inspiring to help others. So, let’s take a look at the life of this extraordinary personality and for a while let us immerse into the childhood and the youth of the hero of our essay. Vlodzimezh Vysokovych was born on the 14th of March, 1854, in a noble family in Haisyn (Podilska province of the Russian Empire, now – Vinnytsia region, Ukraine). His childhood was quite cloudless. The father, who had a military doctor’s degree, wanted his son to get a decent education as soon as possible. But he never bothered Vlodzimezh with the choice of profession. This, in fact, became a powerful factor in the remarkable successes that he had achieved at a very young age.

Haisyn town

 Vlodzimezh Vysokovych’s path to knowledge began in 1862. At that time, his family decided to move to Kharkiv and as a result in 1864, the future scientist became a student of the First Kharkiv high school (Staromoskovska Street, 2; now – Moskovsky Ave., 24). Studying there only increased the boy’s enthusiasm and created the foundation for decisive shifts in his interest in medicine. And so it was quite logical that he graduated from high school with a gold medal (1871)! In general, in Kharkiv, Vlodzimezh had much better conditions for his development. After all, before moving to the First Kharkiv high school, he did not have the opportunity to visit the library or choose freely what to read, for there was simply no such place in Vlodzimezh’s native town. At the disposal of the future doctor there was only a small home collection of his father, by the means of which the latter actually tried to give the child basic knowledge of medicine. The public library appeared in Haisyn only in 1902.

First Kharkiv high school

In the same year, 1871, Vlodzimezh Vysokovych entered the Medical Faculty of Kharkiv University, where Vlodzimezh discovered new opportunities for learning the world. The first two years of study were quite intensive, the future scientist gained rich bodies of knowledge. But then, a very strange situation arose. According to Zhanna Pertseva (director of the Museum of Kharkiv Medical University), Vlodzimezh Vysokovych, having passed all the exams perfectly, expressed his desire to stay in the second year one more time. He argued his decision by the fact that he wants to study more thoroughly all the achievements of the most authoritative teachers of the faculty – M.M. Becketov (chemistry), I.K. Wagner (general anatomy), as well as to work further at his favorite discipline, pathological anatomy, under the guidance of Professor V.P. Krylov. As it turned out later, this unexpected step of a young scientist created the preconditions for forming a completely revolutionary direction in medicine. At the final stage of his studies at the university, Vlodzimezh Vysokovych was respected among the teachers, showed enthusiasm and a relentless desire to get new knowledge, and even offered his vision of the general principles of insectology and pathological anatomy. Having passed all examinations, he graduated alma mater with honors, and for that he was offered to remain at Kharkiv Imperial University in the role of the Elected Fellow. However, Vlodzimezh was forced to pass final exams informally, in too short a period of time. It was then that the Russo-Turkish war (1877-1878) began and a young doctor was awaiting conscription into the armed forces.

The Imperial Univercity in Kharkiv

The hero of our essay was sent to the Caucasus, where he gradually honed the various components of his profession. For example, in Tiflis (now Tbilisi, Georgia), Vlodzimezh Vysokovych had to work as a prosector, what gave him valuable experience in the creation of anti-infectious drugs (it proved later to be useful). In other Caucasian cities, Abas-Tumani (now Abastumani, Georgia) and Erivan (now – Yerevan, Armenia), the military doctor worked as a hospital physician, i.e., had wider and more responsible functions (supervised the sick and wounded, supervised the order in the hospital and in the surrounding area, headed the wards of patients). In March 1878, Vlodzimezh Vysokovych was sent to the Kharkiv University Clinic, and a year later he was transferred to the Kharkiv Military Hospital Clinic. There he worked until March 1880, when the Medical Faculty of Kharkiv University elected him a fellow-doctor for two years (this title corresponds to the modern “Doctor habilitatus”) with the aim of preparation for the professorial title of “pathological anatomy” (he studied it from the first year in the university). In a year, Vlodzimezh passed the exams for the degree of Doctor of Medicine and completed the preparation of the dissertation “On diseases of the blood vessels in syphilis”. Having publicly defended his work (the 31st of May, 1892), he got a habilitation degree in Medicine. Vlodzimezh was officially awarded this title by the Kharkiv Imperial University Council.

Vlodzimezh Vysokovych’s portrait

In his dissertation, Vlodzimezh Vysokovych proposed a new method of “microtome sections” from fixed tissues and significantly simplified the treatment of syphilis, because he had provided new data on the “histogenesis of granulation tissue”. This scientific work not only made a major contribution to the development of medicine, but also made Vlodzimezh Vysokovych well known in Europe. In 1884, a prominent doctor was sent on a business trip to Germany and France. He spent most of this trip in the small quiet German town of Göttingen, which was famous for scientific traditions (including pathobiology and infectology). He worked with foreign scientists in a complete mutual understanding due to a good knowledge of German and French, which he learned at the First Kharkiv High School. In the field of pathological anatomy, bacteriology and physiology, Vlodzimezh Vysokovych collaborated with prominent German scientists from Rudolf Virchow’s scientific school. This team included Johann Hort, pathological anatomy specialist, bacteriologist Carl Flügge and physiologist Сarl Ludwig. The result of Vlodzimezh Vysokovych’s collaboration with the company of outstanding scientists was his most famous work “Über die Schicksale der ins Blut injizierten Mikroorganismen im Körper der Warmblüter” (1886). In it, he published the results of the study of the behavior of microorganisms in the blood of warm-blooded animals, which earned him the fame of an outstanding expert in the field of experimental pathology. Vlodzimezh Vysokovych’s two-year practical study abroad caused great resonance in Western European academic community and put this physician into the forefront of pathologists of those days. And in the Russian Empire, Vysokovych, alongside M.M. Lyubimov (Kazan University) and M.N. Nikiforov (Moscow University) created a kind of a “Mighty Group” of pathologists who appreciated bacteriology greatly.

After 41 years, during the formal meeting of the First All-Union Congress of Pathologists dedicated to Rudolf Virchow’s memory, it was finally recognized and proclaimed: Vlodzimezh Vysokovych is the founder of the modern doctrine of the reticuloendothelial system.

At the beginning of 1886, Vlodzimezh Vysokovych got the post of prosector of the Department of Pathological Anatomy at the Kharkiv University with the rank of private associate professor of general pathology. At the same time in addition to these duties he became the head of the Bacteriological station of the Kharkiv Medical Society. This eminent physician also carried out active educational activities. Beginning in 1891, he taught a course in bacteriology and epidemiology, and for many years taught a course in general pathology. On the 27th of July, 1895, the prosector, extraordinary professor of pathological anatomy, associate professor of general pathology at Kharkiv University, Dr. habil. of Medicine Vlodzimezh Vysokovych was appointed to the position of an ordinary professor at the Kyiv University of St. Volodymyr due to “the Imperial Edict in the civil department”.

The house where Vlodzimezh Vysokovych lived in Kiev
(Nesterovska Street 34; now – Ivan Franko Street 34)

At the end of 1896, a large-scale epidemic of the plague broke out in India, with about 350 people dying daily in Bombay. And the mortality was steadily increasing. Such a major epidemic was a serious threat to European countries that is why their governments (including the government of the Russian Empire) decided to send thereto a scientific expedition to eliminate the outbreak of the dangerous disease and its consequences. On the 8th of February, 1897, a train from Kyiv with members of the expedition including Vlodzimezh Vysokovych, set off to India. On departure, the train was showered with flowers and the scientists – with wishes to fulfill their mission. Great expectations that the people relied on the mission came true in a year – the epidemic was eliminated. Subsequently, Vlodzimezh Vysokovych took part in many other such missions, destroying the plague epidemic in Odessa (1902) and suppressing cholera outbreaks in Samara, Rostov-on-Don (1904) and in the cities of Southern Crimea (1908). This distinguished physician has left numerous scientific works (including 94 intelligence on the further improvement of the treatment of infectious diseases). His creative heritage also includes such important works as “Tuberculosis, the nature of scrofula” (1890) and “On cholera” (1905). All successes and works of the prominent scientist were called by his successors «Catechism of Vysokovych» and there were undoubtedly reasons for this. But Vlodzimezh Vysokovych’s greatest achievement was that he fought the effects of the plague not in radical ways, but gradually, in an effort to preserve as much tissue of the victim as possible. In his research of the causes and ways of overcoming this disease, the hero of our essay also took into account the nature of the terrain, where it spread especially rapidly. It was incredible for that time and did not go unnoticed by experts.

Vlodzimezh Vysokovych in Bacteriological Institute (Kyiv)

During the last years of his life, Vlodzimezh Vysokovych was actively developing the institutional infrastructure of medicine in Kyiv. In 1908 he established the Department of Pathological Anatomy of the Women’s Medical Institute at the Olexander Hospital, and headed the Department of the Bacteriological Institute (Batyeva Gora in Protasov Yar, 4). This eminent physician and scientist died on the 26th of May, 1912, and was buried in Baykovo Cemetery. On the grave of Vlodzimezh Vysokovych, people, who were close to him, built an art tombstone of black labradorite with the inscription “From friends and colleagues” on it.

The grave of Vlodzimezh Vysokovych in Baykovo Cemetery in Kyiv

Sources of information:

  1. Благодаров В., Старченко С. Високович Володимир Костянтинович (1854 – 1912). До 150-річчя від дня народження. [Електронний ресурс]. – Режим доступу: https://m-l.com.ua/?aid=254
  2. Высокович В. Чума. – Киев, 1901.
  3. Высокович В. Патологическая анатомия // Из лекций, читанных в Университете св. Владимира. – Киев, 1901.
  4. Державний архів м. Києва. – Ф. 16. – Оп. 334. – Спр. 91. Совет Университета св. Владимира. О назначении прозектора Харьковского университета Высоковича ординарным профессором Университета св. Владимира. – Арк. 1.
  5. Клейн Б.И. Высокович, крупнейший русский микробиолог (К сорокалетию со дня смерти) // Журнал микробиологии, эпидемиологии и инфекционных болезней. – 1950. – Вып. 1. – С. 7.
  6. Южный край. – 1909-1910.
  7. Kijas A. Polscy profesorowie na Uniwersytecie Charkowskim do 1917 roku // Wrocławskie Studia Wschodnie. – T. 15. – 2011. – S. 47-64.
  8. Krysin O. Zachowanie Polskich Miejsc Pamięci Narodowej // Dziennik Kijowski. – Archiwum 2017. [Електронний ресурс]. – Режим доступу: https://www.dk.com.ua/post.php?id=4328

Prepared by Maksym Agarkov