Bertenson (Family)

BERTENSON, Lev Bernardovich (born 1850), a well-known balneologist, hygienist, and public figure, author of the uniquely comprehensive classical work «Medical Waters, Muds, and Sea Baths in Russia and Abroad» (1873). Upon graduating from the Medical-Surgical Academy, he engaged in internal medicine in the clinics of Eck and Eichwald. Then, at the Rozhdestvenskaya City Hospital in St. Petersburg (now the clinic of the State Institute of Medical Knowledge), he served for 23 years as a lecturer in diagnostics and internal diseases. From 1890, for 25 years, he was a member of the Mining Scientific Committee. From 1898, he was a permanent member of the Medical Council (18 years). From 1903, he was a member of the Military Medical Scientific Committee (11 years). From 1897, Bertenson worked for 20 years on medical and sanitary issues in mining plants and industries and on the establishment of Russian health resorts (Caucasus, Staraya Russa, Sergievsk, Lipetsk, Sestroretsk, etc.). Bertenson developed a bill for the protection of the health and life of workers, the 1897 law on the regulation of working hours, the 1903 law on workers' compensation for injuries, and a bill on workers' insurance. On Bertenson's initiative, the «All-Russian League for the Fight Against Tuberculosis» was created in 1910. Bertenson directed a conference on the fight against medical charlatanism. Aside from minor articles, notes, etc., Bertenson wrote about 80 scientific works. The principal ones include: the above-mentioned work on balneology and «Radioactivity in Medicinal Waters and Muds» (1914); in internal medicine — «On the Diagnostics of Cardiac Neoplasms», «Tuberculosis and Cow's Milk», «On Russian Buddhists and So-Called Tibetan Medicine», «The Fight Against Tuberculosis in Russia», and others; in occupational hygiene — «On the Sanitary Condition of Workers in the Mining Plants and Industries of the Urals», «The Baku Oil Fields in Sanitary Regard», «Sanitary and Medical Affairs in the Mining Plants and Industries of the Zamoskovny and Middle Volga Districts», «On the Question of Workers' Dwellings», and others. Various Russian and foreign medical organizations elected Bertenson as their honorary member.

BERTENSON, Joseph Vasilyevich (1833–1895), a well-known physician-hygienist, medical inspector. He graduated from the University of Dorpat, then perfected his education abroad. In 1865, he founded the «Archive of Forensic Medicine and Public Hygiene» and was its first editor. During the Franco-Prussian War, he accompanied N. I. Pirogov to the front and edited the «Herald of the Society for the Care of Sick and Wounded Soldiers». He was the initiator of the establishment (in 1872) at the Rozhdestvenskaya Hospital in St. Petersburg of the «School for the Training of Medical Assistants» and a free outpatient clinic for indigent patients (1875). He was a participant in a number of international hygiene congresses and a member of many medical societies. Works: «Barrack Lazarets» (with a preface by N. I. Pirogov, St. Petersburg, 1871); «Sanitary Condition of Factories and Plants of St. Petersburg Governorate» («Zdorovie», 1878); a biographical sketch of N. I. Pirogov («Russkaya Starina», 1881), and a number of other articles in medical periodicals.