Emilian Adamyuk

ADAMYUK, Emilian Valentinovich (1839–1906), one of the founders of Russian ophthalmology, an outstanding clinician and major scientist who left behind about a hundred printed works. He was born in the town of Velsk, Grodno Governorate, into a peasant family. In 1863, he graduated from the medical faculty of Kazan University. Retained at the university, he worked on the physiology of the eye and in 1867 defended a dissertation titled "Contributions to the Study of Intraocular Circulation and Pressure," which represents one of the foundational works in this field and has not lost its significance to this day. His numerous works are devoted to various issues of ophthalmology, but he devoted a particularly large amount of attention to the pathogenesis of two eye conditions of enormous importance in the etiology of blindness: glaucoma and trachoma. In a number of experimental and clinical works, Adamyuk put forward his original view for that time on glaucoma as a process based on impaired blood circulation in the eye, in the system of the vorticose veins. Regarding trachoma, he emerged as a ardent defender of the dualistic view of follicular processes of the conjunctiva; through his brilliant polemic with unitarians, he substantiated his view of trachoma as an infectious process, sharply separating it from follicular catarrh and folliculosis, and thereby undoubtedly contributed to the establishment of the dualistic doctrine of trachoma not only among the majority of Russian oculists, but also among Western Europeans. An exceptionally talented educator, he elevated the teaching of ophthalmology, first as a privat-docent of Kazan University (1868–1870), and then as a professor at the same university (1871–1901). He compiled a widely known, excellent four-volume textbook on eye diseases, which included sections on refraction, accommodation, diseases of the cornea, the lens, and the light-perceiving apparatus, but which, unfortunately, remained unfinished due to illness and death. Over 35 years of clinical and teaching activity, dozens of graduating classes passed through his clinic, and many of the doctors became excellent Zemsky district oculists who laid the foundation for the organization of specialized eye care for the population.