Ludwig Okinczyc

OKINCZYC, Ludwig Ludwigovich (born 1874), one of the most prominent contemporary gynecologists, professor of obstetrics and women's diseases at the State Institute of Medical Knowledge (GIMZ) in Leningrad. He graduated from the Military Medical Academy in 1899, in 1902 defended his dissertation ("Age-related changes in the hymen", St. Petersburg); from 1909 he was a privat-docent. In 1906–1912 he worked in the clinic of P. T. Sadovsky (as senior assistant), in 1912–1914 as head of the gynecological department of the hospital, now named after Lenin; in 1914 he was elected professor at the Psychoneurological Institute (now GIMZ). In 1920 he was elected director and rector of the institute and contributed greatly to the improvement of teaching and the enhancement of the quality of trained medical personnel. At the end of 1922 he was invited as director of the former St. Petersburg Lying-in Institution (now the V. F. Snegirev Maternity Hospital) and remained solely as director of the clinic he created at GIMZ. Okinczyc has more than 50 published works, some of which are known abroad. His experimental research in the field of internal secretion deserves the greatest attention. Okinczyc's monograph "On the question of the interrelationships of certain glands with internal secretion" (St. Petersburg, 1913) is classical; the views expressed by Okinczyc on the significance of the follicular apparatus of the ovary have been confirmed by recent work. Being a brilliant and talented surgeon, Okinczyc repeatedly addressed issues related to operative gynecology (e.g., "Results for 15 years of surgical activity, 1901–16", Journal of Obstetrics and Women's Diseases, 1916, no. 11). In 1929, Okinczyc published a "Short Course in Operative Gynecology" (Moscow–Leningrad). Among Okinczyc's other works, alongside interesting lectures on the pathology of pregnancy, a new classification of constitutional types, etc., special mention deserves the repeatedly republished textbook "Gynecological Clinic" (parts 1–3, Leningrad, 1927). It is necessary to note Okinczyc's works on the protection of female labor and the protection of motherhood. Okinczyc was the first in a report to the 4th Congress (1911) "How to combat criminal miscarriage" to state that among the measures of combat—from the standpoint of morality and medical ethics—means preventing pregnancy are permissible, and that "the right to conscious motherhood must be recognized for women." Okinczyc takes an active part in scientific and public life, serves as a member of the board of the All-Union Society of Gynecologists and Obstetricians, chairman of the Obstetrical and Gynecological Society, and editor of many periodicals. Upon the formation of the Academic Medical Council of the People's Commissariat of Health, Okinczyc was elected its member and served as such for several years.

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