Nikolsky, Dmitry Petrovich

NIKOLSKY, Dmitry Petrovich (1855–1918), a prominent Russian sanitary physician and public figure. Nikolsky was one of the most prolific figures in the field of studying and promoting the ideas of occupational hygiene. The medical-sanitary activity of Nikolsky initially took place among the rural and factory-plant population at the Kyshtym mining plants in the Urals. From 1888, he worked in St. Petersburg in the Schlüsselburg district, where for 20 years he served as a physician at the Neva Hospital, then as chief physician of the city railways and as a city sanitary physician. Nikolsky was an active participant in many Pirogov congresses. At the 11th Pirogov Congress, in his report 'Occupational Hygiene as a Necessary Subject of Instruction for Physicians,' Nikolsky advocated for the introduction of a corresponding course in medical faculties. Nikolsky also taught himself, conducting a course on occupational hygiene at the Mining Institute, from 1902 at the Technological Institute, and from 1904 at the Polytechnic Institute, thus laying the foundation for the teaching of this discipline in higher education in Russia for the first time. The content of Nikolsky's lecture course was included in the 'Course of Occupational Hygiene,' published by the student mutual aid fund at the St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute in 1907, which represents one of the first systematic manuals on occupational hygiene in Russia. Nikolsky took an active part in the work of many scientific societies; in the Russian Society for the Protection of Public Health, he served as chairman of the commissions on labor protection, on the dissemination of hygienic knowledge, on low-cost housing, on alcoholism, and others. Working among the factory-plant population for many years, Nikolsky had the opportunity to become thoroughly acquainted with the living, working, and domestic conditions of workers, with the sanitary state of factories and plants and their influence on the life and health of workers, and to collect rich materials on occupational morbidity, industrial traumatism, and others. Nikolsky was a fervent supporter of creating an institute of factory sanitary inspectors, independent of entrepreneurs, who were well-acquainted with the foundations of occupational hygiene and safety engineering. Nikolsky also conducted extensive cultural-educational work among the population by organizing public readings, libraries, reading rooms, and the like. At the All-Russian Hygiene Exhibition in St. Petersburg in 1913, Nikolsky organized a labor protection section, which included materials on accidents involving workers, on the mining industry in Russia, a collection of respirators of various designs, graphs and tables on medical assistance to workers, on the length of the working day, on female labor, on the nutrition and housing conditions of workers, on occupational diseases, and others. After the October Revolution, Nikolsky began working in the Petrograd Department of Labor Protection and the Regional Commissariat of Labor. Nikolsky died on July 23, 1918, from cholera, which he contracted while performing his medical duty. Nikolsky was the author of about 250 clinical, medico-statistical, anthropological, and other works, scattered predominantly in zemstvo publications.