Turner

TURNER Henry Ivanovich (born 1858), Honored Scientist, founder of Russian clinical orthopedics and the leading figure in the fight against childhood disabilities. English by origin. Graduated from the Medico-Surgical Academy in 1881, he dedicated himself to surgery under the guidance of K. K. Reyher. He first appeared on the public stage by establishing in 1887 public courses "On providing first aid in emergency cases." In 1890, for his work "On the treatment of scar strictures of the esophagus by retrograde bougienage," he was awarded the gold medal named after Sklifosovsky. In 1892, he defended his dissertation "On the anatomy of the cecum and vermiform appendix in relation to the pathology of perityphlitis" (St. Petersburg). He received the title of associate professor of clinical surgery at the Military Medical Academy in 1894, in the department of desmurgy and mechanurgy, of which he was confirmed as professor in 1895. Through persistent struggle, Turner achieved the expansion and reorganization of the department instead of its elimination, which had been planned by the Academy's conference. To desmurgy was assigned the technique of antiseptics and aseptics, the doctrine of dislocations and fractures was added, and orthopedics was mentioned for the first time. In 1900, Turner secured part of the barracks premises and created an independent department of orthopedics. Among the questions of field surgery, Turner was particularly interested in simplified methods for disinfecting dressing materials, antiseptic treatment of wounds, and the technique of immobilizing fractures. The most famous and adopted by the army was his apparatus for disinfecting instruments and dressing materials. His textbook of desmurgy went through five editions starting from 1908. In the treatment of fractures, Turner's merit was the further development of Pirogov's plaster technique and the criticism of operative methods aimed only at mechanical fixation of fragments, without taking into account the biological factors of consolidation. He considered the proclamation of traction as a new and only functional method of treatment to be a misunderstanding, pointing to the antiquity and conditional value of this method. Independently of foreign authors, he proposed in cases of delayed union to apply tapping at the site of the fracture. Among Turner's works in the field of technical invention, one should note the modification of hardening bandages, plaster and metal splints, the combination of a stethoscope and hammer in one instrument, drainage tubes with a funnel-shaped bell, forceps for wound tamponade, a new system of kidney bandages, and a special lever for the redressation of clubfoot and flat feet. His works on deformities of the femoral neck, traumatic and therapeutic epiphysiolyses, a new method of arthrodesis of the knee, and the treatment of old fractures of the patella, on Bekhterev's disease of the spine, on the distinguishing features from tuberculosis and the clinical significance of pneumococcal bone diseases, on the manifestation of the body's protective forces in the course of tuberculous spondylitis, on complications from the peripheral nerves in the classic fracture of the radius and other injuries, on march fractures of the foot, on the clinical forms of postoperative fat embolism, etc., have taken a firm place in world literature. It is necessary to single out into a separate category the works on the significance of congenital anomalies of the spine for professional work capacity. Connected with this is another feature characteristic of Turner's scientific activity, namely his ability to generalize a particular case and to enliven dead museum material. Previously a casuistic rarity, spondylolisthesis (see) became under his hands an extensive chapter of orthopedics. He organized university sports at a time when the concept of physical education did not yet exist. Finally, he was the first in tsarist Russia to raise his voice in favor of the disabled child and pointed to the need for a systematic state fight against childhood disabilities. However, it was only the Soviet government that realized these ideas. It created in Leningrad an Institute for the Restoration of the Work Capacity of Physically Defective Children, naming it after Turner.

Among the questions of field surgery, Turner was particularly interested in simplified methods for disinfecting dressing materials, antiseptic treatment of wounds, and the technique of immobilizing fractures. The most famous and adopted by the army was his apparatus for disinfecting instruments and dressing materials. His textbook of desmurgy went through five editions starting from 1908. In the treatment of fractures, Turner's merit was the further development of Pirogov's plaster technique and the criticism of operative methods aimed only at mechanical fixation of fragments, without taking into account the biological factors of consolidation. He considered the proclamation of traction as a new and only functional method of treatment to be a misunderstanding, pointing to the antiquity and conditional value of this method. Independently of foreign authors, he proposed in cases of delayed union to apply tapping at the site of the fracture. Among Turner's works in the field of technical invention, one should note the modification of hardening bandages, plaster and metal splints, the combination of a stethoscope and hammer in one instrument, drainage tubes with a funnel-shaped bell, forceps for wound tamponade, a new system of kidney bandages, and a special lever for the redressation of clubfoot and flat feet. His works on deformities of the femoral neck, traumatic and therapeutic epiphysiolyses, a new method of arthrodesis of the knee, and the treatment of old fractures of the patella, on Bekhterev's disease of the spine, on the distinguishing features from tuberculosis and the clinical significance of pneumococcal bone diseases, on the manifestation of the body's protective forces in the course of tuberculous spondylitis, on complications from the peripheral nerves in the classic fracture of the radius and other injuries, on march fractures of the foot, on the clinical forms of postoperative fat embolism, etc., have taken a firm place in world literature. It is necessary to single out into a separate category the works on the significance of congenital anomalies of the spine for professional work capacity. Connected with this is another feature characteristic of Turner's scientific activity, namely his ability to generalize a particular case and to enliven dead museum material. Previously a casuistic rarity, spondylolisthesis (see) became under his hands an extensive chapter of orthopedics. He organized university sports at a time when the concept of physical education did not yet exist. Finally, he was the first in tsarist Russia to raise his voice in favor of the disabled child and pointed to the need for a systematic state fight against childhood disabilities. However, it was only the Soviet government that realized these ideas. It created in Leningrad an Institute for the Restoration of the Work Capacity of Physically Defective Children, naming it after Turner.